- Frederick Mulcaster: [condescendingly] Now, see here, my good man. I'm sure you're a fine, dedicated public servant and all the rest of it...
- DCI Fred Thursday: [cuttingly] I'm not your man, good or otherwise. I'm the Queen's man, and I'm here to see her peace is kept.
- DS Jim Strange: [at Blenheim Vale] What went on here?
- Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright: Whatever it was, this time we get to the bottom of it.
- DCI Fred Thursday: And Division?
- Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright: Can't bury it twice. We'll have the truth. Whatever it costs!
- DCI Fred Thursday: I think over-privileged , entitled, arrogant young men, who run around hurting innocent people and never think they're going to answer for any of it, can always be relied to turn on each other like rats in a sack.
- DCI Fred Thursday: [urging Morse not to re-open the Blenheim Vale case] Why should you risk your neck?
- DS Endeavour Morse: [emphatically] Because someone has to.
- Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright: I have orders from Division to see this business stopped and the excavation shut down at once.
- [Long pause]
- Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright: But they're not here, and I am. I can buy you until the end of the day. After which, I fear, we will all swing together.
- Dr. Max DeBryn: Many set on self-slaughter change their minds at the last. Often, sadly, to no avail.
- DCI Fred Thursday: [about the dead tramp] Kicked to death, or stabbed with a broken bottle, according to Dr. De Bryn.
- Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright: I don't know what the world's coming to. Most days, I barely recognise it at all.
- Sam Thursday: I've seen how short life can be, Joanie. One minute, you're there, and the next... Don't waste a second on regret.
- DCI Fred Thursday: [about Raymond Swann's day of inactivity] It's a rum caper. Sit in a bus all day and not get used?
- DS Endeavour Morse: [Said with dry irony] If he'd wanted to do that, he could have joined the real police.
- DS Endeavour Morse: People disappear for many reasons, Miss Baynard - not all of them sinister. Sometimes, people just need to step away.
- DS Endeavour Morse: [looking at a painting of Paul Baynard's, which appears to depict Blenheim Vale] What's that building based on?
- Freya Baynard: It always seemed a bit creepy to me. I did ask him about it a few times, but it's one of the many things I could never get out of him.
- [opening title sequence of TV detective series "Jolly For Short" featured in this episode]
- Superintendent Jolliphant: [voiceover] It always starts with a body. Then come the questions. That's where I come in. Jolliphant's the name. Detective Superintendent Jolyon Jolliphant. Jolly for short.
- [title music]
- DCI Fred Thursday: What have you heard, Ron?
- Ronnie Box: Rumors. Whispers in the dark. It's like trying to catch wood-smoke. One minute, you think you've got something, only to have it come apart in your hands.
- Superintendent Jolliphant: That's the thing about being on the television, you see. They may not know your name, but they always know your face.