- [a young man is playing the piano at an audition which Miriam and Constance are supervising]
- Miriam Fielding: [whispers] I'm losing the will to live.
- Constance Fielding: [whispers] Please, Miriam. He's almost finished.
- [the pianist ends with a big flourish; Miriam and Constance applaud half-heartedly]
- Constance Fielding: [to the pianist] Thank you very much. We'll be in touch.
- Miriam Fielding: [to the pianist] Very memorable.
- [whispers]
- Miriam Fielding: Like witnessing genocide.
- DCI Tom Barnaby: What's that you're reading?
- Joyce Barnaby: It's a biography of Sir Francis Galton.
- DCI Tom Barnaby: Ohhhhh, the fingerprint man.
- Joyce Barnaby: Among other things. he had some very dubious ideas about genetics.
- DCI Tom Barnaby: Hm?
- Joyce Barnaby: He believed that imperfections could be bred out of a population. Apart from you, his biggest fans seem to have been the Nazis.
- [last lines]
- Middle Aged Woman: That's really lovely. Wonderful. Do you know anything by Lionel Richie?
- Benedict Marsh: Three Times a Lady?
- DCI Tom Barnaby: [Barnaby enters with Joyce and sees him] Fancy take-away?
- DCI Tom Barnaby: Zoe, Sir Michael is your father.
- Zoe Stock: What?
- DCI Tom Barnaby: And your grandfather. Get out of there!
- Sir Michael Fielding: British people are degenerating into a nation of half-wits. Someone had to act.
- [first lines]
- Dawn Stock: I'm sorry to bother you, but how many students make it through to the next round?
- Joyce Barnaby: It's usually a dozen for the winter school, and then three are chosen for the master class.
- Dawn Stock: Thank you.
- [to daughter]
- Dawn Stock: Good luck, darling.