Laurence Raeburn

Laurence Raeburn is a non-canonical character created for the 2009 ITV adaptation of Nemesis. He is a passenger on the "Daffodil Mystery Coach Tour" which Jason Rafiel had arranged for Miss Marple. Laurence Raeburn is portrayed by George Cole.

During the tour, Raeburn tells Miss Marple that he feels very unsettled. There have been too many strange coincidences. First he had obtained his ticket as a gift from one "Amos Flaire" whom he does not know. Then the first stop of the tour is Forrester Grange where he used to serve as butler to Lord Forrester. Also on the tour were people from his past like Forrester's niece Amanda Dalrymple. The mystery increases when Miss Marple works out that "Flaire" is an anagram for Rafiel, who also sent Miss Marple herself on the tour.

During the stopover at Medhurst, Raeburn suffers an accidental fall down the stairs. Looking up at the people on the stairs, he suddenly calls out "Verity". A woman on the tour Margaret Lumley thinks he is looking at her and replies that she is not Verity but Margaret. The next morning, Raeburn is found dead. He is the first of several people to die on the tour.

The mystery of Raeburn's death is only solved after Miss Marple assembles the web of relationships of the people on the tour. It turns out that Raeburn knew Verity Hunt well as she had also been in service at Forrester Grange. He was close to her and one of the people who could identify her. Margaret Lumley confirmed that she did look like Verity. Sydney Lumley, her husband, was Verity's landlord and he had at first wanted to marry Verity but she fled. Margaret thought Sidney must turned to her because she reminded him of Verity. However, as Miss Marple surmised, Raeburn wasn't looking at Margaret when he called out "Verity". From letters in Raeburn's belongings, Miss Marple found references to a locket which he had given to Verity and which Verity had promised to wear. During the night of the fall, Raeburn had seen the locket hanging on the neck of Sister Clotilde Merryweather and so he had blurted out the name. For Sister Clotilde, this moment of recognition was a threat to her dark secret. So while nursing him from his fall that night, she brought him a cup of hot cocoa which had poison in it.