Last week’s opening episode of City Of Vice was a heady mixture of history, crime, drama and some of the fruitiest language you’ll ever hear on the telly. It told the tale of how Henry Fielding, celebrated author of Tom Jones, became so disgusted with the moral filth in Georgian London he set up the city’s very first police force.

Ian McDiarmid plays Henry, and one commenter to this site said that while watching the opening episode, his girlfriend just couldn’t get the image of the Emperor from Star Wars out of her head. What she made of this episode is anyone’s guess – it guest-starred ex-EastEnders hunk Nigel Harman as as screaming queen.

Last week’s opening story was all about the seedier side of heterosexual shenanigans, but this week Fielding and his Bow Street Runners were presented with a case that needed investigation deep into London’s homosexual communities.

A high-ranking priest lay murdered in his church, and Henry soon found a piece of evidence in his office (their evidence-gathering techniques had obviously improved from last week’s clueless questioning) – a copy of Fanny Hill, bought at a notorious bookshop, and a blackmail note. The cleaning lady was harbouring some venom for the deceased – she had seen him being taken up the vestry by another chap. It became clear that this was the reason for the blackmail… the priest was a sodomite.

In one of those slightly annoying voiceovers, it was explained that sodomy was punishable by death in those days. So it was off to the bookshop to investigate. Above the shop was a Molly House, where gaymen (or Mollies in 18th century parlance) congregated. The Fieldings were greeted by a dazzling array of cross dressing and fey characters (Princess Serafina was really rather cool) who had fashioned their own, debauched, secret world. There they found a man called Thomas Deacon (Harman) hiding under a bed.

One of Fielding’s men, Mr Khan, knew this chap and vouched for his character. Deacon, in return, agreed to identify the man mentioned in the blackmail letters to the Fieldings. They all went off to Sodomites’ Walk – a kind of gay lovers’ lane – and Deacon pointed out Flynn, who was thrown in jail.

The priest’s brother was a high-ranking politician, and demanded swift and decisive justice. But it was clear that the Fieldings weren’t quite sure that Flynn was the man and were hell-bent on finding the real murderer (which seems to be a running theme – the 18th century seemed like two world clashing; one of the mob who were only too happy to convict a man (or woman) if he fitted the bill, and one where Fielding’s pragmatic crime-solving techniques were starting to take hold).

It was also becoming clear that Mr Khan’s links to the Molly House were more than they first seemed. Mr Khan was, in fact, enjoying a volatile romance with Deacon, and was known as Jamaica Mary among the Mollies. This didn’t sit too well with the Fieldings, John (who looks more like a Georgian rock star every week) in particular. It was obvious that Khan was caught in between two worlds – fighting justice with the Fieldings on one hand and trying to sustain a forbidden relationship in the other. In a showy ceremony, Jamaica Mary and Deacon were married in full bridal gear, and a night of heady man-on-man passion ensued, consummating their ‘wedding’ in some style.

While passionate tupping was taking place, the Fieldings found out from the angry cleaning lady that the priest had also been seeing Deacon, one of her relatives. The priest had threatened to expose Deacon as a ‘macaroni’. He was the man who murdered the priest.

They hot-footed it to the Molly House, only to find Khan and Deacon in bed together. They were horrified, as was Khan. Deacon explained that he did what he did to save Khan, because he had let slip that one of Fielding’s men was a Molly. But it was too late. In a touching scene at the end, with his Molly friends all around him, Deacon was hanged.

Another good episode. The language was again very rich (my personal fave, f***ster, was again given an airing), and the story highlighted prejudice, a star-crossed love affair and a search for fair crime-solving that flew in the face of old-style justice.

But again there were a few things that niggled away at the back of my mind. The cut-aways and the voiceovers again slowed things down a bit, and I didn’t like the Fieldings as much as last week. McDiarmid was excellent as ever, revealing a jovial side to Henry – he had confiscated the saucy Fanny Hill and read it as ‘research’. John on the other hand, who showed sensitivity towards a prostitute last week, was a raving lunatic this week when confronted with gays. But I guess this is supposed to be as accurate a portrayal of the time as possible, and flawed characters on either side were commonplace. I’ll be watching next week.