In public at least, China’s political leadership transition was supposed to follow a carefully crafted script. Months of behind-the-scenes struggles over the top jobs in the Communist party were to be crowned with a ceremony that would see the victors walk on to a stage and the audience ascertain their ranking from the order of their appearance.

The reality so far, of course, has been much more complicated. The decision of the ambitious politician Bo Xilai to make a very public quest for power and his subsequent and spectacular fall from grace have ensured that.

But with the state media announcement that Gu Kailai, Mr Bo’s wife, and a family aide have been charged with murder in connection with the death of Neil Heywood, a British businessman who worked as a fixer for the family, Beijing has signalled that things are back on script.