The sumptuous two-hour adaptation of Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret is a mystery masterpiece that scandalized the plush parlors of Victorian Britain and gave birth to a new genre of fiction returns to MYSTERY!

Neve McIntosh (Psychos) stars as Lucy Graham, a seductive governess who marries her ward's doddering father, Sir Michael Audley, played by Kenneth Cranham (Our Mutual Friend; Tenant of Wildfell Hall).

Steven Mackintosh (Our Mutual Friend; Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels) is Sir Michael's dashing nephew Robert, who is powerfully tempted by Lucy's allures -- though convinced she hides a dark secret concerning the disappearance of his good friend George Talboys (Jamie Bamber, Horatio Hornblower).

In the midst of these machinations is Sir Michael's daughter, Alicia (Juliette Caton), a sweet young thing who expects a proposal of marriage from Robert, little suspecting he is sinking deeper and deeper into obsession with her stepmother, Lucy.

Originally serialized in 1861 and 1862, Lady Audley's Secret was attacked for corrupting young minds by making crime and depravity attractive. Braddon certainly succeeded in making her lurid brand of fiction attractive, and she went on to publish 74 more novels.

Admired by Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson and William Thackeray, Braddon perfected the plot device of the "guilty secret," which later developed into the modern mystery novel. She was also credited -- by her contemporary, Margaret Oliphant -- with inventing "the fair-haired demon."

Lucy definitely fits the part. At the outset, when Sir Michael asks for her hand, she plays the coquettish innocent. But her happiness has a conspiratorial edge, and it is soon apparent that she is a woman with a mysterious past, one that intersected in a portentous way with that of George Talboys.

Lady Audley's Secret was filmed on location at Ingatestone Hall in Essex, which served as Braddon's model for Audley Court.

Inspired by the spirit of the author in such surroundings, producers Jane Wellesley and Anne-Marie Casey feel they have kept the faith. "It's a bold adaptation," they say, "but we feel it's true to the spirit and themes of the novel. We are confident Mary Elizabeth Braddon would have approved."

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