Overkill (Murder Most Horrid episode)

"Overkill"
Murder Most Horrid episode
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 1
Directed by	Bob Spiers
Written by	Steven Moffat
Original air date	3 March 1994
Guest stars
Amanda Donohoe
Episode chronology
← Previous "Mrs. Hat and Mrs. Red" Next → "Lady Luck"

"Overkill" is an episode of the British comedy television series Murder Most Horrid. It was written by Steven Moffat, who had worked with director Bob Spiers on Press Gang and Joking Apart.

Plot

Tina Mellish (Dawn French), a desperate social worker prepares to hang herself in a hotel room. As she concludes an audio recording of a suicide message intended for her mother, an assassin (Carmella Vessa, played by Amanda Donohoe) steps into her room and holds her at gun point. Using the recording as blackmail, Carmella forces Tina to don a special coat that is equipped with various deadly gadgets.

Tina sets out to find Doverson, the leader of a group that opposes the assassin, whose office is across the road from Tina's hotel room. Along the way, Tina commits several murders, often unintentionally. When Tina finally meets Doverson, Carmella uses a radio in the coat to announce that the jacket is equipped to explode kamikaze style. Furious, Tina grabs Doverson's rifle and shoots at Carmella, still in the hotel room across the road, causing her to drop the detonator. Still aiming the rifle, Tina forces Carmella to climb onto the chair and put the noose around her neck, and tells her to toss the audio recording out the window onto the pavement below. Tina heads downstairs to grab the tape recorder, handing the rifle to Doverson, who hesitates before using it, giving Carmella time to shoot him. However, this causes her to lose her balance on the chair and hang herself in the process.

In the street below, Tina reclaims the tape recorder just as her mother appears. Carmella's chair falls on the detonator, which causes Tina, who is still wearing the coat, to explode just as she greets her mother with the words, "I've got so much to tell you I could burst!" The recording device falls on the ground in front of Tina's mother and starts to play: "Dear Mum, as you will know by now, I am dead. How are you?"

Reception

Critical reception was good, with the BBC Comedy Guide identifying it as a highlight of the series.[1]