Thomas Pitt is from a working-class background in Victorian London. His
father was a gamekeeper on a landed estate and Pitt was permitted to share the
lessons with the son of the house. He was prompted to enter the police force
after his father was wrongly accused of poaching game and was transported to
Australia.
At the beginning of the series, Pitt is a Police Inspector,
but was promoted to Superintendent. Later he is removed from his job as a
result of investigating the “wrong people,” i.e. those with sufficient influence
and power, and joins the Special Branch, in which he becomes an Inspector.
Later he is promoted to commander as Head of Special Branch.
His wife, Charlotte, is from an upper-class family. Her
sister Emily’s first husband was a viscount and her second husband is a rising
politician. Charlotte frequently uses Emily’s connections to the landed gentry
and aristocracy to assist Pitt in his investigations. |
