This excellent drama from Wire In The Blood writer, Val McDermid, starts on a freezing December day in 1963, when 13 year old Alison Carter took her dog for a walk and was never seen again. The mystery of her disappearance was never solved and now, forty years later, journalist Catherine Heathcote is making a documentary that revisits the scene of Alison’s disappearance and which involves extensive interviews with the police officer who was in charge of the case all those years ago, George Bennett.

In a number of flashbacks which run parallel with footage from the present day, we began to learn about the circumstances of Alison’s mysterious disappearance as well as the people who had roles in her life.

Her mother reported Alison missing when she hadn’t returned from her walk after more than four hours and so the police launched a search for the girl in the woods near her home. The then DI – later he became Chief Constable – George Bennett, led the hunt but over the coming days, he would encounter the strange reticence of the villagers to tell him anything about Alison and her family.

Their lack of cooperation meant that precious time was lost in the search for Alison; for instance, nobody told him that Alison’s maternal uncle, Simon, was a known sex offender. On discovering this, George and his fellow officers arrested the retarded and disturbed man and although they later released him – because George was convinced he was innocent – a report in the local paper about his arrest soon mobilised the villagers into participating in a witch hunt.

George went to Simon’s home in order to protect him but he found that dozens of locals had already gathered to exact their own form of justice, but Simon wasn’t there. Later however, when police are searching moorland around Scardale, they found Simon’s body and rushed to inform George. It seems that Simon ran from his home and took refuge from the vengeful villagers on the moors where he subsequently died from what police suspect was exposure.

In the meantime, Alison’s mother Ruth was distraught about her daughter’s disappearance but her husband and Alison’s stepfather, Philip Hawkin, didn’t seem as concerned and at first tried to play down the significance of her going missing, telling police she’d probably just got delayed. However as we saw more of Philip, it became clear that not only was he hostile to the police, he also had an extensive collection of photographs of his step-daughter. Was he obsessed with her and could he have had anything to do with her disappearance?

As events unfold, it begins to look like he does have something to hide because two villagers claim to have seen him in the woods on the day Alison disappeared but he vehemently denied that he was and claimed he was in his dark room all afternoon. He said that his wife would confirm this but from the look that she gave him, it seems that there may be some doubt about that. Philip also had one piece of cine film of Alison, which – along with most of the evidence pertaining to the case – was destroyed in a warehouse fire just months before Catherine began her investigation. A small scrap of footage survived the fire however and is a grainy, aged few seconds showing Alison walking away from the camera in light snow which Catherine intends to use in her documentary.

Back with the police in 1963 and George and his officers first found Alison’s dog tied to a tree, whimpering, his muzzle bound with a bandage. They also found a button from Alison’s coat, a stocking that belonged to her and a few strands of hair attached to a tree branch. None of this looks good of course but it gets worse when later, as George and the team search a disused mine shaft, George falls and finds he’s landed next to a pool of fresh blood and bloodstained items of clothing, one of which is a stocking that matched the one he found in the woods.

As the investigation marches on, it seems Alison’s uncle and step-father aren’t the only suspects in the case; there’s also local boy Charlie Lomas. In Alison’s room, George had found a photograph of Alison with a group of her friends but Charlie’s face had been scratched out of the picture. When George and his colleague go to Charlie’s house to question him about this, on finding the front door unlocked and the house empty, they search Charlie’s room. In his wardrobe, hidden behind his clothes, they find several photographs of Alison as well as notes and other items which they judge to be like a ‘shrine’ to her. When Charlie comes home, he flees when he sees the police officers however his feisty gran, Ma Lomas, floors him as he runs away and the police take him in for questioning.

Charlie tells them that he loves Alison and wouldn’t hurt her. He says that they are good friends but he doesn’t have any answers when they ask why it is that Alison apparently scrawled his face out of the photo. George’s boss believes they are wasting their time questioning the schoolboy and is convinced that Simon is the culprit.

Throughout the episode, we got glimpses into Catherine’s life both as a documentary film maker and a mother. Her daughter Sasha, who’s 14 years old, had recently been kept in police cells overnight having been found drunk and disorderly, and Catherine called on the now retired George to ask for his help. He immediately ensured the girl was released and despite her mother’s anger, Sasha didn’t show much remorse.

Catherine has been through a bitter separation from Sasha’s father, and her own mother’s disapproval of Catherine’s work on the documentary doesn’t help her to cope with the stresses of her job and Sasha’s behaviour. To add to her problems, just as she was putting the finishing touches to the film, George phoned her and in an obviously agitated state told her that he no longer wishes to continue with the film and doesn’t want to appear in it.

Catherine was understandably taken aback given that it’s so close to completion but when she questioned George as to why he wanted to back out at this late stage, he rather enigmatically said only that he couldn’t continue and, referring to Alison’s disappearance, he said that ‘mistakes were made’. He wouldn’t be drawn into revealing more which left Catherine having to do some detective work herself. She’s reluctantly aided by her assistant Nicola who’s clearly suspicious that something’s going on with George but as Catherine doesn’t want her hard-to-please boss to know that the whole project is in jeopardy, she won’t tell Nicola anything.

So why is George so worried about the film now and what ‘mistakes’ is he referring to? Is he trying to protect himself or someone else?

In next week’s second of the three episodes, when bloody and incriminating evidence, as well as unsavoury photographs detailing his relationship with his stepdaughter come to light, Philip Hawkin is arrested in 1963 in connection with Alison’s disappearance. In the present day, as Catherine tries desperately to salvage her documentary, she begins to suspect that DI George Bennett may have manipulated the evidence against Hawkin. Matters take a turn for the worse when the retired cop suffers a massive heart attack.

What an absolutely first class start to this drama! I have only two criticisms of it; the first being that the actress playing Alison looks about thirty, not thirteen, but as reference to Alison seeming – and looking – old for her age is made in the programme, perhaps that was deliberate. The second is that Greg Wise, who plays Philip Hawkin, seemed to be acting in the Poirot style of baddy portrayal in that his character seemed just a bit too obviously The Baddy. A sort of smirking villain portrayal…

However, overall the cast play their parts marvelously and I’ve always liked Juliet Stevenson in everything she’s ever been in. I think the first thing I ever saw her in was the wonderful film, Truly, Madly, Deeply in which she starred alongside Alan Rickman. I still love that film!

The scenery in last night’s episode was great too and I’m pretty sure much of it was filmed in the Peak District – where yours truly lives – but the press pack about the show says much of it was filmed in the North East. Some of the outdoor scenery looked like the Yorkshire moors too. The original book is set in Derbyshire’s Peak District so it’s a fair assumption that at least some of the footage was filmed here.

Anyway, the drama was co-produced by Robson Green who plays Dr Tony Hill in Val McDermid’s other current TV drama, Wire In The Blood. The other executive producer is Sandra Jobling who also works on WITB.

Before filming began, Robson said of Place of Execution,

“This is the first time that I’ve shadowed Sandra as Co-Executive Producer and I can’t wait to get started.  I’ve worked with Val McDermid on Wire in The Blood, and I’m thrilled to be working with her again in a different capacity.”

I have to say, I’m entirely unconvinced by both the plots and Robson’s character in WITB but this new drama’s got me hooked. I hate that we have to wait a week for the next episode though! If you missed tonight’s episode, don’t forget that you can catch up on itv.com

Please do let us know what you thought and what your theories are on whodunit!