George Erskine

George Erskine is a non-canonical character created for the ITV 2006 adaptation of Sleeping Murder. He is a clerk in the law firm of Dillmouth solicitor Walter Fane. George Erskine is portrayed by Harry Treadaway.

Erskine is a young (he is eighteen years old at the time of the events in the episode in 1952), slightly neurotic and diffident individual. He is seen accompanying Gwenda Reed and Hugh Hornbeam during her viewing of Hillside. In this adaptation there is no estate agent and it appears that Walter Fane's law firm managed the sale of the house. Later, after buying the house, Gwenda and Hornbeam turn up at the office of the law firm. They want to confirm if Gwenda's father Kelvin Halliday had ever owned Hillside. Fane is not in so Hornbeam persuades George who gives them access to the files with great reluctance, allowing them to confirm what they want to know.

Later in the episode, Gwenda and Hornbeam discover that George is the son of "Dickie" and Janet Erskine, the former leaders of the "Funnybones" entertainment troupe who performed in Dillmouth in the 1930s. George was conceived some time during the last season of the troupe, before they folded up.

Further revelations are made during the denouement at the end of the episode, when Janet admits that Walter Fane is the real father of George--they had an affair in the 1930s. Janet suspected that Dickie always knew it. Dickie indeed knew, but at the time he suspected that it was Jackie Afflick and not Fane. This explained a mystery to Afflick who always wondered why Dickie suddenly picked a fight with him at the close of the last season of the Funnybones, resulting in a violent exchange of blows that left Dickie injured in one eye.