Provided you can work with the concept of Last of the Summer Wine coppers, this long-running crime drama series keeps up a good standard. Now back for a fifth series, don't expect too many surprises as the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS) return, led by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman (Amanda Redman, pictured). Reporting for duty again are (from left) retired detectives Jack Halford (James Bolam), Brian Lane (Alun Armstrong) and Gary Standing (Dennis Waterman), ready to reinvestigate murders and cold cases that the Met has previously been unable to solve.
Tonight's opener focuses on Ricky Hanson (David Troughton), a shady thug who's standing trial for the attempted murder of Halford. While trying to seek justice for Halford and his late wife Mary, the team try to conceal the truth about events that led to Hanson's attempt on Jack's life. And that's their undoing, as Ian Figgis - Hanson's sharp lawyer - attempts to discredit the team in court. He does a good job, too, so much so that Pullman has to work overtime, trying to keep a lid on things.
Simultaneously another UCOS case comes out of the blue. Sam Tallis, an old friend of Hanson's, suggests that the team reinvestigates the murder of a wealthy businessman Ralph Wheeler, who left a £3m fortune to a former prostitute Carrie Sopher. Tallis, a court clerk, had helped Carrie secure her inheritance when Wheeler's brother contested the will, but he now has reason to question her original claims. The episode takes the team into the seemingly murky world of donor body parts, and gives more detail on the troubled private lives of Halford, Lane and Standing.
Hardly earth-shattering stuff, it's unlikely to gain the show vast legions of new fans. But like Last of the Summer Wine, it's a reasonable vintage that's fermented nicely.
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