Season 17 Episode 1
Appropriate Action
A teenage boy is found badly beaten, and a young girl, Lisa, from the same school is missing. DC Webb shows little interest in the case, so Sgt Cryer investigates the girl’s disappearance himself. A local ‘photographer’, Andrew Morton, is the main suspect, as he has an obsession with Lisa and her friends, and he is arrested when PC Harker spots him acting suspiciously by the canal. When Lisa turns out to have been hiding out at a friend’s house the whole time, Cryer must rush to prevent Lisa’s father from taking the law into his own hands by killing the innocent Morton
Season 17 Episode 2
Criminal Practice
DCs Webb and Riley wait outside a cafe, whilst inside DS McAllister is conducting a rather clumsy undercover sting on a suspected drug dealer. DI Cullen is furious when the suspect is released without charge following McAllister’s poor handling of the case. Resentful of DS Singh’s success in recruiting local informants, McAllister manages to coax some information from solicitor’s clerk Jamie Ross, which eventually leads to a successful arrest when Ross’s information blows apart a stabbing suspect’s alibi. Pleased with her success, McAllister is determined to convince Ross to work as an informant for her. Meanwhile, Riley meets up with his brother Joe, who seems to be in some trouble with the Nottingham police.
Season 17 Episode 3
Upon Information Received
CID investigate a spate of car thefts, and DS McAllister’s informant Jamie Ross gives her a tip-off about a gang of French car thieves working in the area. Ross is reluctant to name his contact though, who turns out to be Joe Riley, DC Paul Riley’s brother. The gang is arrested, but are broken out of Canley Crown Court by a trio armed with shotguns. An SO19 raid on Joe Riley’s lock-up sees them in custody again, but Riley must work hard to hide his brother’s involvement, particularly as Ross informs McAllister that it goes deeper than Riley thinks.
Season 17 Episode 4
No Victim
PCs Worrell and Quinnan attend to a woman threatening to jump off a bridge. She turns out to be Sarah Collins, the wife of DS Terry Collins from Stafford Row CID. Despite the doubts of some of her colleagues, Worrell is determined to pursue the matter as a domestic violence case. She convinces Sarah to make a statement and testify in court by telling Sarah of her own experience with domestic violence. The case is dismissed, however – Sarah becomes reluctant to testify, and there are doubts about her character. When Worrell goes to check on her at the Collins house, she finds that Sarah has murdered her husband. Meanwhile, Quinnan struggles to find the right time to tell his wife about his affair with PC Page.
Season 17 Episode 5
Common Language
A young Russian girl leads PC Smith out of a nightclub, where he is promptly attacked by three men. Despite Smith’s protests, Supt Chandler assigns DI Cullen to investigate the assault. They track down the Russian woman, Natasha Ivanova, through a language school which seems to be recruiting students to work as prostitutes. Natasha is desperate as her visa is about to expire, and her sister has disappeared. Her sister is found murdered, and Smith realises the men responsible for her death and his assault are linked to a man from his old army unit.
Season 17 Episode 6
PC Smith
Hoping it will convince Supt Chandler to endorse his transfer to SO19, PC Smith volunteers with PC Klein to ‘babysit’ Clive Allein, the victim of a gay bashing who is reluctantly testifying against his assailant, Gary Cook, in court the next day. Smith nearly blows it when his angry reaction to Clive’s partner Ian Jones’s teasing causes Jones to run off, where he is promptly attacked, and Allein refusing to testify, until Smith convinces him otherwise. The trial goes ahead, and the attacker is found guilty, but further threats from Cook’s friend Paul Taylor cause Ian to storm off again, this time he goes missing. Smith and Klein fear the worst when a stabbing victim is reported, but it turns out to be Paul Taylor who is the victim, and Ian Jones the attacker.
Season 17 Episode 7
Family Honour
Supt Chandler is speaking at a meeting on the Larkmead Estate, but vandalism and a petrol bomb cut short his talk. Sgt Ackland is called to the house of local MP Stephen Hadley and his wife Fiona, where their infant child has died of serious injuries. Forensic examination reveals the baby was thrown to the floor, and Fiona Hadley says her husband was responsible. Hadley is arrested, but denies her claim. A lack of evidence sees him released, but he is arrested again for beating his wife when he returns home. It turns out the Hadleys’ other child knocked the baby’s high chair over.
Season 17 Episode 8
Words of Wisdom
After an ear-bending from Marsha Harris, Supt Chandler is determined to bring to an end the one-boy crime wave on the Larkmead Estate caused by resident hooligan Peter Rogers. Chandler persuades Sgt Ackland to talk to Peter’s mother, and also tries to get Marsha Harris’s daughter Cassie to make a statement to the police against Rogers, but both are too scared of the boy to comply. When Cassie Harris is found half-drowned in a river, and PCs Stamp and Hollis turn up a CCTV tape of Rogers smashing up cars, it seems they may be able to put him away at last – although it turns out that Cassie’s drowning was self-inflicted and the CCTV tape is actually Peter’s brother Gavin trying to frame him for criminal damage.
Season 17 Episode 9
Out of the Frying Pan
DS McAllister continues to get useful tip offs from her informant and lover, Jamie Ross, including one about an armed raid on a betting shop. Meanwhile, there’s a war brewing on Sun Hill turf between rival hot dog vendors, one of whom is DC Riley’s brother Joe. When Joe Riley’s lockup is set on fire and several of his vendors attacked, PCs Hollis and Hayward join Riley under cover as hot dog vendors to catch those responsible
Season 17 Episode 10
Mexican Standoff
DS McAllister pushes her informant and lover Jamie Ross too far when she tapes a privileged conversation between Ross and a client who admits to intimidating a witness in a court case. When Ross makes an official complaint against her, she turns to DC Riley for help and threatens to expose his cover-up of his brother’s involvement with the French car gang unless he backs her up and says that he was present at all her meetings with Ross.
Season 17 Episode 11
Cruise Control
DC Webb poses as a ‘rent-boy’ in Eddington Park, a well-known gay beat in Sun Hill, as he and DC Lennox investigate a series of brutal attacks on gay men in the area. A car alarm alerts Webb and Lennox to the car of a local MLA parked in the bushes. When questioned, the MLA claims he was car-jacked and certainly was not ‘cruising’ in the park. He threatens legal action and Supt Chandler moves quickly to prevent further damage to Sun Hill’s reputation. A helpful security guard offers the police an observation post in a nearby office building, but Webb is suspicious of the guard’s attitude.
Season 17 Episode 12
Real Crime
DCs Spears and Webb clash when the same man is a suspect in both a domestic violence case and a series of truck hijackings.
Season 17 Episode 13
Home and Away
PCs Quinnan and Page attend to an aggravated burglary. When the suspect threatens Page, Quinnan loses control.
Season 17 Episode 14
Going Under
PC Quinnan arrives late after rowing with wife Jenny all night. Ever the troublemaker, Sgt Boyden sends him out on patrol with PC Page, and pairing PCs Stamp and Hagen. Quinnan and Page have trouble keeping their mind on the job, and this gets dangerous when Stamp is attacked by a gang of thugs on the Docklands Light Railway and Quinnan is nowhere to be seen. When Jenny leaves him and returns to Dublin, Dave starts to crack up. He puts on his uniform after his shift and goes on a vigilante mission to find the gang responsible for the attack on Stamp. DC Webb gets an anonymous call and finds some of the gang members tied up and sprayed with pepper spray.
Season 17 Episode 15
Faultline
Dave Quinnan just stands and watches as a shopkeeper and a young woman are attacked by a gang of thugs at his local corner shop. When he finally turns up at the station, he identifies the leader of the gang as Robbie Gaitskill. Polly Page turns up in tears, and she and the rest of the relief are concerned as Dave seems to be cracking up. The crackheads arrested the previous night identify Quinnan as the policeman who attacked them. As Hagen and Page try to find him, Quinnan goes AWOL and tracks down the woman from the shop, Tricia Martin, and demands she tell him Gaitskill’s address. Half the relief turn up on Gaitskill’s doorstep, only to find Quinnan sitting in a car outside. Gaitskill is arrested, and Quinnan is told by Supt. Chandler to take his sick leave and seek professional counselling.
Season 17 Episode 16
Long Shadows Part One
When DC Lennox is accused of planting evidence in an armed robbery case, DCI Meadows is determined to charge the suspect’s accomplice, Phil Brown. Unfortunately, Brown claims to have been an informant for DS Beech, which makes Supt Chandler determined to drop the case. When an old friend of Meadows’ reveals that George Stubbs had previously bribed Chandler’s DS at Park Rise, Meadows realises he has some ammunition against Chandler. Meanwhile Sgt Boyden and PC Hagen help PC Clarke recover her ASP when it is stolen while pursuing a robbery suspect.
Season 17 Episode 17
Long Shadows Part Two
Under pressure from Supt Chandler and the NCS to release Phil Brown, DCI Meadows convinces Moira Scott to admit to George Stubbs’s involvement in the armed robbery as well as drug dealing. DC Spears goes undercover as a cocaine buyer, and with some help from NCS and SO19, they catch Stubbs and his supplier red-handed with the drugs. During his interview, Stubbs makes an allegation of corruption against Chandler. Before he calls in CIB, DI Cullen convinces Meadows he’s only been told half the story.
Season 17 Episode 18
Higher Power
PC Carver attends to a drug dealer found badly beaten on the Larkmead Estate, but finds himself in a dilemma when a friend Ossie from his AA group confesses to the crime. DS McAllister follows Carver when he tries to convince his friend to turn himself in, and to his horror, Ossie is arrested shortly after. Carver realises that Ossie had suffered an alcoholic blackout at the time, and that the real beating was committed by a rival drug dealer on the Larkmead. Meanwhile, Uniform contend with the BIC gang, a group of youths harassing local shopkeepers
Season 17 Episode 19
Touched by Evil
PC Clarke is on attachment to CID, and puts up with the usual teasing from the detectives and her uniform colleagues. She cracks the case she is working on with DC Glaze though, when she realises that a series of break-ins are all one surname in the phone book. When Ch Insp Conway and DI Cullen attend a rugby match between the Met and the Army, Conway is abducted when a disgruntled soldier decides to take revenge on those responsible for the abuse he received while at a children’s home.
Season 17 Episode 20
The Leopard Part One
PCs Smith and Klein attend to Mr Kennedy, whose house and garden shed have been attacked by vandals repeatedly over the past few weeks. When Kennedy threatens to take matters into his own hands, Smith casually comments that he wouldn’t blame him if he did. Smith and Klein both apply for new jobs: Smith submits his application to SO19 and Supt Chandler wants Klein to take the position of partnership officer at the Town Hall. When Kennedy shoots a young boy, and insists that PC Smith told him to do so, Klein reluctantly confirms what was said, and Smith accuses him of grassing him up. After attacking Klein in the corridor, and under investigation by CIB, Smith is suspended from duty.
Season 17 Episode 21
The Leopard Part Two
PC Klein is offered the position of partnership officer, but he is shunned by the relief, who think he grassed PC Smith up to get the job. Sgt Cryer has a funny feeling about Frank Kennedy, and decides to do some digging of his own, and he encourages Smith to do the same. With Klein’s help, Smith infiltrates the gang of youths intimidating the local residents, and discovers that the real estate firm Mather & Devine is indeed behind the harassment. Meanwhile, Cryer uncovers the fact that Kennedy was a notorious East End gangster named Ken Franklin who stored weapons for the Kray brothers, and that Kennedy’s claim of shooting in self-defence is disproved by the forensic evidence and a statement from the other gang member. Smith is re-instated, Supt Chandler approves his transfer to SO19, and Klein turns down the partnership officer job.
Season 17 Episode 22
Tolerance Part One
Sgt Bob Cryer is approaching his 30th year of service, but some of the senior officers at the station doubt he is still up to the job. Supt Chandler assigns Cryer the difficult task of resolving a situation where a group of prostitutes are at loggerheads with a local residents group led by Councillor Angela Morris. Cryer suggests a ‘zone of tolerance’, a non-residential area where the prostitutes can work without upsetting the locals, and manages to convince the girls to give it a try. As Chandler heads off to a charity dinner, a call comes through that the Morris’s house has been torched. Meanwhile, PC Smith attends his interview for transfer to SO19. He is successful, and leaves Sun Hill to join the Armed Response Unit.
Season 17 Episode 23
Tolerance Part Two
When the victim in yesterday’s domestic disturbance turns up badly beaten and left for dead, her husband is adamant he had nothing to do with it. Mandy tells Sgt Cryer that the woman who was bashed, Cath Evans, was working as a prostitute, and that the councillor’s husband Justin was one of her clients. But Justin in turn, having admitted his deeds to his wife, says that he was seeing Mandy as well, and that on the night of the fire, she turned up late and had blood on her clothes. Meanwhile, PC Smith arrives at SO19 to find his new friend Julie also made the grade, but on their training course, treats her as the token female. When she beats him on the rifle range it causes friction, and their boss cautions that they have to learn to work as a team. Under pressure, Mandy finally admits to Cryer that Justin Harris is a client, and that he was paying her extra to keep it quiet. But that meant her paying off Cath and Sally, so when Cath threatened to tell Fleet, she bashed her up. Although happy with the result, but with the ‘zone of Tolerance’ idea scrapped, Chandler tells Cryer and PC Klein that they might adopt another of Klein’s plans to fix the problem, hinting that he knew all along it was Klein’s idea. Disappointed that his trust in Mandy was misplaced, Cryer remarks that maybe he is too old for the job after all.
Season 17 Episode 24
Promised Land
PC Klein becomes involved when Kosovan refugees housed at a council estate are being harassed and attacked. Later, at a family gathering, Klein’s cousin Jerry arrives and is praised by the family for his success. DC Webb investigates a robbery at a clothing factory, and his investigations lead him to Norman Klein, his colleague’s uncle. The link between the latest robbery and a previous one is revealed to be Jerry Klein who assessed security at both places. When Jerry is found badly beaten, Klein decides he must tell the police about his cousin’s possible involvement, which results in DI Cullen catching the gang on their third job
Season 17 Episode 25
Return of the Hunter
Sgt Cryer and PC Hayward attend an incident at a local school where an angry divorcee, Chris Finnessey, is demanding to see his son. When the boy’s teacher warns the police of Finnessey’s violent reputation and a possible restraining order against him, he grabs a Stanley knife and takes the teacher and Cryer hostage. Faced with an armed suspect and two hostages, Supt Chandler calls in SO19, although the only Trojan unit available is that of the newly-qualified PCs Smith and Stanley. When Finnessey and his son leave the school building, Chandler gives authorisation to fire. Smith shoots first but to his horror, accidentally hits Cryer. Stanley takes down Finnessey. Cryer survives the shooting, but his career in the police is over.
Season 17 Episode 26
Tour of Duty
Visiting Sgt Cryer in hospital, Sgt Ackland is horrified to find that he doesn’t know he has already been replaced at Sun Hill. His replacement is Sgt Craig Gilmore, transferring from Manchester Police. Gilmore wastes no time in telling the relief that the rumours are true: he is gay. DC Lennox investigates the harassment of a local publican by a gang of youths, but when Gilmore organises a ‘beat sweep’ of the local estates, they find the publican’s daughter is involved with the gang. Her information leads them to an illegal drinking club. After the police raid the club and arrest the gang members, one of them accuses PC Harker of brutality.
Season 17 Episode 27
Lies of Silence
On temporary assignment to the Serious Crime Group, DC Lennox is surprised to find Liz Rawton is Acting DI at SCG. The body of a young girl, later identified as Hayley Mills, is found in a concrete slab in a cement works. Rawton and Lennox question the new owner of the cement works, Digby Leake, and Rawton tells Lennox off for his aggressive approach to the case. Hayley’s ex-boyfriend tells them of a modelling agency which doubled as an escort service where Hayley worked and that Hayley was pregnant, and the owner Leon Walsh is certainly suspiscious, especially when the police find a car of his containing Hayley’s blood. Forensics reveals that Hayley died of an ectopic pregnancy, and was not murdered, Leake admits that he was the father and that his assistant Harry Rawlings dumped the body when Hayley died from the complications. Lennox forms a bond with Hayley’s friend Karen, who confides to him that Rawlings and Leon are involved in smuggling heroin from Hong Kong, and the pair are arrested. Rawton congratulates Lennox on solving the case and offers him a job at SCG, but he declines, preferring to remain at Sun Hill.
Season 17 Episode 28
Over the Hill
It’s Sgt Boyden’s 40th birthday, and to make matters worse, he has to cancel a date to attend an outward pursuit weekend with PC Hagen and a group of wayward teenagers. CID investigate the serious bashing of an elderly man, and their prime suspect is Jason Wyatt who had attacked the same man some months previously. Jason is one of the group with Boyden and Hagen, and his aggressive personality causes several arguments and fights over the weekend. Boyden forms a bond with the boy though, and suspects Jason’s abusive father had more to do with the attack. Forensics prove him right, but to Boyden’s dismay, Jason faces a manslaughter charge as the injuries he inflicted on the man months ago caused the man to die. Hagen promises Boyden a birthday drink, but the relief have organised a surprise party, so they take a raincheck.
Season 17 Episode 29
Head over Heels
PC Stamp joins a dating agency for professional people, telling them he is an antiques dealer, and as he is living in the section house, gives them PC Page’s address. A CID operation involving forged banknotes goes wrong, and Sgt Gilmore tells Stamp and Hayward off when they pursue and arrest an armed suspect without backup. DCs Webb and Spears investigate a series of robberies and discover a link to Stamp’s dating agency. Stamp’s date Lisa invites men to stay at her flat and then arranges for their houses to be burgled. CID set up surveillance outside Page’s house, and catch the thieves, and Stamp must sadly arrest Lisa.
Season 17 Episode 30
Hitting Home
The relief have organised a farewell party for Sgt Cryer, but it sounds like he’s not too keen to go, so Ch Insp Conway pays him a visit. The police inquiry clears PC Smith of charges relating to Cryer’s shooting, although his probation period is extended. PCs Worrell and Clarke attend a reported break-in at the house of a hippy couple, who claim a valuable necklace was stolen, and the intruder turns out to be a plumber who still has the key. PCs Klein and Hayward are called when a strange young woman accuses her neighbour of torturing her elderly mother. When the old woman disappears, it appears she was taken by her son who is wanted for parole violation in Manchester. Cryer turns up for his leaving do at the Bell & Badger, and is in high spirits, though he is angered by Supt Chandler’s speech. Cryer also announces he has brought along a special guest: Dale Smith – he insists he has no hard feelings against Smithy, and that the others should forgive him as well.
Season 17 Episode 31
Value Judgement
A man matching the description of a local paedophile is seen lurking outside a local school, but when the police visit him, he denies it. Outside the school, PC Hollis sees three men fighting, and one of them bundles a struggling young boy into a car, one of the men in the fight runs but is arrested, and he denies knowing the boy. PC Hagen pursues in the Area Car, but dents the side when she swerves to avoid a head-on collision. The police investigate the case as an abduction, but the boy’s aunt reports that he is safe and well and living with his mother – or as safe as he can be, since his mother is living with local scumbag Shane Weller. The boy Jack’s mother tells Sgt Boyden that the man they have in custody is Murad Gocek, Jack’s Turkish father, and that he wants to take the boy back to Turkey with him. When Jack goes missing for real, his aunt tells Boyden that his father is staying in a hostel, and that Weller is on his way there. As the police arrest Weller’s thugs, Weller drives his car towards a fleeing Gocek and his son. PC Hagen drives between them, totalling the Area Car which, in addition to her two recent PolAccs, results in the instant loss of her police driver’s licence.
Season 17 Episode 32
Collateral Damage
DS McAllister is surprised to run into her former lover and informant Jamie Ross in a bar, when he returns to Sun Hill after the man who wanted him dead dies of a heart attack. Ross is in a new line of work: organising adventure holidays – but he still has plenty of inside knowledge, and when he and McAllister resume their relationship, he reveals the man responsible for a hit-and-run on a drug dealer and a schoolgirl. To McAllister’s horror, she realises that Ross has used her, as he is deeply in debt to Brett Sadler who ordered the drug dealer killed. DI Cullen convinces Ross to help them catch Sadler, but Ross is shot and killed by a sniper.
Season 17 Episode 33
A Week of Nights Part One
New Area Car driver, PC Des Taviner, makes an instant (but negative) impression on the relief when he starts work on the night shift at Sun Hill, with his overbearing manner and sharp mouth. He clashes with PC Worrell, and demands she be taken off Area Car duty with him, as he says she is “clueless”. Paired with PC Hollis, Taviner chats up two girls waiting for the night bus and offers them a lift home. DC Glaze makes a breakthrough in a series of brutal rapes on the Jasmine Allen estate, and when residents report a woman screaming on Canley Fields, all Sierra Oscar units race to the scene. Taviner is sympathetic towards the victim, prostitute Lynn Roberts, and vows to “get the bastard” responsible.
Season 17 Episode 34
A Week of Nights Part Two
DS McAllister and DC Glaze are certain they’ve got their man for the Jasmine Allen rapes: Lenworth Lomanu, a convicted rapist who was seen by PCs Klein and Stamp in the vicinity at the same time as Lynn Roberts was attacked. PC Taviner is not so sure, and he suspects that the young man he and PC Worrell questioned outside a pharmacy before it was robbed is responsible. As Taviner and Hollis do their own investigation, Lomanu’s arrest causes a near riot on the Jasmine Allen, and Sgt Gilmore is attacked when he returns two housewives to the estate. Taviner gets his man, Conrad James, but his solicitor brother gets him off the hook. Clear evidence that Conrad is dealing drugs on the estate gives the police the opportunity to raid and search his house, and Conrad admits to the rapes as well.
Season 17 Episode 35
Wednesday
PCs Klein and Taviner arrest two men fighting in the street. DC Glaze is surprised to see one of the men is his old school friend Lol Redman. He is even more surprised when Redman is charged with racial assault after the other man, Devon Russell, says Redman called him a ‘black bastard’. Redman is bailed, Glaze gives him lift and arranges to meet him in the pub later. As Glaze waits, Redman is arrested again outside Russell’s house. DS McAllister visits Russell’s wife whilst he makes a statement at the station, and she admits that she and Redman had an affair and that her husband is a violent and paranoid man, and that Redman was just concerned with her well-being. Back at the station, Russell claims to have a tape of Redman’s verbal abuse, but the tape is inconclusive and Redman is released again, although he admits to Danny he did say those things in the heat of the moment. As Glaze gives him a lift home, Redman is set upon by three men, led by Devon Russell’s brother, and beaten to death.
Season 17 Episode 36
Billy the Kid
A ten-year-old boy who calls himself “Billy the Kid” is arrested twice in one day, and when Sgt Boyden speaks to him, he reveals he wanted to speak to the police without being a grass, and that he is concerned about his sister, Kate, an underage prostitute who is being used by her stepfather in a blackmail scam. DI Jane Edmonds from SCG arrives to investigate the scam. She flirts with Boyden – the two clearly have a previous history together – which stirs up the jealousy of Vicky Hagen. When Billy is hit by a car, he is abducted from St Hugh’s hospital by Kate and their stepfather Tom Adams, who is behind the blackmail and whom Kate is besotted with. Edmonds is all for arresting Adams when they use one of the previous victims in a sting operation, but Boyden risks letting him go so he will lead them to the missing kids
Season 17 Episode 37
Still Crazy
PC Quinnan returns to duty, and is determined to prove to everyone that he’s back to normal after his breakdown. Out in a panda car, Quinnan sees a man shot in the head in a van – he calls for assistance, but by the time reinforcements arrive, the victim, the van and the main witness have disappeared. Desperate to prove his sanity, Quinnan pursues the case vigorously, and enlists the help of DC Riley’s brother Joe, who asks the wrong people the wrong questions. PC Page is outraged by a practical joke played by PC Taviner, but she and Quinnan get their revenge in a most amusing way.
Season 17 Episode 38
Complicity Part One
DS Singh goes undercover to a ‘car cruise’, where he becomes involved with a well-organised car ringing gang led by Kevin North. Meanwhile, DC Webb tries to cultivate an unofficial 15-year-old snout named Tyro Shaw, in the hope that he will grass up his father, Steve Shaw. Singh poses as a car thief, and is soon in with the gang, even gaining a meeting with North’s boss, Jennifer Salter. As Webb gets frustrated by Shaw’s dead-end leads, Singh pushes the boy too far about his involvement with the gang.
Season 17 Episode 39
Complicity Part Two
Tyro Shaw threatens to blow DS Singh’s cover in the car-ringing gang, but is convinced otherwise. Singh seems to have impressed both Kevin North and his boss, Jennifer Salter, who seems quite taken with him. Salter tells Singh the gang is moving on soon, and he realises he must get the evidence in North’s office. As Singh enters the office, DC Webb realises that Tyro Shaw has set them up, and Vik is abducted by North and Salter. Webb convinces Tyro to tell them where Vik was taken, and CID narrowly rescue him from being set alight
Season 17 Episode 40
Suffer the Little Children
DI Cullen leads a drugs raid on a warehouse owned by his old nemesis, Terry Barlow, but finds nothing. Cullen is furious with DC Glaze, whose snout tipped them off about drugs on the premises. PCs Harker and Rickman deal with a domestic case involving an argumentative couple, the Carters, and their baby. Neither case makes any progress until a neighbour reports that Barlow has been to visit the Carters on several occasions. Determined to get one up on CID, Harker puts the pieces together and comes up with a theory that the Carters are putting their baby up for sale on the Guatemalan black market with the help of a doctor at St Hugh’s, and Barlow is the broker. Despite warnings from Glaze, Harker presses on and is proven correct when they raid a hotel where the exchange has taken place. Baby Sean is recovered, and the police race to an office building where Jackie Carter is threatening to kill herself.
Season 17 Episode 41
Happy and Glorious Part One
The Section House is closing, and PC Reg Hollis is not only looking for a new place to live, he is also applying for a transfer to SO14 (the Royal Protection unit). He is about to buy a flat owned by an elderly friend, Doreen Tyler, but she changes her mind at the last minute, so he moves in with Tony Stamp temporarily. Hollis’s intuition gives CID an important lead on a planned armed robbery, but his uniformed colleagues conspire to have Nick Klein organise the Section House closing party instead of him. Deciding to skip the party, Hollis goes to visit Doreen, but finds her dead in her flat. With no alibi, Hollis is the prime suspect for her murder, and he is suspended from duty.
Season 17 Episode 42
Happy and Glorious Part Two
PCs Stamp and Klein try to find an alibi for PC Hollis, who is the prime suspect in a murder investigation, while CID try to trace the victim’s long lost daughter.
Season 17 Episode 43
Gun Crazy Part One
A mad gunman is on the loose in Sun Hill. Supt Chandler takes a personal interest in the case, but when he confides his reasons to a young woman who was threatened by the gunman, he is horrified to find she was a journalist and the story is published in the Sun Hill Gazette. Feeling unappreciated in the job, DCI Meadows considers other options, and attempts to smooth things over with his long-suffering wife, Laura. Meadows teams up with DS McAllister and the two of them strike out on their own, and after a few close calls, arrest their prime suspect: a motor mechanic with a history of firearms offences. As they interview him, however, the gunman strikes again…
Season 17 Episode 44
Gun Crazy Part Two
Supt Chandler and DI Cullen are not too pleased after DCI Meadows and DS McAllister release their prime suspect, Alan Merrick. DC Lennox receives a call from the Army, telling them of another suspect, a recent deserter named Jason Starr. As Meadows and the team capture Starr, McAllister and reporter Andrea Roper are taken hostage by Merrick and Matty Fletcher. Merrick shoots Fletcher when he tries to leave, and is himself shot by SO19. Meadows and McAllister are congratulated for their handling of the situation.
Season 17 Episode 45
The Jury’s Out
After a minor car accident in the High Street, PC Carver breathalyses an elderly man, but takes sympathy on him and allows him to leave in a taxi. The man turns out to be Hugh Alexander, a High Court judge with a renowned pro-police stance, and Carver finds himself suspected of showing bias, particularly when the other man involved in the accident threatens legal action against the Met. At the trial of a man accused of murdering a police officer, PC Worrell feels marginalised as a black officer when she is asked to testify and be a character witness for the dead officer. Ch Insp Conway meets with Gary Fablon, and discovers that Fablon is addicted to litigation, and the accident was his fault. Carver, meanwhile, has a chance to redeem himself when Conway hears that Alexander may be drink-driving again that night.
Season 17 Episode 46
Lick of Paint
A spate of graffiti taggings in Sun Hill sees the police showing zero tolerance to the perpetrators. PC Carver is sympathetic towards an alcoholic teacher at Canley Art College when his classroom and students’ work are defaced. Sgt Boyden asks PC Hagen to move in with him, but she is reluctant, wanting her own space. To her outrage, Boyden moves her belongings to his house as a surprise. Boyden arranges for the council to paint a wall blank to set a trap for the graffitists, catching quite a few in the process. The defacement at the art college turns out to have been committed by the teacher who is jealous that one of his students is sleeping with his ex-girlfriend, life model Moira Sutherland.
Season 17 Episode 47
Temptation
PC Clarke has been working double shifts all week, and goes behind Sgt Ackland’s back to get some more overtime from Sgt Boyden as she is desperately in debt. PC Taviner promises her some time in the Area Car, much to PC Hollis’s annoyance. Taviner and Clarke interview Warren Debdale, a student who was brutally beaten, but he insists he didn’t know the perpetrators. His father suspects the boy’s friends are involved, but DC Glaze discovers the father is being blackmailed by a drug smuggling gang. Assigned to watch Warren in the hospital, an exhausted and miserable Clarke has a coffee with a nurse and is horrified to find Warren missing when she returns. With DI Cullen and CID holding back from raiding the gang in case they hurt the boy, Clarke spots Warren’s friend Karen on the estate and she admits he is staying at her flat. CID sweep in and arrest the gang, and Clarke is off the hook for the moment, although her flatmate threatens to throw her out unless she pays the rent she owes
Season 17 Episode 48
Envy
PC Clarke helps PC Taviner track down stolen diggers and crime families while moonlighting in telesales to pay off her debts.
Season 17 Episode 49
Greed
A distraught PC Clarke fails her probationer exams, and goes AWOL instead of returning to the station. A gang of thieves on rollerblades are rampant in Sun Hill, and their mobility makes it very difficult for the police to catch them. PC Taviner arrests a girl, Jackie Burns, at a skate park, but she insists she was just watching the skaters. As the skate gang gets more violent, animosity between PCs Worrell and Clarke also grows fiercer, and the two come to blows in the corridor. A tearful Clarke admits her debt problem to Taviner. Scrutinising CCTV footage reveals Jackie’s involvement with the gang: she phones them when a potential victim withdraws money from an ATM. Clarke returns home to find the bad news that her telesales commission has fallen through and her flatmate Caitlin wants her out.
Season 17 Episode 50
Redemption
PC Clarke unsuccessfully applies for a police loan. PC Taviner buys her a pushbike and suggests she sell her scooter, but she is far from impressed. PCs Carver and Rickman find a young boy, Gavin Billson, overdosed on drugs, and CID investigate some of the local dealers. When it turns out Gavin overdosed on diamorphine, and after several dead ends, suspicion falls on Dr Stuart Bremner, a doctor at St Hugh’s, who is also the boyfriend of Clarke’s friend Ruth. A review of the hospital’s CCTV footage reveals Ruth herself sneaking into a storeroom, and Clarke is forced to arrest her best friend.
Season 17 Episode 51
The Dark Side
PC Ben Hayward breaks down when telling primary school pupils about the death of his sister during an anti-drugs talk. Sgt. Gilmore is not happy, but the teacher thinks Hayward’s sensitivity will help the students get the message, and may also help them trust Hayward enough to report a bully. An old friend of his sister’s works at the school, and she asks him out, although when he meets her at a gallery opening, Hayward thinks her friends are dealing drugs. PC Klein and Hayward find the bully, who goes by the nickname “Red”, and has been using two fierce dogs to steal money and mobile phones from school children. They trace the dogs to the flat of drug-addicted prostitute Stacy Dodds, and a subsequent search of her flat uncovers a large stash of heroin. Stacy insists her pimp forced her to deal drugs and have sex with Red, and instead of having the dogs picked up, Hayward and Klein search the pimp’s boat, finding more heroin. The pair argue: Klein wants to set up an obbo to catch the pimp red-handed, Hayward insists on taking the drugs back to the station. Hayward drops one of the bags when he hears that Dodds’ elderly neighbours have been attacked by Red and the dogs.
Season 17 Episode 52
Angel Rooms
PCs Hayward and Klein arrange to get their stories straight over the missing bag of heroin. PC Clarke ends up sleeping with “Phil the Pill”, and is surprised when he turns up at Sun Hill the next day as DC Phil Raven from the Drug Squad. Raven and CID arrest Benji Pullinger for intent to supply, but inevitably the missing bag is mentioned in the interview. Station gossip starts to point towards Klein, and Hayward confesses to Sgt Gilmore what really happened. While out at a nightclub with his new girlfriend, Fiona, Hayward is sure he sees DC Raven selling drugs, and discovers that Raven and Fiona are previous acquaintances. With Klein’s help, Hayward tries to set up a sting to catch Raven – he offers to sell him the missing heroin. They meet in a car park, and Hayward (carrying a bag full of baking soda) is surprised when the tables are turned and Raven arrests him.
Season 17 Episode 53
Paint It Black
PC Klein’s doubts about an unstable PC Hayward seem to be justified when his friend puts his life in the hands of DC Raven: an undercover cop with unconventional methods.
Season 17 Episode 54
Eye of the Lens
Supt Chandler assigns DC Spears to a project involving CCTV cameras in the Sun Hill area. Much to Sgt Ackland’s annoyance, she takes PC Carver with her, and they have words. Spears tells Ackland to take it up with Chandler. But word is getting around that Spears gets special treatment from the boss. When a number of cameras are damaged, two youths who have threatened one of the operators, Pat Spencer, are suspected, but the culprit turns out to be Robert Slade, whom the youths call “weird”. Then Spears discovers Robert lives in community care and thinks the cameras are spying on him. Robert spends a lot of his time in an internet café and tells PC Hollis about his homepage, where Hollis sees a picture Robert has taken of a shopping centre security guard, Tony Malone. He is being given an envelope by known robber Roger Franklin, who has just finished doing time. DI Cullen assigns DS Singh and DC Spears to find out how all these disparate players are involved. Then Pat Spencer is attacked, her husband is seen talking to Tony Malone, and the police suspect something is about to go down. Why would her husband be talking to known robbers? Pulled in for questioning, Barry Spencer confesses that he exchanged information about the warehouse he works at, in return for having his wife’s attackers beaten up. Under pressure, he then reveals that Roger Franklin and his gang plan to rob the warehouse that night. Cullen heads the stakeout, but it goes awry when Robert Slade turns up in the middle of the robbery and is taken hostage. But they eventually trace his mobile and arrest Malone and Franklin. Chandler praises Spears in front of the whole relief, saying it was her project that helped to catch the villains in the act. But Barry Spencer brings her a video showing that his wife had been watching the youths on the CCTV for some time, and maybe it was being under constant surveillance that caused them to turn to crime. Spears is deflated, but Ackland tells her that it might have happened anyway!
Season 17 Episode 55
Another Country
While on foot patrol on the Jasmine Allen estate, PC Carver contends with an elderly man, Ronnie Atkins, who wants to deal with the local youths “his way”. When Atkins’s best friend, Len Harrap, is found having fallen from the top of the building, Carver suspects foul play and investigates further. Harrap’s GP tells him that Len was recently suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and that he had served with British forces during the Korean War. When a man matching the description of the association secretary, Charles Barratt, is reported to have left Len’s flat, Atkins realises what has happened. Barratt was a corporal in their platoon during the war, and had forced Len at gunpoint to murder surrendered Chinese soldiers. When Len’s daughter put his name up for the reunion, Barratt realised this was his chance to get rid of the photographic evidence of his war crime. Carver admits it will be difficult to get the CPS to prosecute Barratt, especially now the photographs are missing, but Atkins decides to speak up at the reunion in the hope that another witness can be found.
Season 17 Episode 56
Britanniamania: Going Underground
When an undercover officer from the Met’s Football Intelligence Unit (FIU) is found stabbed after a football game, Supt Chandler and Ch Insp Morys from FIU send a Sun Hill team to infiltrate Britannia, the hooligan gang responsible, and investigate their leader, a former police sergeant named Julian “The Nap” Napper. DC Webb goes undercover as builder Mickey Malone with support from DS McAllister as his girlfriend and DC Riley and PC Quinnan as his workmates. Webb successfully makes contact with gang member Gary Hughes, and meets Napper when the gang travel north for a game.
Season 17 Episode 57
Britanniamania: To Us and Ours
DC Mickey Webb is close to infiltrating the Britannia gang, despite the suspicions of some of its members: suspicions which fire up when DS McAllister, posing as his girlfriend, turns up to a gang meeting overdressed and wearing Givenchy perfume. Julian Napper smells a rat and follows McAllister as she desperately tries to find a hospital to keep her cover as a nurse intact. Napper catches up with her and accuses her of being an undercover reporter. With her cover blown, McAllister returns to Sun Hill. Supt Chandler blasts her for her stupidity, and forces her to take notes as they hear Webb taking a severe beating from Napper’s thugs over his mobile phone. As DCI Meadows races to save Webb, Napper stops the beating and welcomes “Mickey Malone” as a full-fledged member of Britannia
Season 17 Episode 58
Britanniamania: Kick Off
The England game is on, and Britannia is set for a battle with the “Dogs of War”, an opposing European gang of hooligans. DC Webb is assigned to find the location of the pre-match meeting, while DC Riley and PC Quinnan go undercover at the match itself. To Riley’s horror, Quinnan is arrested when he accuses a photographer of inciting violence. Webb, meanwhile, is on his own after a mix-up about the meeting location, and ends up in the thick of a pitched battle between the gangs. When the nearest riot unit is from Sun Hill, Webb’s cover is blown when he is recognised by some of his fellow officers.
Season 17 Episode 59
Britanniamania: Stand By Me
A series of dawn raids captures most of the Britannia gang, but Julian Napper and Gary Hughes are still at large. With Napper on the loose, Supt Chandler and DCI Meadows insist DC Webb go into hiding, but he refuses to be intimidated, even when DC Lennox’s wife’s car goes up in flames. Webb convinces Gary Hughes to tell him where “The Nap” is, but Napper still manages to stay one step ahead of the police every time. Chandler and Ch Insp Morys begin to suspect that Webb is the one informing Napper of their movements, but DC Riley and PC Quinnan’s investigations turn up the FIU’s DS John Curtis as Napper’s brother-in-law and the informant. Webb races to Napper’s hideout, but is too late to save Hughes from being stabbed by Napper.
Season 17 Episode 60
Beech on the Run
Don Beech turns up in Sydney, Australia, and almost immediately hooks up with Frankie Nguyen, a Vietnamese-Australian woman with contacts in Sydney’s criminal underworld. Together, she and Beech engage in a ruthless crime spree and are soon wanted by the New South Wales Police, the Australian Federal Police, a rival Vietnamese gang and a ruthless and determined DI Claire Stanton, who has arrived to arrest Beech and extradite him to Britain for the murder of DS Boulton six months earlier. The chase comes to a head at a Sydney dock, and as Beech tries to make a getaway in his new boat, Stanton fires a shotgun after him, blowing up the boat and leaving Beech missing, presumed dead.
Season 17 Episode 61
On a Clear Day
PC Rickman’s loyalties are divided when she’s faced with the return of her ex-lover.
Season 17 Episode 62
Come Live With Me
PC Rickman’s lover Leroy Jones asks her to move to South Africa with him. As PC Harker becomes involved in the NCS investigation, he warns Rickman about Leroy’s suspected connection with heroin smuggling and a triple-homicide, but she doesn’t believe him until she confronts Leroy. With the help of Nina, a woman he met in the hotel lobby, Harker keeps tabs on Leroy’s movements until the NCS and CID make their move and raid a nightclub owned by one of Leroy’s associates, Jan Resenbrink. A search of the furniture by Customs reveals no drugs as suspected, so Leroy is released. As he angrily heads off to the airport, leaving behind a distraught Cass Rickman, his fingerprints are found on a gun used to murder an undercover NCS officer.
Season 17 Episode 63
In Another Life
PC Harker tells DI Cullen that he knows Leroy Jones didn’t kill DS Hanbury, but they still use the charge as leverage to convince Leroy to help them catch Jan Resenbrink, the drugs importer. PC Rickman attends a possibly racially-motivated attack on Didi Marr, the boy who was found with heroin on the Bronte Estate. His attacker is Nicky Gable, and the racism element of the case becomes unlikely when it is revealed that Gable is in mourning for his mixed-race brother. Harker arranges with Leroy to escape, and offers to clear him of the murder charge on the condition that he end his relationship with Rickman. With Leroy’s help, Cullen and Pennington arrest Resenbrink, but he is freed on bail. When Resenbrink arrives at Sun Hill to sign his bail, Gable appears and guns him down in the car park. Gable says he killed Resenbrink because Leroy Jones told him that Resenbrink had his brother killed. Leroy is arrested again, and Rickman visits him and tells him it’s over between them for good.
Season 17 Episode 64
Crush
A gang of masked girls armed with baseball bats run riot at a wedding, but escape with the presents before PCs Taviner and Hollis can catch them. The gang have been causing headaches for Sun Hill for weeks, and although she is not involved in the case, Supt Chandler sends DC Spears to visit the local schools, ostensibly to encourage students to join the Met’s Volunteer Cadet Corps, but secretly to obtain information on the gang and its members. The gang’s violence intensifies and the bride’s sister, Debbie Pike, is found badly beaten after an altercation with a mother and her baby on the high street. As rumours about her and Chandler fly around the station, Spears pushes an eager schoolboy informant too far, and he too is found bashed. When he regains consciousness, he tells Spears that Debbie is a gang member. Debbie admits she arranged for the gang to attack the wedding as she was in love with the groom, and Spears finds herself in grave danger when she confronts the gang on her own, but is rescued in the nick of time when the police raid the youth club.
Season 17 Episode 65
Liquid City
While at a police function on the Thames with Supt Chandler and DC Spears, DI Cullen spots a man climbing through the window of a riverside house. Cullen calls Sun Hill, but the rather inept team of Hollis and Taviner fails to capture the intruder. Embarrassed by the spectacle, Chandler assigns Spears to work on Sun Hill’s burglary statistics, and she finds a link between a number of other break-ins. Chandler is furious when Cullen hires a criminal profiler, Roy Stenning, but his information gets CID close to a likely suspect. Rumours about the relationship between Spears and Chandler are rife throughout the station, and Spears is not popular with her colleagues, who accuse her of sleeping her way to the top. When PC Hollis is caught by Chandler for unauthorised use of the PNC, PC Taviner threatens to reveal a secret from their past at Hendon, but finds his own use of the PNC under scrutiny. Chandler and Spears meet for dinner, but Chandler is hesitant to move too fast. The intruder strikes again, this time setting a house alight, killing two children. With only DC Webb willing to help her, Spears tracks down the drifter responsible, Charlie McGann, whose family was killed in a fire in Glasgow, and who wrecks or torches houses out of jealousy.
Season 17 Episode 66
A Pound of Flesh
Sgt Boyden finds himself paying crooks in order to clear his daughter’s debts.
Season 17 Episode 67
Home Run
Sgt Boyden puts his job and his love life on the line when his daughter disappears.
Season 17 Episode 68
Debt of Love
Amy’s money worries are still causing concern for Sgt Boyden and her debts put them both in danger after he tries to rescue her from the drug dealers who’ve kidnapped her and he’s not the only one who’s worried, as PCs Stamp and Page unwittingly become embroiled in her problems.
Season 17 Episode 69
Blood and Money
Sgt Boyden cracks down on an illegal bare-knuckle fight, and has problems at home with PC Vicky Hagen and his estranged daughter, Amy.
Season 17 Episode 70
Hidden Agendas
As they enter Sun Hill, PC Hagen suggests to Sgt Boyden that a short holiday might save their rocky relationship but he is adamant that it’s over. Later, they are both part of a team watching the home of the Padfield brothers who are suspected transvestite bashers. The police move in and as Boyden restrains one of the brothers he begins to caution him but does not complete it. Back at Sun Hill, PC Page finds Hagen crying in the locker room. She reveals that despite sleeping with Boyden last night their relationship now appears doomed. Page suggests she moves out for a while. When a witness to one of the assaults identifies the Padfields, CID are confident of getting a result. However, Padfield complains that he wasn’t formally cautioned. Despite Boyden’s insistence that he was, DCI Meadows demands confirmation from his nearest colleague at the raid. Horrified, Boyden realises it was Hagen. Despite the urgings of Boyden, Meadows and Ch Insp Conway, Hagen refuses to vouch for Boyden. When a barman at the All In Bar is poisoned, the owner recognises one of the perpetrators as a cross-dresser. Meadows and DS McAllister threaten to reveal his secret to his wife and the “concerned parent” group he belongs to, he confesses, and also implicates Padfield. Hagen makes a last ditch effort to salvage their relationship, but Boyden throws her out of his flat.
Season 17 Episode 71
Lifelines
In the station locker room, PC Clarke tells PC Rickman that she’s got tickets for a hot club. As they laugh, PC Hagen enters and the room goes silent. Hagen demands to know what they are saying about her and Sgt Boyden. She haughtily boasts that she might try Supt Chandler next time. Hagen joins PC Stamp in the area car but is unimpressed by his lack of speed. They attend the mugging of a pensioner Archie Dodds who has had his wallet taken by a young kid. When the mugger is spotted assaulting another pensioner, Stamp and Hagen set off in pursuit. However he escapes when Stamp stops to help the victim. Hagen sarcastically dubs him “Florence Nightingale”. That evening Hagen turns up, uninvited, at the girls’ night out and quickly picks up Rob Tucker, but her amorous advances have catastrophic consequences.
Season 17 Episode 72
Sacrifice
As the dead body of her one-night-stand, Rob Tucker, is carried out of PC Page’s flat, PC Hagen is taken into Sun Hill by CID for a taped interview. She is cleared of any involvement, as Rob’s death was clearly a suicide, but she is determined to find out what drove Rob to kill himself. Off-duty, Hagen does some investigating, and discovers his real name, Rob Seaton, and that he had recently served a prison term for rape. PC Carver arrests the violent husband of Yvonne Worth when he attacks a police officer, and when Seaton’s mother sees Yvonne at the station, she recognises her as the woman who accused her son of rape. As Hagen and DC Glaze put the pieces together, and Yvonne finally confides in her, Hagen is the subject of a cruel prank. PC Taviner steals the tape of her interview, and plays the intimate details over the station’s PA system. Supt Chandler and the visiting Borough Commander are furious. While out in the area car with Taviner, Hagen drives off when Taviner refuses to deal with a possible domestic assault at the Worth’s house, but she finds that Yvonne has killed her husband. Back at the station, Hagen patches things up with Sgt Boyden, and then requests a transfer out of the Met and into one of the county forces
Season 17 Episode 73
White Cliffs of Dover
DCI Meadows is approached by a German lawyer, Eva Melchor, with an interesting proposal from her client, a notorious armed robber named Paul Kerrigan, now living overseas. Kerrigan’s sister Rene is dying, and provided he is allowed to see her for the last time, he will not only turn himself in to Meadows, he will also identify the M25 gang, a vicious gang of armed robbers who have been terrorising London. True to his word, Kerrigan shops Kevin Lee, the gang’s armourer, and a police search reveals a cache of weapons in Lee’s pet shop. With MIT and OCG eagerly awaiting Kerrigan’s information, Meadows places Kerrigan in a safe house. When a series of car bombs distracts PCs Carver and Worrell, Kerrigan escapes. Meadows works out that his sister’s illness was a convenience, as Kerrigan was on the run from the Russian mafia and needed to enter Britain to pick up money and a new passport. Kerrigan turns up dead in a car boot, and Meadows realises Melchor is more involved than she is letting on, but as they intercept her at the Dover ferry terminal, she is shot dead in front of them.
Season 17 Episode 74
The Value of Nothing
DC Lennox is on a week’s secondment to Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiques Squad. Investigating a young woman, Tessa Gannon, who tried to sell a forged painting to a gallery, Lennox finds a receipt from a gallery owned by an art dealer named Ivor Gregory, who has form for deception. Lennox befriends an artist named Richard Townes, who charges into Gregory’s gallery as Lennox peruses the paintings. In the hope of getting a closer look at one of the paintings, Lennox arranges for his wife Shona to buy one of them. He gets it verified, and is disappointed when it is an original. Shona insists on keeping it, but sends it back to the gallery to be re-framed. When the painting is returned, Lennox realises Gregory has swapped it for a fake, and it’s the work of Richard Townes, but to his horror, Shona returns the painting to Gregory before the squad can arrest him. Tessa Gannon admits she had a painting copied by Townes, but she too is in possession of a fake. Gregory is arrested, and Lennox appeals to Townes’s ego to convince him to testify
Season 17 Episode 75
Money Man
DC Glaze goes undercover at a top-security prison in order to befriend a convicted bank robber, hoping to find the whereabouts of the money. He wins the trust of his target, but gets caught up in an escape bid which rapidly degenerates into a tense hostage situation.
Season 17 Episode 76
Beyond the Call
DC Spears goes under cover as a temp in an attempt to entrap the drugs baron suspected of the murder of DS McAllister’s lover.
Season 17 Episode 77
Night Games
Sun Hill is eagerly preparing for the final of the “Ask A Policeman” quiz, but when Sgt Ackland lets them down at the last minute, Insp Monroe replaces her with the unpopular DC Spears. Meanwhile, Liz Rawton, now an Acting DI with the OCG, arrives at the station. She is heading up an operation which is trying to catch a dangerous rapist, most of whose victims have been prostitutes. She plans to be based at Sun Hill. The quiz is in full flow with Tony Blackburn at the helm but Sun Hill is losing until Spears saves the day and they win a weekend away. Only Monroe congratulates her. The next day Spears asks to be part of Rawton’s team but her request is denied and she is forced to join the others at a grand hotel where they are greeted by hotel reps Tommy and Fay. Later, both PCs Rickman and Clarke take a shine to local DS Pete Cork but he only has eyes for a certain DC. By bribing Tommy, Cork ensures that his blind date for the salsa evening is Spears.
Season 17 Episode 78
Aftershock
A traumatized DC Spears attempts to escape the horrific events of the weekend but her efforts are hindered by the surprise re-appearance of her tormentor. Once she is sure that would-be rapist DS Cork has gone, Spears hesitantly emerges from her hotel bathroom. Spotting her dishevelled appearance she tidies up herself and the room. Downstairs Cork arrives and asks hotel rep Fay to dance. They are watched by a jealous Tommy who tells PC Klein that Fay has dumped him. At breakfast the next morning, Insp Monroe notices uniformed police arrive at the hotel. He introduces himself to DS Greg Georgiou. As the others speculate, he returns to tell them that Fay has been found dead and Tommy is missing. Horrified, Spears runs to the toilet and is sick. After being questioned by the local police the team return to Sun Hill. Spears’s relief at being seconded to work with Acting DI Rawton on the serial rapist case soon turns to despair when she is introduced to case profiler DS Cork.
Season 17 Episode 79
Compulsion
Acting DI Rawton addresses her team and puts forward the theory that rape victim Terri’s death was not suicide but murder. Whilst DSs Cork and Singh voice doubts, Spears supports Rawton. Afterwards, when Cork tries to talk to DC Spears, she accuses him of nearly raping her but he scoffs that no-one would ever believe her. Spears returns to the riverside where Terri’s body was found and makes a major break-through when a passer-by, Mr Bindman, reveals that his wife saw Terri’s body being dumped. He promises to get his wife to call her. Later, Spears decides to keep an eye on Cork and follows him to a pub where he meets up with an old mate, DI Collins. Spears remains outside whilst inside Collins and Cork talk cryptically about the case. On her return, Spears spots a man lurking outside her flat and blasts him with CS Spray. He turns out to be her friend Eddie who works for the Thames Valley police. Her feminine charms persuade him to get information on Cork. Unfortunately, Spears is a voice in the wilderness when Cork manages to put the frighteners on the Bindmans and Eddie disappears.
Season 17 Episode 80
Shout
Acting DI Rawton and DS Cork are visiting the scene of the latest attack. Cork is doubtful that the perpetrator is the same as the one they are looking for, as there is no bag over the victim’s head and her hands haven’t been tied. Meanwhile DC Spears is fruitlessly searching for her missing friend Eddie. She fears for his safety when Cork hands in Eddie’s phone, claiming to have found it. As DS Singh propounds to Cork and Rawton that their prey might be getting bolder, Rawton opens a package containing torn knickers and a rose petal. Horrified, she explains she received the same from an old boyfriend a couple of years ago who later committed suicide. Cork is aware of this and suggests the rapist is baiting them. He proposes they set a trap. Spears volunteers along with PCs Clarke and Page to pose as prostitutes in a local park hoping to attract the rapist. However, it is Spears who is dangerously exposed when Cork, who is supposed to be guarding her, is nowhere to be seen.
Season 17 Episode 81
Judas Kiss
DC Spears resolves to watch DS Cork every step of the way after he breaks into her room. Hotel rep Tommy Lawson threatens to blackmail PC Klein unless he provides an alibi.
Season 17 Episode 82
Slash and Burn
Terrified, DC Spears hides as Ferdinand crouches over DS Cork’s motionless body and removes his car keys. When Spears calls on her mobile for back-up, Ferdinand hears and starts to approach her. Suddenly PCs Rickman and Taviner appear and Ferdinand makes a run for it, escaping in Cork’s car. Barely alive, Cork is rushed to hospital. Acting DI Rawton invites a traumatised Spears to stay at her place. That night she is awoken by the sound of DI Collins attacking Rawton. Overpowered, he is brought to Sun Hill where he refuses to talk. Ferdinand proves evasive despite evidence that he has been in Spears’s flat the night before. His house is located and when searched a bag is found containing money and Ferdinand’s passport but Rawton believes it is a decoy. In the garden Spears finds a box in the pond as Rawton takes a call telling her that Cork has died. In the box they find cash, drugs, diamonds and a passport with a false name. Knowing this is the real running-away kit, Rawton lays in wait for her prey.
Season 17 Episode 83
For Better, for Worse
PC Page investigates the mysterious disappearance of a woman who turns out to be the bigamous wife of two violent ex-convicts.
Season 17 Episode 84
Special Attention
PCs Taviner and Hollis are ‘volunteered’ to look after new recruit, Special Constable Terry Knowles. Taviner is unimpressed and tells Knowles to do only as he’s told. Meanwhile, DS Singh and DC Riley are visiting the Mahmoods whose house has been vandalised. Mrs Mahmood and Rikki claim their neighbours, the Halston family, are racists and imply they caused the damage particularly as Janice Halston worked for them at their launderette until recently when she was sacked for stealing. CID visit Janice who says she can hardly be racist when her baby is the son of her black lover and denies any responsibility. Out on the beat Knowles is desperate to prove himself and wants to attend when he hears that the Mahmoods’ launderette has been smashed up but Taviner tells him to wait. Later, Taviner insists they ignore another call requesting further help for the Mahmoods. Back at the station Sgt Gilmore warns Knowles that he only needs to impress the sergeants, not his colleagues, and he cautions Taviner to refrain from corrupting Knowles
Season 17 Episode 85
Lure of the Sirens
An angry PC Taviner, who is the Area Car Driver, has been allocated to CAD duty by Sgt Gilmore, who is determined to rein in the maverick copper. Taviner responds by going home sick. As they leave the station, PC Stamp is amused by Taviner’s predicament but Terry Knowles is sympathetic. The team are called to a domestic disturbance. John Peters is trying to get into his estranged wife’s house. He wants to take his sons to a football match but his wife won’t allow it. Knowles makes his feelings clear about absent fathers but PC Hollis reprimands him. Mr Peters leaves sadly with Stamp sympathising with his plight while Knowles is dismissive. Back in the car they receive a call to attend to youths damaging cars. At the scene Knowles and Hollis recognise Josh, a young lad who is infatuated with Taviner. He denies doing the damage and gives a description of two boys. Josh asks after his hero but on learning that Taviner has gone home sick, Stamp is scornful but Knowles retaliates. The situation hots up when Stamp criticises Knowles as a part-timer, forcing Hollis to intervene before events turn nasty.
Season 17 Episode 86
The Risk Factor
PCs Carver and Taviner are following PC Page and Special Constable Terry Knowles into a flat where they find terrified tenant Billy Martin. Outside they chase two masked men but lose them. As they return, Taviner is water-bombed by kids, much to his colleagues’ amusement. Later, Page and Knowles spot a man hanging around a local school. Knowles gives chase but loses him. Using the computer, Page identifies him as Dave Scoby, a registered sex offender. Knowles notices his address and is concerned as he lives near his sister and her daughters. Page makes it clear that no matter what his concerns are he is not allowed to tell them. Knowles struggles to keep this information to himself but unwisely confides in his friend Taviner. However, when Knowles’s sister does find out, the finger of suspicion points firmly at her brother as the leak.