EPISODE DESCRIPTIONS

SERIES 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

SERIES 1
* Number in parentheses at end of program description is BBCWA library tape number.

1. The UCOS team reopen the case of young WPC Kate Daniels, brutally murdered in 1987. The investigation has an added poignancy for Supt Sandra Pullman, who knew the victim when they were both trainees. Brian Lane faces a personal crisis when his wife leaves him, sick of his paranoia and obsession with the death in custody that led to his retirement from the force. And there’s also a shock for Gerry Standing when he learns he’s going to be a grandfather. (1)

2. UCOS investigate art fraud in the Queen’s private collection, which is overseen by the handsome Sir Tim. With the help of expert Totty Vogel-Downing, the team discover a catalogue of forgeries by an artist and political activist who killed himself after a blaze destroyed his studio. But who was behind the scam, which dates back 25 years? Standing also faces a personal crisis when he is forced to put his beloved Triumph Stag up for sale. (2)

3. The murder of a peace campaigner at a NATO base in 1984 takes the UCOS team back to a time of conspiracy, paranoia and police hatred. Josh Livesey’s killer was never found, but his friends believe Special Branch is to blame. Pullman has a night visit from Special Branch officer Greg
Johnson who is attracted to her, but who denies any conspiracy. Then the team discover there are still many secrets among the small band of protesters. (3)

4. The apparent suicide of a teenager from 20 years ago leads the UCOS team to Wellesley Park golf club, a bastion of male chauvinism. Talented junior golfer Ken Rodger was suspected of killing a child with a golf club, but hanged himself before he could face trial. When DNA reveals Ken was
innocent, Pullman and her squad turn their attention to the club and its committee members – with unexpected results. (4)

5. The case of a missing mother and baby from 1971 is especially poignant for Brian Lane, a PC on the case at the time. At first it seems Donna Adamson and her son were killed because her husband felt trapped into marriage. But when UCOS discover two other girls went missing at the
same time, they fear they have stumbled across another ‘Fred West’ in the shape of local builder Eric Grant. Can Lane finally lay the case to rest? (5)

6. Halford visits a clairvoyant to try to contact his dead wife Mary but instead receives a message from Caroline Stillman, a teenage girl who was abducted and left to die in a transport container in 1982.
The case takes UCOS to Martin Lombard, a psychic involved in the original investigation. Despite warnings from on high to leave the case alone, Pullman and her team pursue Lombard. But in doing so, they jeopardise the future of their unit. (6)

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SERIES 2
1. Gerry arrives late for his grandson’s christening because Strickland, the new boss in charge of UCOS, has asked the team to look into the death of David Barrie, a top barrister. Barrie’s body was found, bound and gagged, in his car in 1980. The case was a rare failure for the now-retired DCI Ronnie Ross (Keith Barron - Take Me Home) and Pullman cannot understand why the detective known as the ‘Mountie’ didn’t get his man.
While Standing and Lane interview Barrie’s widow Yvonne (Jenny Agutter - An American Werewolf In London), Halford discovers that original prime suspect – Michael Pendle (Nicholas Jones), whom Barrie prosecuted in
another case – has had a sex change and is working at a bookshop. But Michaela (as she is now known) claims that she was in hospital when Barrie met his death. Further digging and forensic tests on Barrie’s body reveal that he had a reputation as a kerb-crawler and a penchant
for being tied up, so the team pays a visit to Elaine Wanless (Anita Dobson - Angie Watts in EastEnders), a former madam specialising in ‘correction’, now working in celebrity management. Standing is enthralled as Elaine reveals the details of her former “occupation”, but she claims not to recognise a picture of the dead man. But when Lane goes through Ronnie’s personal diary of the case, he finds holes in Michaela’s story
– and discovers that she was romantically involved with Elaine. Pullman still can’t understand why Ronnie let Michaela go – until the truth of what really happened that night 25 years ago is finally revealed. (7)

2. In 1997, Shivani Das, a beautiful, lively, young Asian newlywed, was attacked on a canal towpath in Southall and left for dead. The only thing taken was her wedding ring and she has been in a coma on a life-support machine ever since. The man jailed for the crime is now a born-again Christian and is protesting his innocence. With the help of Asian community liaison officer Sergeant Pushkar Guha (Navin Chowdhry - Teachers), UCOS reexamines the case. They are struck immediately by the clash between Shivani’s Westernised family and her husband Milan’s (Paul Bhattercharjee) traditional roots. He runs a family food business with his sister, Mughda (Nina Wadia - Goodness Gracious Me), and brother, Vikram (Ashvin Kumar Joshi). The team discovers that private investigator Pat Gannon went missing at around the same time as the assault on
Shivani took place. The connection between Gannon’s disappearance and Shivani’s case grows stronger when Jack Halford receives an anonymous call claiming that Shivani knew she was being followed. Shivani’s brother-in-law, Rick Mayo (Shaun Dooley), tells the team that Shivani seemed depressed before the attack because Milan was working in India. Meanwhile, Gannon’s partner, Roger McHugh (Keith Allen - Jack of Hearts,
Martin Chuzzlewit, Agent Cody Banks 2), an ex-detective with a bad reputation, recognises a photograph of Mughda and claims that she came to see Gannon. Mughda stays cool under questioning – but Vikram is clearly hiding something. And Superintendent Pullman can only watch, aghast, when Gerry Standing pulls an extraordinary stunt to get the truth from him… (8)

3. Eighteen-year-old Hannah Taylor (Lisa Faulkner) was kidnapped from her home in 1992. A body, previously thought to be Hannah’s, has just been identified as that of another kidnap victim, Michelle Davis.
A reluctant Standing has to liaise with Detective Inspector Tom Wilson (Matt Bardock), who is leading the hunt for Michelle’s killer, while Lane and Pullman interview Hannah’s mother Madeline (Harriet Walter), a doctor and recovering alcoholic. She is cagey and defensive. She tells them she paid a £20,000 ransom before contacting police. Halford follows Hannah’s friend, Susie (Connie Walker), to a garden centre where he comes face to face with Hannah – not dead, but married with a young daughter. Hannah claims she simply ran away, leaving her mother a note, and met Paul (Ben Crompton) – who became her husband – at the Glastonbury Festival.
Halford suspects Madeline faked her daughter’s kidnap to get money from her ex-husband, but things become tricky when Madeline sues the police for misidentification of the body. Inquiries reveal Madeline’s drinking led to complaints from patients and she was arrested for drink-driving, although
nothing was ever proven. Standing suspects the helping hand of her lover, married Detective Inspector Simon Webb (Nicholas Ball), who now runs a kitchen showroom. Webb admits he delivered the ransom money, leaving it in a park rubbish bin. The squad are sure he is hiding
something, then Lane breaks the rules to get hold of documents proving Paul knew Madeline Taylor. While Lane fears he is as bad a parent as Madeline, and Standing conducts a private war with DI Wilson, can UCOS
(the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad) discover the truth behind Hannah’s disappearance and the missing £20,000? (9)

4. Tabloid editor Chris McConnell (Stephen Tompkinson – Ballykissangel) asks Pullman to help him prove celebrity chef Kitty Campbell (Honor Blackman – The Avengers, Goldfinger, The Upper Hand) killed her drunken husband, Bertie, 40 years ago at the height of their Sixties TV fame, as the BBC One drama continues. Despite his death Kitty has become a household name, the toast of the restaurant world, and is set to become a dame. The post mortem reveals that Bertie died of natural causes, but McConnell has a mystery source who claims Kitty is responsible. Meanwhile, Halford thinks McConnell is using UCOS while Standing and Lane have their own problems to deal with. Standing is unable to perform during a romantic reunion with his ex-wife Jayne (Natalie Forbes), and Esther Lane (Susan Jameson) is badly injured after collapsing in the kitchen. A distraught Lane is put in charge of her care and decides to issue his bedridden wife with police walkie-talkies. McConnell refuses to reveal his source until Pullman agrees to join forces, so she contacts a rival newspaper, knowing rumours will start circulating about Kitty. As she predicts, the source decides to talk. Ageing queen Binky Baxter (Victor Spinetti – An Actor’s Life for Me) was Kitty and Bertie’s assistant. He claims
Kitty feared being ruined because Bertie was flaunting his homosexuality at a time when it was still illegal. She used a now-banned asthma drug, aetheraline, to trigger heart failure. Pullman and Halford question Kitty but she shrugs Binky’s allegations off as jealousy and opportunism. Later, Lane discovers aetheraline is only dangerous to diabetics – so how could it be responsible for Bertie’s death? As Halford and Standing unearth a link between the drug and Kitty’s father, top barrister Sir Barnaby Fitzharris, a sharp-eyed Esther spots a vital clue while watching archive footage of Kitty and Bertie’s cookery show. (10)

5. Attractive widow and probate assessor, Elise Allen (Rita Tushingham), asks Halford to find the rightful owner of a large, uncut red diamond, worth £15m, as the drama continues. She found the rare jewel in a flat rented by John Newman, who died in 1982. Standing and Lane suspect Halford has ulterior motives for wanting to take the case, but Pullman is forced to admit it’s one for UCOS when they discover the diamond was snatched in a safety deposit box heist, along with four smaller red diamonds. In a box recovered from Newman’s flat, the squad finds a set of jeweller’s tools, a business card for tailor Sid Goldberg (David de Keyser), some wedding photos and a passport, showing Newman was in Antwerp on the day of the robbery. Then Halford discovers through Interpol that Newman was really Dutch Jew Josef Nieumann, a concentration-camp victim who became a diamond-cutter before losing his nerve. Synagogue records show that Sid’s daughter Ruth (Miranda Pleasence) is really Josef ’s daughter, although she claims to know nothing. Reformed money launderer Les Spitz (Anthony Valentine) was the original suspect in the robbery, and his son Ray (Sean Chapman) is a well-thought-of diamond dealer. Posing as a glamorous couple about to be married, Standing and Pullman decide to rattle them with the diamond.
While Spitz Junior wants to cut the stone to bring out its true beauty, Spitz stays cool and gives nothing away. When Halford learns he is under investigation by the fraud squad, it looks like he is back to his old tricks. Can UCOS fit Spitz, Nieumann and his daughter into the puzzle? And can Halford tell Elise his true feelings? (11)

6. Luck turns against Gerry Standing when he loses a poker game, owing bookie Michael Jacobs (Kieran O’Brien) £10,000. But Michael offers him a chance to clear his debt by finding out what happened to his dad, Joe, who died after being mugged outside Walthamstow stadium in 1983.
Although UCOS is investigating the case of Stanley Ackerman, whose wife is mounting a noisy protest outside police HQ, Standing persuades Lane to help him dig into Joe Jacobs’ death secretly. They go to the dog races and talk to Joe’s brother, Peter (Philip Whitchurch). Pullman and Halford follow, feeling left out, but, when Pullman hears about the case, she agrees to pursue it quietly. Elsewhere, Lane finds a diary hidden in Joe’s desk containing references to Bomber Boyo, a champion greyhound
stolen in the early Eighties. The diary charts his stud record since then, showing which dogs he fathered. Also inside the diary is a hand-drawn treasure map. Meanwhile, it looks like Joe was on to a money-making deal that went wrong. Standing seeks out Emma Winters (Gillian Taylforth – EastEnders, Footballers’ Wives), who worked at Bomber Boyo’s kennels before becoming one of the top breeders and trainers in the game. There’s a spark between them and Standing visits her farmhouse, where
a stuffed greyhound is on display among dozens of photographs.
Later, Lane finds the location of the map and the team meet there at dawn. They dig up a dog skull with a bullet hole in it. If it turns out to be Bomber Boyo, DNA from the dogs named in Joe’s book will prove it. However, when a story about police digging up dead dogs is leaked to the papers, Strickland goes ballistic. Desperate to restore her credibility Pullman visits Michael Jacobs, only to find out about his gambling deal with
Standing. With the odds stacked against them, can can the squad pull together and find Joe’s killer and uncover the real story of Bomber Boyo’s disappearance? (12)

7. Lane indulges his obsession with fishing when UCOS investigates the case of two boys abducted from a fishing lake in 1979, believing it could be linked to a recent spate of snatches near the M25. The boys escaped unharmed but their kidnapper was never found and the lake has since been branded the Pit of Doom, and deserted by anglers. One of the boys, Alan (Nigel Lindsay), now a chicken factory worker, is keen to help and relive his moment of fame. Under hypnosis, he reveals his abductor had a workshop with gas bottles, a workbench – and a bath. The team fear they could be about to expose the lair of a serial killer, but the chilling atmosphere is shattered when a horrified Pullman bites into some salad containing maggots from Lane’s fishing box. They seek clues at a tackle shop where Kenny (Steve Emerson), the proprietor, and a customer, Big Robbie (Richard Ridings), flee at the sight of Standing. Eventually cornered after a chase, Kenny tells them that the Pit of Doom was also the place where former carp record-holder Bob Yates (David Mallinson) was beaten unconscious. Inside Yates’s garage are oxygen cylinders, syringes and a bath, and Pullman believes they have their man. But Halford discovers the equipment is not as suspicious as it seems – and UCOS ends up netting a different catch altogether. (13)

8. In October 1987, the partial remains of a young woman’s torso were found in Woodland near Pratt’s Bottom in Kent. When the original investigation failed to identify the girl or her assailant, the case stalled and the remains were placed in storage. The case has weighed heavily on the mind of Home Office pathologist Reynard Mears (Timothy West).
It is the only corpse he dealt with that remains unidentified. He is hoping that UCOS might now solve the mystery. Millicent, as the eccentric professor calls the body, was found by a schoolboy at the ancient site of Giston Mount. There are very few clues to her identity but Halford urges the others to discover what happened for the sake of her family. The squad visits the woodland where the body was found after apparently being cut up by the killer. The atmosphere is spooky. Standing confesses he has a morbid fear of forests, and Lane is visibly petrified by the experience. Back at Mears’ lab, Standing’s mood improves when he meets the professor’s attractive assistant Vicky (Amelia Curtis). Her re-examination of the forensic evidence has found that the remains had been chewed by a large animal. Seeds on the body are from a botanical garden and Millicent also had syphilis. Halford realises that Millicent’s death coincided with the great storms that rocked England in October 1987. And Lane returns to Giston Mount to confront his demons – only to find a wild boar. Vicky’s PhD research into the mineral content of Millicent’s bones suggests she came from the Highlands of Scotland. Halford visits Lady Deeley (Jane Asher), a four-times divorcee and hard-nosed wild-boar breeder, whose country estate is just three miles from Giston Mount.
Can the detectives break down Lady Deeley’s defiant exterior to find the truth – and will they be able to help Mears lay Millicent to rest by discovering her real name and family? (14)

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SERIES 3
1. Episode pulled due to program content issues. (N/A)

2. The Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS) reinvestigate the murky death of Joe Walsh, the General Secretary of the Crane Drivers’ Union, whose body was found in the Thames in 1975. At the time of his death, Walsh stood accused of stealing money from the Union’s account.Pullman and Standing visit Walsh’s daughter, Anita, a glamorous and successful author. She tells them she’s always believed the generally accepted story that her father took his own life. Claiming to be ignorant of her father’s involvement with union finances, Anita directs them to Walsh’s deputy, Brendan Dyer - who subsequently reveals that he and Labour peer George McCready were the last two people to see Walsh alive. As the team delve further into the case, they find themselves at the centre of a political minefield, with suggestions of misappropriated union funds, MI5 involvement and a union leader whose threats of strike action were gravely threatening the national interest.The influential “New Labour” peer McCready is a suspect in the inquiry, but the team know they have to tread carefully. DAC Strickland manages to secure a meeting for them at the House of Lords. McCready, keen to avoid scandal, points the finger of suspicion at Dyer, revealing that Dyer’s wife, Rose, was having an affair with Walsh. Throughout, the team’s investigation is hampered by Lane’s increasingly erratic behaviour. Unknown to his colleagues or his wife, Lane has decided to swap the conventional medicines taken to manage his various neuroses for an array of alternative treatments. The new regime leads to alarming outbursts - crazy, even by Lane’s eccentric standards. (16)

3. A spate of violent dog killings 30 years ago provoked an outcry from the public, but the investigating team was never able to identify the killer. When a dog is found dead on Hampstead Heath, with the same MO as the original killings, the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS) is asked to re-examine the case: no-one else in the Force wants to know. Reluctantly, Pullman and her team pick up the baton.Standing and Lane set off to visit the original suspect, John Fletcher, who works at a local abattoir. Much to dog-loving Lane’s disgust, Fletcher does nothing to disguise his hatred of man’s best friend, which is all Lane needs to convince him that this must be their man.There is a pattern in the killings. Pullman and Halford visit James Farlow, a canine protection society field officer at the time of the original killings, who is now preoccupied with nursing his dying wife. Halford sympathises - a dangerous thing to do in any investigation: will he take his eye off the ball and allow emotion to cloud his judgement? Farlow recalls that one of the dog owners during the original investigation had made an unusual request. When the team visits the dog owner, Professor Styles, a “blue stocking” museum curator and expert in Egyptology, they make an alarming discovery.Lane, already struggling to cope with the cruelty of the killings, is left shattered when his own dog, Scruffy, dies. Pullman insists he take compassionate leave. However, it is Halford’s deteriorating health that causes the team to really worry. James Farlow is also sympathetic and he knows just the thing to make Halford feel better. (17)

4. Chopper Hadley, a notorious and violent criminal, is under suspicion for the murder of police informant Micky Springer. It is an investigation with huge personal repercussions for both Halford and Standing. While Halford was on the murder squad, Micky Springer had asked him for protection, but Halford was dealing with his own crisis – his beloved wife, Mary, had been left critically hurt by a hit-and-run accident. With the case re-opened, Halford finds himself the target of a terror campaign, but is determined to get justice for Springer. Back in Britain for his father’s funeral, Hadley is a sensitive target for the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS). The team undertakes a high-risk undercover surveillance mission with hot-shot detective Tina Murray and Brian Lane at the forefront. While all the evidence points to Hadley, it becomes clear that Hadley’s henchman, Tommy Gerrard, is hiding a dark secret and may well have been operating independently from his boss.The case also threatens to expose Standing’s dodgy dealings from the past, when Andy Cutler, the original investigating officer on the case, reveals some unsettling truths. With Standing’s relationship with Pullman at breaking point, he knows he needs to prove his worth and find some answers quickly. However, in doing so, he compromises his own safety and finds himself on the wrong side of Gerrard. (18)

5. When the UCOS team reinvestigates the suspicious murder of Craig Rossiter, they find themselves at the centre of a plot involving witchcraft, magic and curses. Rossiter, a librarian, had been a member of a coven and, when he died 10 years ago, there were few clues as to the cause of death. The team has to infiltrate the coven and speak to other members in order to get answers, but the investigation leaves them all feeling very uneasy.With barely any leads, Pullman takes the team to Richmond Park, the scene of Rossiter’s death. A young woman, Grace Woodford, appears unexpectedly at the scene, clearly distressed and accompanied by her therapist. Also part of the coven, Grace remains traumatised by Rossiter’s death but has little memory of the sequence of events leading up to it. But Grace is able to provide the names of other coven members, including Rhoda Wishaw, a white witch living in Ashdown forest. Standing and Lane visit Rhoda to question her and, after sampling her special tea, both leave feeling strangely intoxicated; Lane is eager to see Ester, and Standing any of his ex-wives. On their second visit, the special tea leaves them both confused and having hallucinations, so Rhoda takes the opportunity to disappear. Halford is also experiencing some unexplained visions involving his dead wife, Mary, and becomes convinced that he has been cursed by the coven. But the case takes a sinister turn when Lane visits the library where Rossiter used to work and discovers that his death may have been the result of human sacrifice. (19)

6. When police informant Pete MacKintyre returns to the UK for his son’s 18th birthday after 17 years on the run, he leads Gerry to fresh evidence about an unsolved armed robbery in which a bank cashier was shot and killed. The police have long suspected the man behind the robbery to be known criminal Ray Cook, now a C-list celebrity and angry to be in UCOS’s radar. With MacKintyre’s help, Standing recovers a sawn-off shotgun and a microtape, which Lane discovers is the audio of the robbery. The gun is a link to Ray Cook – but with a watertight alibi of being at his mother’s deathbed on the day of the robbery, Cook is proving difficult to nail and even more difficult to track down to interview. Halford and Lane interview Geoff Lyons, a former security guard for the bank at the time of the robbery and an ex-copper. While Lyons is keen to point the finger at Cook, it becomes clear that this wasn’t a one man operation. Elsewhere, suspicious that Pullman is going on a date with DAC Strickland, the team follow her to the Hero of the Year awards. There, Standing is confronted by an old colleague, Rob Petty, and can barely disguise his disgust that Petty is attending as a nominated hero. There is clearly history between the two men, but how will Standing feel when his boss invites Petty to contribute to the case? (20)

7. A 10-year feud between two families – the Gennaros and the Bentons – over their rival ice cream businesses gets personal and nasty as the two vie for the same London pitch.At the height of the feud, in 1996, there were a number of mystery raids on both family businesses, and during one of the robberies Andy Benton was shot. The original investigation into the shooting focused on suspects outside of both families, but on witnessing the ongoing tension, rivalry and hatred between the two, the UCOS team look closer to home when they reopen the case. The Gennaros have been selling ice cream since the Fifties and are a very old-fashioned, traditional Italian family, while Matthew and Andy Benton are newer to the scene and have a completely different approach. Having visited the Bentons’ factory, Standing becomes very suspicious and enlists the help of his daughter, Caitlin, to help him find out what is going on. When Caitlin manages to score some drugs from a Benton’s ice cream van, Standing’s suspicions are confirmed. But his unorthodox methods leave Pullman furious. A bust-up between the two families outside the Bentons’ factory reveals that the Gennaros’ granddaughter, Isabella, and arch rival Matthew Benton may not have always been enemies. But the team are still struggling to identify which of the families could have been responsible for the original armed raids. (21)

8. In 2001, Luke Hanson was charged with burning down his school, thanks to the evidence of the headmaster, Andrew Simson. Five years into his sentence, new evidence linking Hanson to a robbery which took place at the same time as the arson attack earns him early release. Free and allegedly reformed, Hanson now wants his case reinvestigated to find out who really was responsible for the fire, as the detective drama continues. He seeks out Halford to help right the wrongs of his past. Meanwhile, Gerry Standing finds himself pursuing an investigation of a more personal nature. At a rebuilt Luscombe School, Hanson is welcomed by Simson as he gives a talk to pupils about life in prison. The two men appear to have made their peace. However, the team also has other matters to sort out. Halford has some unfinished business with Luke’s father, Ricky Hanson, and decides to rattle his cage suspecting he may well have framed his own son. But Halford’s pursuit of Hanson Snr reveals more than he bargained for. Meanwhile, DAC Strickland encourages Pullman to apply for promotion as Head of the Murder Squad – a job she would most certainly get. Not wanting to unsettle the team, she keeps news of the possible promotion to herself.Standing gets a bit of a shock when a young woman, Emily Driscoll, arrives at his flat claiming to be his daughter. Shock soon turns to pride when Standing discovers that Emily also works for the police and the two share other similarities – she’s a chip off the old block. But Lane persuades Standing to show a little caution over Emily’s claims and suggests he takes her DNA to prove he is her biological father. Pullman is appalled when she discovers that Standing has been completely abusing the system for his own personal investigation, but she has bigger worries on her mind – does she leave UCOS? (22)

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Series 4

1. Hell-bent on avenging his wife’s death, Jack Halford is prepared to risk everything to kill the man responsible, Ricky Hanson. As Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman becomes aware of the dangerous situation Halford has put himself in, she has to act fast to prevent him confronting his nemesis, resulting in a crash that jeopardises the future of the entire team. With Gerry Standing, Brian Lane and Halford hospitalised, Pullman is forced to accept temporary help at UCOS from the super efficient DCI Karen Hardwick, a woman who irritates Pullman on every level. Threatened by a new face in the office and desperate to prove that they are still a crack team, even from a hospital bed, the boys need a case. So when their consultant Dr Finlay McKenzie mentions the suspicious death of a patient on their ward ten years ago, they seize the opportunity to reinvestigate, hoping it will hold the team together. (23)

2. Sandra Pullman’s private and professional worlds clash when her mother Grace suffers a fall and needs care. Mother and daughter do not share a close relationship, so when Grace temporarily moves in with Sandra, sparks fly. However, the two do agree that Grace can no longer live on her own and they set about finding a suitable nursing home for her. On the surface, Whitemead seems perfect, until one of the residents, Leonard, confides that the death of another elderly resident, his fiancée Maggie Newley, a year previously, was covered up and passed off as suicide. Despite hearing this and to Sandra’s dismay, Grace sets her heart on moving into Whitemead’s. Since the alleged murder doesn’t fall under her department’s remit, but wanting to act in the best interests of her mother, Pullman is forced to turn a blind eye to her team’s suggestion of an unofficial undercover investigation. Jack Halford reluctantly agrees to play the role of elderly relative and manages to secure a place for himself at the home. Like a thorn in Halford’s side, Gerry Standing takes great delight in playing the concerned son visiting his old dad and in an ironic twist, neurotic Brian Lane, gets to play his doctor. But it soon becomes clear that the calm façade of the home belies jealousies and petty crimes. With Maggie’s family and Leonard insisting the she would not have taken her own life, the team discovers a link to her prescribed medication and that she had a love rival at the home, Pru Saunders. But would a dotty old woman really commit murder for love? (24)

3. When an armoured security van is found at the bottom of a lake, a link is made to Michael Dudley who disappeared 17 years ago. Michael’s disappearance coincided with the murder of Marie Sinclair. With the discovery of the van revealing that it was ransacked whilst underwater, and with Marie’s murder remaining unsolved, the team decides to reopen the case. Andrew Sinclair (Marie’s husband and owner of the security firm and the chief suspect at the time) continues to insist he is entirely innocent, but his story doesn’t quite add up. A visit to the new owner of the security firm, Steve Palmer, doesn’t provide Gerry Standing with records he was hoping to find, but it does result in Palmer making the cash-starved Standing an offer he can’t refuse. Brian Lane looks into the dive clubs that would have had access to the lake over the years, which leads him to diving instructors Martin Viner and Trisha, but that appears to be another dead end. Frustrated by the pace of the investigation, Pullman decides to make the dive herself to take a closer look at the van. It’s a risky strategy, but it pays off when she finds the murder weapon on the van and the team is able to trace it back to Sinclair. But just when the team finally believes it is getting closer to solving the case, a key witness is murdered. (25)

4. A family feud erupts when a rich, lonely old woman, Dorothy Hepple, is found dead in her home, leaving all her money and property to her beloved cats, rather than her nephew Harry, and niece Caroline. Her body remained undiscovered for two weeks and the cause of death was undetermined, but the fact that her cats were deliberately locked in the house with her body, makes Jack Halford suspicious. There appears to have been no love lost between the late Ms Hepple and her neighbour Tim Cuswell, and while her carer Dale seems to have been devoted to her, his motives are questionable. (26)

5. The team reinvestigates the 1950s murder of Frederick Tully, a young wages clerk at Battersea Power Station. Patrick Dunne was hung for Tully’s murder, but his granddaughter, Hannah is waging a campaign to get Dunne posthumously pardoned. The discovery of a suitcase of used fivers in the attic of the former Tully home sheds new light on the case, revealing a possible blackmail plot. And when Sir Edward Chambers, the key witness against Dunne, retracts his evidence, the team has reason to question the original investigation. But with Hannah reluctant to cooperate with the police, it is left to Gerry Standing to charm her mother, June, in order to gain an insight into the case, which Standing takes a little too literally. (27)

6. When Brian Lane’s dog Scampi digs up a body during his routine walk on the common, the team finds itself in a very unusual situation before the investigation has even begun. With a confession. Janice Small, the widow of a notorious criminal, admits to killing her husband’s lover as soon as she hears news of the discovery of a corpse. Only further investigation reveals that the skeleton is 600 years old, so does the common hide the grim remains of more than one victim? (28)

7. When a camera and film belonging to a man murdered in 1987, are discovered in the toilets of a Soho pub, the team enters the glamorous but murky world of modelling to reinvestigate the young man’s killing. When the film is tested and processed, the team discovers two images that stand out from the standard christening and wedding shots – a junkie shooting up and shot of a couple kissing. But it is not the images found on the film that raises eyebrows, it is the traces of sperm. Gerry Standing’s daughter Emily joins the team when she turns to Sandra Pullman, rather than her father, to help her fulfil her professional ambition. Apart from feeling snubbed, Standing isn’t convinced that Pullman is the right role model for Emily as he doesn’t want to see his daughter sacrifice her personal life for the job. Meanwhile, Brian Lane starts to unravel emotionally and psychologically. Even by his normally eccentric standards, Lane’s behaviour and fragile state of mind is alarming. (29)

8. Pullman’s trust in her team is shattered when she discovers they have hidden an important secret about her past from her. The news that her father, a Detective Inspector, killed himself while under investigation for corruption, throws into doubt everything she believed in. Still reeling from the news, Pullman is asked to reinvestigate another family affair – the death of circus ringmaster, The Great Miraculo aka Bert Dignam, at the request of Christy Berlin who has recently discovered that he was her biological father. But will the investigation at Spingles Circus be enough to distract Pullman from feeling utterly betrayed by her colleagues? (30)