Season 15

Deakin's surveillance on convicted kidnapper Frank Tully's release from custody is immediately blown out when Tully spots them, revealing his already released partner in crime told him he was also under surveillance. Deakin then confronts his partner, Richard Hackett, demanding information on a missing ransom payment from a kidnapping 8 years earlier. Deakin sends Holmes undercover as Hackett's girlfriend, but when they set up an observation, Tully pulls a gun on Hackett and Holmes after discovering there is no money in their safety deposit box. Tully is arrested when Hackett reveals the gun is empty, and suspicion turns to bank manager Roger Carlson, who decided to go on holiday the day of the raid. However, when all he is found with is a small bag of heroin in customs, they discover he may have been framed for someone else to steal the money without Hackett or Tully's knowledge.

Boyden recruits an SO10 officer to go undercover in order to expose an illegal poker ring running out of a local Turkish café. However, when they raid fails, the officer goes missing. As Meadows takes over the investigation, he identifies a Turkish national he failed to arrest during his days at AMIP, and discovers he has been flagged by the Drugs Squad for an importation operation. However, Meadows leads a raid on a warehouse and blows the Drugs Squad's surveillance operation. Joining forces, they discover a scam in which a deliberate crash was caused in Germany so an apparent good samaritan could have "a mate fix the car" in order to hide drugs in the chassis and smuggle it into the UK undetected. Realising the scam has been rumbled by the SO10 officer, the team fight to track him down before he's silenced.

Daly and Rawton are seconded to a women's prison run by a friend of Brownlow's after an inmate is savagely assaulted, and things soon escalate when doctors reveal she isn't expected to survive the attack. Suspecting a drugs smuggling operation inside the prison is at the centre of it all, Holmes is sent undercover to get on side with the prime suspects, Rita Davis and Jo Merton. Holmes uncovers a scam by Davis to steal phone cards from inmates to sell them back. Holmes identifies a prison officer she thinks might be responsible, but further investigation reveals she has been blackmailed by Davis to smuggle phone cards in. Holmes has Davis transferred to another wing, allowing her to get initiated with Merton, who brings her onboard with the drugs scam. As she prepares CID for a raid to catch the next shipment, she identifies the real prison officer involved, who is immediately suspicious of Holmes getting initiated so quickly. Will she be exposed before her colleagues can intervene?

Meadows is furious when a joint operation with Area Drugs to arrest local dealer Danny Rickman is blown out. Stamp and Quinnan attend a library where the attendant has discovered an emailed suicide note. When the IP address identifies the informant for the failed drugs raid, Meadows investigates it as a potential murder. The man's wife is quick to mention his terminal cancer diagnosis, but his daughter claims her step-mother was talking to him about euthenasia. Daly is suspicious when he spots Beech with Rickman, but while Beech and Meadows explain it was an authorised visit, Daly can't shake his suspicions that his colleague is up to no good. As Daly pursues Beech to a meet with Rickman, his cover is blown, and despite Beech revealing Rickman's driver is having an affair with the informant's wife, they end up coming to blows and Daly ends up in a riverside accident. As Daly tries to prove Beech is corrupt, his nemesis tries to track down the informant's true killer.

Garfield and Hagen volunteer to protect a jockey due to give evidence against a crooked bookmaker. On offer is a weekend away at the races and a stay in a posh country hotel. While Garfield decides to eye up some of the local totty, Hagen finds herself as the unwilling victim of the jockey's romantic attentions. During the race, the rank outsider manages to come from the back and secure victory, much to Garfield's delight as it nets him £400. However, Hagen is suspicious, and that night at the hotel, she finds the jockey in the company of the man he is trying to prosecute, with a large amount of money changing hands. While Garfield seduces a friend of the local trainer, Hagen confronts the jockey.

Boyden, Ashton and Santini head out for a night in a club, and Boyden bets his PCs that he can pull any girl in the club. Approaching an attractive young blonde, he ends up taking her home. The following morning, Boyden attends an assault on the girl's stepfather and discovers she is only 15. The case soon escalates when the girl's younger sister claims she has been abused by her stepfather's friend, and when Boyden's conquest runs away, she tracks him down and demands he provide her an alibi for the assault. When Boyden refuses, the girl is arrested for trashing a pub, and uses the interview to mention her night of illegal passion with the Sun Hill lothario. As CIB interview Boyden, Hagen is tasked with taking the girl to a children's home, but she cons her way out of the car and runs off. An off-duty Boyden then goes after the girl, but is unprepared for a discovery during his search.

Meadows recruits Quinnan and Rawton to receive a notorious sex offender, Ray Ballantyne, from another division. However, the DCI's hopes of keeping the Ballantyne's identity a secret are quickly blown by a press leak. As a protest takes place outside the safehouse, Hagen receives a call in CAD that a local boy, Andy Donnelly, has gone missing. TSG are drafted in to take Ballantyne out of the house and back to Sun Hill, as the protest escalates into a low-scale riot. Meanwhile, Page and McCann interview Donelly's friend, he gives a vague description of a man seen with the missing boy that matches Ballantyne. As the protest shifts to Sun Hill, Ballantyne is interviewed about his involvement, and he confesses to seeing Donnelly and comforting him. As the boy is tracked down after hiding in an abandoned train, he makes a shock confession about his home life. Back at the station, as Rawton struggles to find a hostel for Ballantyne, a dramatic twist brings a final resolution to the case.

Garfield assists the River Police when a decapitated body is pulled out of the Thames. As he clears the scene, he recognises a member of the local press as a journalist he worked with on a recent case (Deep Secret S14), Carrie Winkler. While he doesn't divulge info on the body, Winkler shows him a suspicious camera in her paper's archive block. When Garfield declines to remove the camera, Winkler does, leaving a furious DC with the National Crime Squad confronting Deakin about an intricate surveillance operation to catch a notorious armed robber meeting with his banker to access £15 million of unrecovered cash from a series of robberies. Garfield is surprised when he identifies the body of the man through a pacemaker found post-mortem, but his next of kin are left delighted by the news, as the man was an abusive drunk. When Winkler resumes the NCS surveillance without permission, she reveals the robber's money man is registered to Garfield's body.

Burnside is seconded to Sun Hill to catch a pair of serial rapists operating in the area. As Burnside tracks down a known sex offender, he grills him for his whereabouts, but a call soon comes in that there has been another attack. Consulting the victim, who got a good view of the suspect, Burnside leads to an undercover team to a restaurant and the victim identifies a waiter. As the man continues to shut down questions in interview, Rawton consults the man's parents, and they identify a work colleague who they feel is a bad influence on their son. Discovering the man's car matches the description identified by a victim, a claim is made that blows the case wide open. When the pair are bailed they slip surveillance, and one of them is found seriously assaulted. This episode was broadcast out of production order - using the newer closing titles and fonts not officially introduced until later in the series

Deakin is approached by a station cleaner who claims to have found £5000 in used notes under Proctor's desk. Proctor refutes knowledge of it, but timing couldn't be worse, as he is due to testify in a court case later in the day. The case is run by Meadows, but first their witness is subject to intimidation, then Meadows is stunned by late evidence of a bank account in his name containing £86,000 in laundered cash. Knowing another CIB enquiry could be detrimental to his career, bringing back memories of his demotion 7 years earlier, he enlists the help of his department to blow open the allegations and save his career. When a link is made to their prime witness, they enlist her help to identify the man at the centre of the conspiracy to frame Meadows and get the suspect cleared of charges.

Boulton and Rawton attend the scene of a house fire, and not only does the chief identify the building as a brothel, he points at evidence that the girls were held hostage by the building owner. Hollis and Page attend when a girl is apprehended by shop security for stealing a jacket, and she admits to being a Turkish refugee who has been held against her will to work in the brothel. However, when Boulton identifies needle marks on her arms, he plays the brute to identify a friend of the girl's Maya, who he suspects started the fire to rescue the girls. Identifying a yellow sports car with black writing at the scene, suspected of being Maya's getaway car, and he soon calls around local brothels to identify a rival pimp who took Maya in. He identifies a pair of Turkish brothers, and when Rawton visits a potential witness, she finds herself in unexpected danger.

Skase and Lennox enlist the help of Burnside as they investigate a series of robberies at local business conventions. Burnside is reluctant to admit why but he identifies their suspect through a tattoo described by a victim of theft, a former prostitute using the alias Victoria Smith. He later admits to Holmes she tied him up and left him in nothing but a raincoat while she robbed him during an undercover op when Burnside was a newly-promoted DC. Lennox and Skase go undercover at the latest convention, and while Skase pulls, he is forced to abandon his attractive companion at the revelation she is an innocent who was actually attracted to him. Lennox has better luck, but when he and his companion go back to the hotel room, she drugs him and steals his laptop. When the woman is found in hospital, having been attacked by one of her victims, Burnside launches a raid to arrest her and Smith.

DS John Boulton is determined to catch a pair of brutal thieves, and he is certain that local crook Mick Glover is one of them. Ignoring protests from Uniform, who already have Glover under surveillance, Boulton leads a disasterous raid on Glover's flat, which puts PCs Quinnan and Garfield's informant Janie in grave danger. When Quinnan and Garfield find Janie's flat on the Jasmine Allen estate vandalised, Quinnan pursues the suspects, but finds himself seperated from Garfield, who can only watch in horror as his friend is beaten and stabbed by a gang of youths.

With PC Quinnan in a critical condition in St Hugh's Hospital, the police descend on the Jasmine Allen estate, determined to catch those responsible. PC Garfield manages to identify most of the gang, and a young boy, Kevin White, bought in for questioning names them as the 'Sun Hill Massive'. Garfield and DS Boulton come to blows when Boulton denies any responsiblity for the attack on Quinnan. Acting on a tip-off, the police raid Mick Glover's flat again, finding he is responsible for the burgleries, and that his son Ben and Kevin White were the ones who stabbed Quinnan.

Tension between DS Boulton and PC Garfield over Dave Quinnan's stabbing reaches boiling point on an obbo with PC Hollis. Garfield explodes when pushed too far, and he headbutts Boulton, nearly breaking his nose. It's up to Reg to step in and help Garfield come to terms with his feelings of helplessness over the incident. PC Dave Quinnan, still at St Hugh's, resolves to help Juke, a fellow patient who claims the police have done nothing to find the person who stabbed him, although he soon comes to realise that Juke's wounds are self-inflicted.

Hagen and Santini find a shaken woman her home after an abandoned 999 call. Holmes spearheads the investigation when the victim reports a violent prowler tormented her about committing rape before fleeing without touching her, leaving Holmes at loggerheads with Carver when she reopens a prowler case investigated two years earlier, with Holmes suspecting their suspect is getting bolder. Meanwhile, Conway is preparing for a radio talk show Q&A, but when Holmes requests he make an appeal about the prowler attack, Conway is stunned by a call from a man who identifies himself as the suspect. As Deakin, Holmes and Carver hunt for their suspect, a victim comes forward and joins Conway on air. As she talks to her tormentor, Conway tries to rile the man, causing the victim to storm out.

Burnside's failure to inform Sun Hill of a Crime OCCU stakeout on a local museum leads to Page and Harker blowing their cover. The group arrest three of the four robbers, but one is admitted to hospital for trying to swallow stolen gemstones. Meanwhile, Meadows sends Boulton on the trail of stolen war medals, but the robbery at the museum puts Boulton back on the trail of known villain, Atul Roy, who he hunted for a kidnapping two years earlier (Shades of Gray S13). To spite Boulton and Burnside, Roy's brother Amit leads a second raid on the museum. Forced to admit he has been running a 15-year-old informant, the boy tells them where to find the ringleader for the raid. As Amit is arrested in possession with the museum artifacts, Henderson tells them their informant has gone missing, forcing them to cut a deal for the boy's safety.

Conway is furious when Meadows asks him to cover for Brownlow due to a bout of flu. Determined to make it to Stamford Bridge for a game between Chelsea and West Ham, he is fuming when he is called in to take a sample for a rape case. To make matters worse, the victim drops the allegation before he arrives. Meanwhile, Hagen and Santini arrest a drunk driver for assaulting Hagen during a pursuit. As they prepare to bail him, Lennox recognises him as a suspect for a series of armed robberies. Conway tries to get on the case but Lennox calls in Meadows, who turns up sick but determined to sit in on the interview. Cryer and Harker investigate claims that an ex-con has been kidnapped by a retired Chief Superintendent, an old friend of Conway's. Enlisting Conway's help, Cryer confronts the ex-cop to get to the truth of the matter. With something clearly missing, it's the retired officer's daughter who supplies the link between Meadows and Conway's cases.

Ashton intervenes as a pair of masked men try to set fire to a house. Burnside is seconded from Crime OCCU to investigate, due to another arson with the same MO occurring on Stafford Row's patch. Meanwhile, Holmes is approached by a witness in the case of a vicious stabbing attack who has suddenly decided not to testify. It is soon revealed that the attempted arson attack victim is the brother in law of the witness, and that the other witness is the boyfriend of the woman hospitalised in the Stafford Row. With two out of three witnesses attacked, it's not long before Holmes is assaulted in a pub car park after a night out. An informant of Holmes reveals that stabbing suspect's brother, Kevin Butcher, has sparked a dealing war on the local estate, and Meadows is livid as uniform become subject to a series of attacks by Butcher's gang.

Brownlow has agreed for a fly-on-the-wall documentary crew to film in the station. Boulton and Carver soon become the subject of their attentions, as they film a raid on a drug dealer that Boulton has been eyeing up for some time. Meanwhile, Boyden and Worrell investigate when a prostitute is attacked and her hair is cut off. When Boulton's raid goes pear-shaped, he stops his prime target just as he is about to reach for gun. The prostitute that Boyden and Worrell have been helping surfaces in the back room, and manages to escape, taking the prime target's gun with her. The film crew then accuse Boulton of attacking a suspect for no reason when the director says that she didn't see a gun.

Quinnan returns to work after his stabbing. Questions are raised about his capabilities, and when he manhandles a suspect, Stamp thinks he's losing it. However he goes from overboard to lax when he attends a death notice, opting against returning to duty by talking to the man whose wife has been killed. Realising the man is a former soldier who is being bullied by his upstairs neighbour, Quinnan bottles a noise complaint call, and the neighbour is later found beaten and sprayed with CS gas. Hollis clashes with Garfield over his handling of Quinnan's attack, and out of spite, Hollis mentions Quinnan disappearing on shift to Brownlow. As the relief try to track Quinnan down, he shows up at Sun Hill, and while they try to clear his name with the assault victim, Boyden gives Quinnan a chance to prove himself to the relief once and for all.

While PC Page is assisting Ruth Watts in filing assault charges against her husband, Ken Watts, Luke Ashton is having romantic problems with the woman's daughter, 16 year-old Abby Watts. When she finally corners PC Ashton, she tells him that she's pregnant and that he's the father. Luke, unwilling to accept this claiming 'I used protection', wants nothing more to do with the girl, this causing her to make a complete mess of giving evidence in her mother's case against her stepfather. While the relief continue to take the mick from Luke regarding his impending 'fatherhood', Polly and Sgt. Cryer take opposing views regarding the course of action that should be taken. It is only after a failed suicide-attempt, that Polly manages to get the truth out of the young girl: She was raped by her stepfather, and since he didn't use protection, the baby is down to him. This leaves Polly at the hospital taking details, a furious Sgt. Cryer and a relieved, but still slightly concerned Luke Ashton. [

Lennox and Rawton go to Salisbury to bring in a con-man, George Riordian, for questioning, but he proves to be a slippery customer when he first gives them the slip at a service station, and then later on absconds altogether when the car they are travelling in breaks down and Lennox has to pull over to repair it. The pair manage to find a missing £50,000 which Riordian supposedly stole from one of his victims, Stella Kauffman, but then Riordian appears at the station the following day to hand himself in. When Kauffman then announces she is withdrawing the charges against Riordian, Lennox realises that the whole incident has been a con from the start and that he and Rawton have been had. This episode was broadcast out of production order - using the older closing titles and fonts last used earlier in the series

Proctor and Lennox find themselves at the cutting edge of forensic science when they try to solve a burglary case, where the burglar has left an 'earprint' at the scene. Meanwhile, Proctor receives a call from a woman who reports to have information about a serious crime. She reports that she was witness to an assault that Carver and Skase have been investigating, where they are unable to prove their prime suspect is responsible. Proctor tries to convince her to testify, but she does a disappearing act. Proctor then discovers she is having an affair, which is making her scared to testify. When her boyfriend is found beaten up, Proctor heads straight for his prime suspect and discovers the weapon used. This episode was broadcast out of production order - using the older closing titles and fonts last used earlier in the series

Monroe notifies uniform of a private investigation group conducting surveillance on local criminal family, the Drakes, who have already received a flurry of complaints from their new neighbours. Harker deals with their direct neighbour when he reports he has been victimised and subject to a robbery of his bank card. Harker ends at odds with Beech when the rogue DS manipulates Harker's words to launch a drugs raid on the home, and winds the PC up further by spreading a rumour that he and Holmes are an item. With the drugs raid failing, Harker employs the father to give up his oldest son Eamonn before he can manipulate his two brothers any further, when Eamonn savagely attacks another neighbour for talking to the police. As they stage a second obbo on the Drake household, the PI van is attacked, but events take a sinister turn that sees the Drakes get a reality check.

Boulton and Skase get a major lead from an informant on local armed robber Anthony Payne, who has been off the radar for a number of years. Boulton is determined to nail him, but the rest of CID think he's being excessive in his approach due to Daly being named Acting DI ahead of him in Deakin's absence. The raid nearly goes perfect, but Payne escapes and attacks Boulton while he's in pursuit. Skase ends up split up from his DS, and when he catches up to him, Boulton is pulling Payne's lifeless body out of a creek. After CPR fails, CIB are called in to investigate the death in custody. Rumours and speculation are rife, and Boulton's approach with CIB leads to a reprimand about his attitude ahead of an inquest. His day only gets worse when his informant turns against him after being bought by Payne's brother. Can the rogue DS survive with his career intact?

Boulton prepares to face an inquest for the death in custody of notorious armed robber Anthony Payne. Payne's brother Stephen continues to rile the media as he vows to end Boulton's career, but while Boulton isn't doing himself any favours, his colleagues investigate Payne's brother over claims by a woman identifying his voice from radio and TV, stating Stephen Payne savagely assaulted her now-deceased husband and fatally shot their dog during a burglary two years earlier. While Boulton is skeptical it will do any good at the inquest, the involvement in the burglaries of informant Terry Riley gives them hope that the leverage will make him change his mind about his so called recollection of Payne's death.

Boyden tasks Garfield and Ashton with setting up an observation on a parade of shops where a gang of young dealers have been operating. When they catch a youngster taking a package left behind by a dealer, a search of his home uncovers a log of transactions. The pair hope they’ve found their ringleader, until Cryer identifies the boy and his mother of the family of a Barton Street sergeant who died of a heart attack during a raid a few months earlier. Admitting he has been tailing the ringleaders to supply Barton Street with info, the boy agrees to help Garfield and Ashton bring down the gang responsible. Meanwhile, an old flame of Boyden's approaches Harker with info an armed robbery involving her husband. Boyden is skeptical, but Harker is convinced of her story when she says her son is involved and she wants him to avoid punishment. However, when the raid goes ahead and the boy dies after being hit by a car during his attempts to escape the scene.

Carver is devastated when his final transfer appeal is turned down, ending his hopes of remaining a DC and avoiding tenure. The news that the system is due to be scrapped is even more of an annoyance to Carver, who faces leaving Sun Hill after 14 years. Determined not to lose his local knowledge and experience, Ackland implores him to seek a voluntary transfer to Sun Hill's uniform and exit CID early. His final day in CID sees him pressed by Daly to investigate two cases at once, assisting a bank security manager over disappearing money and a gang of shoplifters running amok. Carver is furious that Skase is insistent on pursuing the case at the bank as a priority, telling him he's only interested because he fancies the security manager, and events escalate when the gang hospitalise a shop owner. However, Skase continues pursuing the bank case with Rawton and they end up uncovering a major fraud, while Carver teams up with McCann to track down the shoplifting gang.

It's Jim Carver's first day back in uniform, and he puts up with some good-natured ribbing from his new colleagues. Paired with P.C. Luke Ashton, they are called to the Canley Arms Hotel, where the landlord has been brutally attacked and robbed. When D.C. Rod Skase and Carver's replacement, D.C. Danny Glaze, arrive to investigate, Carver can't help putting his detective skills back to work - while following a lead on the case, he gets into trouble with Sgt. Boyden when he leaves Ashton dealing with a gang of teenage shoplifters on his own. Forensic evidence points to the Baker brothers, and Carver's persistence pays off when he finds out the location of the missing brother, Mark Baker.

Tension, drama and comical mishaps abound as Brownlow, Meadows and Conway head to the Yorkshire Moors for an orientation course alongside the top brass from Barton Street. The tension builds as Conway backs out of the rock climbing due to his fear of heights, and Meadows is reprimanded by the instructor for both abandoning Conway to complete the test alone and his continual attempts to contact Daly as he tries to keep abreast of the investigation into an armed robber, who has stunned CID by suddenly handing himself into custody. Meanwhile, Brownlow clashes with his Barton Street counterpart Guy Mannion, a fast-track young go-getter who is prime candidate to rival Brownlow for the Borough Commander post. As the teams are tasked with crossing the Moors, Meadows plots an escape, but they unite in their determination to beat the Barton Street contingent after discovering they have used the Stafford Row team's knowledge of the course to give them an edge.

A young girl, Emma Finney, is attacked in the street and DC Kerry Holmes suspects a racial motive, as Emma and her family are gypsies living on a nearby waste ground. Holmes and an impatient DS Boulton are unable to get any information out of them, and Boulton even has Emma's older brother Michael arrested when he drives off with a rifle in his truck. Boulton has other things on his mind: he has an upcoming interview for a transfer to the Flying Squad. With Michael locked up for the night, Holmes worries about the Finneys' safety. As she watches their caravan, three men approach and firebomb it, Kerry barely manages to save them in time. Angry at Boulton's attitude to the case and his colleagues, Holmes arranges for an old friend, DI Long who is on Boulton's interview panel, to give him a real grilling and then pass the videotape on to her, which she gleefully shows to the rest of CID. Boulton is furious, but DI Deakin convinces him his attitude and methods are to blame for his colleag

PC Eddie Santini tries to convince his lover, Jess Orton, to set him up with some drug dealers - he wants out of Sun Hill, and DS Timpney, his friend in Area Drugs, has promised him a place in the squad if Santini can get him evidence on them. At parade, Sgt. Bob Cryer assigns the relief a door-knocking campaign to warn the elderly residents of the area about two bogus callers posing as social workers who are responsible for a string of robberies. Leaving PC Hagen to cover for him, Santini meets Jessica, but not before hearing the culprits have been following the local Meals-On-Wheels van. Jessica has met up with an old friend, Ferguson, who is a big-time drugs importer. She wants Eddie to pose as her husband when they next meet to seal the deal. When Eddie returns to duty, Cryer is furious. An old army Major has had all his medals stolen by the bogus callers, and Santini had neglected to warn him. A desperate Santini gets Hagen to investigate the Major, and finds his claim is a scam.

As he and PC Quinnan investigate a burglar alarm, PC Eddie Santini sees Jessica Orton meeting covertly with Ferguson. Making excuses, Santini borrows the panda car and races to the Ortons' club where he confronts Jessica. As she storms off, there is a huge explosion. Santini is shocked when one of the officers assigned by AMIP to investigate the explosion is his old nemesis, DS Rosie Fox. Fox is suspiscious of Santini's involvement, but her colleagues put it down to the animosity between them. As Santini returns to his flat, where his lover PC Vicky Hagen is waiting, he is kidnapped by Ferguson who assigns him the task of picking up a consignment of drugs from Amsterdam.

Jessica Orton is brought in for questioning, but is released without charge. When she returns home, PC Santini is waiting for her, desperate to know if she grassed him up. They fight, and Santini hits Jessica, knocking her down the stairs and killing her. Realising her house is being watched, he escapes out the back. Vicki Hagen finds a set of keys under Santini's bed which she brings to the station to return to him.

Vicki Hagen finds Eddie Santini's tickets to Amsterdam, and questions him about them, but he is evasive. DCI Pallister takes DS Fox off the Jessica Orton case after her accusations against Santini, but she decides to do some investigation of her own. Santini, meanwhile, acquires a gun and some Class-A drugs to plant in Ferguson's boss's house when DS Timpney and the Area Drugs Squad raid it. Fox stumbles upon the house and is captured by Ferguson. His boss Mr Sherman is displeased that Santini allowed a police officer to find them. When Area Drugs arrive at Sun Hill for the raid, CID realise that both Santini and Fox are in trouble. Sure enough, Ferguson's radio scanner warns him of the forthcoming raid and he locks Santini in the same room as Fox. The two argue, but are pulled apart when Santini attacks Fox. She manages to escape, and Sherman's men are intercepted by SO19. Back at Sun Hill, Fox realises the keys in Hagen's possession are Jessica Orton's - and she arrests Santini for m

A suspected armed robber dies after his car crashes during a chase with police. He is identified as Alain Savoie, a French national, and the body of an English woman is found in the boot of his stolen car. The woman is identified as Carol Archer, and scorch marks on her back indicate she was electrocuted in her bathtub, and Savoie was trying to dispose of the body. According to Carol's mother, Carol's husband Peter was in France looking for her. DI Chris Deakin, a fluent Francophone, suggests they send officers to interview Savoie's sister in France. DCI Jack Meadows insists on making the trip himself, and Deakin suggests he take DC Rod Skase with him. Once they are on the ferry, Meadows and Skase realise neither of them can speak French. With some trouble they manage to find their hotel, and despite the language barrier, Meadows clearly hits it off with the landlady Claudette. CID hear that Peter Archer is headed back to England, but he does not board the ferry, and Interpol reports t

A CID raid nets a gun which DS Beech believes could have been used in a recent shooting. New PC Cass Rickman is entrusted with the task of taking the gun to the lab for forensic testing, but when she stops the car to render assistance to a mugging victim, a young man reaches in and steals it. Borough Commander Mannion arrives to take charge of the investigation - Operation Loose Cannon. DS Beech's contacts come up with someone wanting to sell a gun, and he, Brownlow and Rickman organise their own operation to retrieve it, with Rickman posing undercover as the buyer. Rickman meets Leroy Jones, and Endean and Andrews, the original owners of the gun who want it back, but the operation is blown when Mannion's team almost raid the pub where the meeting is taking place. Rickman arranges to meet Jones later, and buys the gun back, but is attacked by Endean and Andrews. She fires the gun in the air, which scares them off, and alerts Brownlow, Mannion and Beech to her position. Leroy Jones is a

Ch. Insp. Derek Conway organises a charity 'lock-up' in the Sun Hill cells - the prisoners for the night being himself, Insp. Monroe, famous boxer Dion Barrie and his manager Max Weir, and Paul Lake, the father of the sick little girl they are raising money for. When Monroe calls in sick, Ch. Supt. Brownlow volunteers to take his place. Sgt. Matt Boyden as custody sergeant must cope with having his superior officers in the cells, as well as a large group of drunken female rugby players. DS Feeney from Barton Street turns up to investigate Barrie for an attempted murder, but Boyden works out that his manager is the man responsible.

Worrell and Harker attend a deliberate hit and run. Quinnan and Garfield are tasked with tracking down the driver, Oliver Beaumann, who has allegedly run over his wife. When they transfer Beaumann to the nick, he passes out in the van. At the hospital a doctor asks one of them to stay, and while Garfield is happy at the idea of staying with Jenny for the night, Cryer demands Quinnan stays. Garfield is suspicious as Jenny is distant with him, and she later mentions to Quinnan she's doubtful over what Garfield wants long term. As they are distracted, Beaumann tries to escape, but Quinnan drags him back in. Beaumann then claims the husband of his wife's best friend is having an affair with his wife, and that he is armed with a gun intent on getting Beaumann out of the way. Quinnan is skeptical, but is quickly drawn into an armed siege.

Sgt. Matt Boyden organises a simple obbo to catch a gang stealing an excavator from a building site. The situation is made more complicated when another gang turn up carrying guns and a man is shot and abducted. As Boyden angrily collars his snout, PC Garfield and PC Quinnan volunteer to check the hospital. Garfield's girlfriend Jenny is about to leave for South America, and he is keen to ask her to marry him, however Quinnan gets word that Jenny actually has feelings for him. As Garfield tries to organise a romantic dinner, DS Beech poaches Boyden's snout, but he too is given bad information. Garfield's dinner plans are a disaster, but he manages to catch Jenny at the nurses' home. He pops the question, but she declines, as Dave Quinnan watches from the car outside.

Rising crime levels on the council estates sees Ch. Supt. Brownlow with two additional problems: a gang of over-zealous security guards patrolling the Copthorne Estate, and a ""mobile community liaison unit"" - a caravan done up by PC Reg Hollis. When these two initiatives rankle a local gang, the guards are attacked at one end of the estate and Hollis finds himself a hostage in a potentially explosive situation. Managing to get the potential arsonist Tony Leyton on side with tales of his past misdemenours, Hollis convinces Leyton to make a statement naming Danny McCormack as the ringleader in the attacks, but the rug is pulled out from under him when Brownlow cuts a deal with McCormack in order to preserve their public image.

Skase is skeptical when an informant tells him a small-time dealer is in cahoots with a South American dealer. However, when his informant mentions a major contact, Skase gets his hopes up and pushes Deakin to conduct a raid. When the raid goes down, Skase is concerned when the cash briefcase is a dud, but he uncovers multiple kilograms of cocaine in the seller's briefcase. Skase and Deakin are paraded as heroes in the wake of the raid, but their glory is about taken from them by the National Crime Squad after they identify the seller as Ben Carter, who is wanted in several countries around the world. Events take a sinister turn when Skase's informant turns up dead, and things only gets worse when it appears the two NCS officers who took Carter to their station for questioning were actually imposters. With Deakin's rep in particular taking a major blow and the real NCS officers keen to make someone pay, the team are left scrambling to find their target and save the DI's career.

PC Luke Ashton and PC Dale Smith chase a stabbing suspect onto an estate, but are separated and Ashton is paralysed with fear when confronted by the knife-wielding youth. Smithy is contemptuous of Ashton from that point on, who starts to feel that the rest of the relief is ganging up on him. The stabbing seems to be part of a racially-motivated vendetta between two families on the estate, the Wests and the Cords, but DS Daly and Sgt. Cryer work out that the Jasmine Allen's Estate Manager is behind the harassment. When Doreen West is abducted, the police find her in an empty council flat, but as Smithy pursues the Cord and his accomplice, Ashton stands frozen in fear. Stamp and Quinnan rescue Smith, who is furious with Ashton for not backing him up.

Ashton reels after being accused of cowardice by new boy Smithy. The team attend a group counselling session over Smithy's attack, but tensions only rise further between the uniform officers. After Ashton leaves the meeting, Rickman speaks up for him, but Ashton is convinced his colleagues have turned against him. Paired with Quinnan, Ashton investigates claims by a reformed dealer, Larry Moore, that a bag of drugs have been planted at his home. When a local youth accuses Moore of dealing again, Beech arrests him and comes down hard, but his methods leave Moore unhinged. After discovering his wife was responsible for the drugs, he abducts his young daughter. When Moore feels he has been backed into a corner, he snaps and takes horrific action, with a shell-shocked Ashton questioning his capability for the job in the wake of the day's shocking events.

PC Smith and PC Rickman deal with a disturbance at a registry office, and DC Proctor and DC Holmes discover an ingenious immigration scam in which British lookalikes of Romanian illegals marry Irish women to gain UK residency. Smith and Rickman follow up a case of forged speeding tickets, and come across a mail holding centre run by Colin Briggs at his garden centre, where they discover a stash of Romanian passports. Undercover at the registry office, CID and Immigration arrest the 'Romanian Godfather', Ion Goga, behind the scam and his wife, Sheila Devlin.

Worrell and Garfield fail to catch a stolen 4x4 in pursuit, the latest in a long line of such vehicles being stolen, but luckily the vehicle is abandoned for them to analyse. Meanwhile, Carver and Harker intervene at a domestic where a man is being refused access to his daughter by his ex-wife. After talking to Carver, the woman invites him to a drink with her father, local car dealer Gerry Metcalfe. Carver meets Metcalfe's associate Samantha as they have a drink, and after having a meal, they go back to a hotel. The following morning, he discovers that Metcalfe's daughter has reported her ex-husband has abducted their child because Carver failed to make a meeting between the warring parents. Worse still, he discovers a £500 deposit in his account from Metcalfe, and that his associate Samantha is an escort who has skimmed Carver's cards. Using a rival car dealer for leverage, Carver sets out to nail Metcalfe without his "bribe" being exposed.

Holmes and Proctor investigate the rape of a woman inside a mental health facility. After discovering a separate attack occurred at another facility six months earlier, DS Acton from Park Rise Station is seconded to Sun Hill to help investigate both cases. A staff member from the other facility claims Acton had a relationship with a nurse, Ken Forbes, who moved from the facility where the first attack occurred to the second. After Forbes uncovers a condom in the victim's room, Proctor is infuriated that he has corrupted the evidence. As Forbes is implicated by a security guard who spotted his car at the time of the attack, Proctor and Acton arrest him, and a besotted Proctor ignores Forbes protesting that Acton planted a screwdriver with paint at the scene. As the guard reveals he saw Acton at the scene scraping something off a window, Proctor realises the plant allegations may be true.

Beech and Glaze are sent to Shadwell Prison to investigate allegations that three prison officers are responsible for the assaults of two prisoners. With the prison on lockdown, they try to get through to the angry victims, but they soon face outrage from the prison officers when one of the suspended officers is burgled and another is assaulted. Glaze tries to talk to a lifer but ends up being held hostage, however he provides info after the incident about a death in custody five years earlier. One of the victims is identified as a family member of the prisoner who died five years ago, and his brother is suspected to be the man behind the burglary and assault, but they are forced to turn to one of the accused for evidence. Will he turn on his colleagues to help them solve the case?

Insp. Monroe is skeptical but cautious when a young woman, Emma Crawford, rings Sun Hill and says she thinks her boyfriend may have hidden a bomb in the station. At Emma's flat, Ackland and Stamp find bomb-making equipment and a faxed warning due to be sent on a timer. PC Carver discovers a suspiscious paint can hidden in the ceiling - enough to trigger the evacuation of the station and the calling in of the Bomb Squad. The suspect, Ben Wallace, has been in trouble with the police before, and he is apprehended by DCI Meadows when he returns to the flat. As the Squad begin defusing the bomb, Ackland and Stamp visit Ben's parents whom he despises. The bomb is dismantled and the station declared safe, but Ackland and Stamp watch in horror as Ben's father is killed by a car bomb planted by his son.

June and Cass are called to the flat of a prostitute named Allie after tracing malicious calls made from her phone, only to find her lying unconscious on the floor from a vicious assault. Turning her over reveals the words 'Join The Club' written on her back. The case matches several other recent assaults on prostitutes in the area, most of whom are being pimped by Robert Stern. After being apprehended it is revealed that Stern attacked Allie but was not responsible for the calls she made or the writing on her back. Meanwhile June saves Beth, another of the victims, from throwing herself under a train believing herself to be HIV positive after her attacker revealed this to be the words sinister meaning. When he is eventually caught and brought back to the station, Liz identifies him as ex-boyfriend Andy Marshall, a search of his houseboat turns up HIV medication. The calls were being made to his wife Julia Marshall who is pregnant and living on her own, unaware of his supposed HIV stat

Meadows is approached by DCI Calder of Barton Street, who was a DC of Meadows at AMIP. Calder admits while he is on the verge of promotion to Superintendent, an armed robbery that went wrong has left him under the kosh. With a suspect vanishing right before the job, Calder claims CIB are investigating a theory that one of the Barton Street CID team tipped the gang off, but Meadows is skeptical and leaves Calder to it. Coincidentally, Calder's elusive suspect is found as the victim of a beating attended by Garfield and Stamp, with a member of the public attempting to help savagely assaulted as a result. Beech identifies one of the men fleeing the scene as DC Bonford of Barton Street, proving they have found their inside man. However, the discovery may come too late as Calder is found atop of a high-rise tower block intent on committing suicide. Can Meadows and Conway talk him down?

Harker is disappointed when he fails to save the life of an overdosing man, so when Conway offers him the role of Youth Diversions Officer, he takes it. Meanwhile, Boyden is tasked with giving a view of custody to new drugs referral worker Dexter King, a reformed addict with a history with the Sun Hill team. Daly is fuming to discover King is working in the area, no less with Harker as part of the Youth Diversions scheme, and his vendetta against King leads him to raid King's flat whilst Harker is there. Brownlow is left furious as a result, and despite Meadows warning Daly off the case, he jumps back into it after a local addict is assaulted by major dealer Barry Lomas. King gives info on where Lomas keeps his drugs, but he turns the tables on King, and Daly jumps at the chance to arrest him again. However, Daly is then left to eat humble pie with King once more when the assault victim dies, in order to nail Lomas for murder.

PC Cass Rickman calls in sick after over-indulging at a barbecque for the relief the previous night. PC Harker and PC Stamp are called to the Sun Hill Lido swimming pool, where a young girl's body has been found in the water. Harker goes undercover at the pool, where he runs into the miraculously-recovered Rickman. The pair team up to catch a peeping-tom with a digital camera, but Rickman's warrant card is stolen when her locker is broken into. Eventually they discover that the pool's Australian lifeguard Steve Kellerman is dealing drugs and that the dead girl died in an accident when she joined he and his friends for a late night pool party.

DI Deakin leads CID and Uniform on a series of disasterous raids to catch alleged DSS fraudsters, while PC Polly Page is given the boring task of serving a court order. As she does so, she hears scratching at the wall from the house next door, which they believe is a trapped dog. With the help of the RSPCA, they force entry and discover a young Spanish woman named Lola imprisoned in a hidden cellar. The owner of the house, Ricky Lee, insists that Lola is a fugitive from a Dutch prison who stowed away in his van and took refuge in his house. When Lola disappears from the hospital, Page and DC Kerry Holmes pay Ricky Lee another visit. Page is suspicious and asks to see the cellar again, but Lee attacks them. Once subdued, they find Lola in the cellar once again, and it looks as if Lee was planning to kill her.

Sun Hill efforts to protect the organisers of a community festival are in vain when the convoy is attacked. New PC Nick Klein is friends with the organiser, Anil Indrani, but the brother of Klein's girlfriend Pam is arrested by PC Dale Smith as he rushes to fight off the attackers. Paired with Smithy the next day, Klein manages to defuse a tense situation when Smith confronts a group of black youths at the market. That night, Indrani's club is raided by officers from Barton Street, led by DS Vickers. Klein is certain that Vickers team has planted drugs on the Billy the DJ, and begins to suspect they were also responsible for the attack on Indrani. PC Smith is in trouble: the youths at the market were undercover police officers conducting an 'integrity test' and Smithy's attitude to racial matters leaves a lot to be desired. As Klein lights up a joint at Pam's house, DS Vickers raids the place and threatens to arrest him for possession unless he helps him destroy Indrani.

With DS Vickers blackmailing him over his use of cannabis, Klein is more determined than ever to bring the corrupt officer down. Brownlow asks Worrell to join the case, but she accuses him of going after her skin colour, rather than her ability to do the job, and turns it down; instead, the role goes to Rickman. She is tasked with going undercover as Sally Holland, with her cover being an ex-girlfriend of Anil Indrani in order to lure Vickers into planting drugs on Indrani. Vickers calls on Smith to help him with an unauthorised OBBO, and when he recognises Rickman, he blows her cover. Klein confronts Vickers as a last resort, but he is devastated to discover that Vickers has arranged for Area Drugs to bust Indrani, and he is arrested along with Klein's girlfriend Pam. Klein is furious to discover that it was Smith who blew their undercover op, and presents him with all the evidence he has on Vickers in an attempt to open his eyes to what his friend is really like.

Rawton is furious when Meadows pulls her OBBO on convicted rapist David Trigg, due to budgetary reasons. She is quickly put on a series of robberies, then onto the case of a missing teenager. She is determined to prove Trigg could be involved due to the proximity of his home to the missing girl. However, Trigg comes forward as a witness and gives a description of a man that the missing girl's friend identifies as Paul Myers, who is brought in due to a suspicious bruise on his knuckles. The girl is later found as the victim of a serious assault, but Trigg's relationship with a local suddenly returns him to the top of the list of suspects, but the biggest shock is that he has abducted a woman he wrote to whilst in prison. As the ramifications of Trigg's actions come to light in the fallout, Rawton clashes with Meadows about financial planning taking priority over people's safety.

DCI Jack Meadows introduces new DS Claire Stanton to the rest of the CID team, who are jealous when she manages to land an eco-terrorism case on her first day. Someone has been injecting mercury into oranges as a protest against GM foods. Security footage shows a 'New Age' couple lurking around the fruit section, but when they are questioned, it appears they were stealing oranges rather than contaminating them. Supermarket shelf stacker Darren matches the description of the perpetrator, and when challenged, he incapacitates DC Proctor and takes him hostage. Locating his flat, the police find Proctor alive and well, but then word comes through that Darren is in the children's ward at St Hugh's armed with a gas grenade. SO19 arrive at the hospital, but DS Stanton manages to talk Darren into giving himself up.

Sgt. Matt Boyden is not looking forward to another night shift in Custody, but a noisy prisoner demanding food turns out to be the least of his worries. Sgt. June Ackland and PC Dale Smith bring in a drunk and disorderly vagrant who they nickname 'Olly'. Chaos sets in as a drink-driver, some cat-fighting prostitutes, an immigration officer with two deportees and two lay visitors conducting a surprise inspection arrive. As the F.M.E. takes a blood test from the drink driver, Boyden has Olly placed in a cell to rest. When the lay visitors inspect his cell, he is dead. Faced with a death in custody, Ch. Supt. Brownlow calls in CIB, and the three Sergeants on duty, Boyden, Ackland and Cryer argue amongst themselves over who was responsible. Ackland manages to find Olly's real identity, and his widow threatens to sue the Met, but June talks her out of it and discovers that his wife blames herself for his death.

Deakin is furious when Carver and Rickman blow an OBBO to arrest a major dealer. Furious at constant put-downs by his former CID colleagues, Carver decides enough is enough and accepts an offer from an old friend to manage security at his nightclub. In the meantime, Deakin demands Carver track a former informant linked to their target, and after being arrested in possession of heroin by Rickman, tells her about an armed robbery. However, Deakin is further infuriated when the robbery goes down at the wrong bank, so Rickman and Carver arrest their informant once again in possession of heroin. Offering him rehab so he can reunite with his wife, Carver makes a breakthrough, but he gets a personal blow when he misses out on the security manager job. Slipping into a depression, Carver turns to drink to deal with his problems.

PCs Jim Carver and Cass Rickman wander through a CID obbo, allowing suspect Micky Harris to go free. Trying to make amends, Carver tries to contact a former snout from his CID days, Steve Raines. As they make enquiries, Carver's old friend, nightclub manager Alan Brooks notices Carver's dissatisfaction with uniform work and offers him a job as security manager at his club. Carver finds Raines, now a junkie, who gives Rickman a duff lead on a building society robbery. Carver convinces Raines's estranged wife Alice to give him a second chance, and eventually Raines agrees to testify against Harris. With the nightclub job all but his, Carver reluctantly prepares to hand in his notice, but when the job just as quickly falls through, he turns to a hip flask of vodka in his locker to console himself...

PC Reg Hollis turns up late for parade, and an angry Sgt. Boyden assigns him to an eviction followed by traffic duty on Malpitt Road. The evictee is Colin Boswell, a notorious racist who has been terrorising and bullying fellow residents on the Bronte Estate. Boswell puts up a fight, and threatens Hollis and Page with a kitana sword, so he is arrested. As the Canley Council clean out his flat, they discover a passport and benefits book belonging to Murali Kumarathungum, a Tamil refugee who Boswell has been threatening and stealing his benefits. As Hollis follows up Kumarathungum's case, Boyden is outraged that he has neglected the Malpitt Road traffic duty, but finds himself drawn into the situation when Kumarathungum's cousin accuses him of racism for ignoring their original plea for help some months ago. Boswell is arrested when he tracks Kumarathungum to St Hugh's Hospital, but Hollis is horrified as a terrified Kumarathungum runs into the path of a speeding lorry. Boyden realises t

PC George Garfield is in quite a state - his girlfriend Jenny Delaney has just returned from South America and he is eager to know if she has considered his marriage proposal. Unknown to him, PC Dave Quinnan is also trying to contact Jenny. Both are distracted, but Quinnan nearly blows an obbo to catch a disqualified driver when he tries to call again. As Quinnan makes his excuses and tries to visit Jenny at the nurses' home, he is observed by CID who are staking out St Hugh's Hospital. When Garfield also turns up in a panda car, CID must get him out before their target sees the police car. Finally, Garfield finishes his shift and rushes to the nurses' home in time to see Dave and Jenny kissing at the door.

Back at the section house, George Garfield confronts Dave Quinnan about his relationship with Jenny, and then storms off. Polly Page and Tony Stamp go looking for him, while Quinnan rushes off to see Jenny. Later in the night, a very drunk Garfield turns up at the nurses' home, demanding to see Jenny. He causes such a disturbance, the police are called, and when Garfield punches one of the attending officers, it takes the persuasive powers of Tony Stamp to convince him not to press charges. Amazingly, both Quinnan and Garfield turn up to their shift the next day, and despite their colleagues' best efforts to keep them apart, the two come to blows during a critical operation. Insp. Monroe is livid, the two clearly cannot work together, one of them has to go. Quinnan is about to apply for a transfer, but Garfield takes leave to travel.

Hollis and Hagen are laughed off by CID when they provide a tipoff on an upcoming armed robbery at a casino, provided by former getaway driver Jerry Mulligan, after he is arrested for stealing a milk float. However, it comes back to haunt them when a casino is robbed overnight, with Hollis wasting no time in mentioning CID's indiscretion to a furious Burnside. He tasks Lennox and McCann, on attachment to CID, with tracking Mulligan down. He provides info on another raid, so Burnside leads an undercover team there to catch the gang in the act, but Mulligan is attacked and the gang make a breakaway, leaving Burnside to pick up the pieces.

Daly makes a daring rescue as he and Holmes witness a light aircraft crash outside a local stadium. He identifies the passenger as ex-DS Janet Campion, his boss at Child Protection seven years earlier. Coming in the following morning, Daly is shocked to discover Campion is under investigation by OCG. Daly's link to both Campion and his investigation into a local villain leads him to be brought onto the case, and he goes to dig deeper when she invites him to dinner. He goes above and beyond to save her when she is implicated in a scam, offering her a deal to sell out her boyfriend to OCG.

Boyden is surprised when his estranged daughter Amy shows up at the station, offering third-hand info that her boyfriend, Phillip Cooper, witnessed two drug dealers killing a man. While there are no reports and he demands Amy leaves, he later discovers the story is true. After Amy is arrested for shoplifting, Boyden discovers she has recently had a baby, his granddaughter Sophie. Boyden then confronts Cooper, dragging him down to Sun Hill to make a statement. Beech and Glaze arrange a safehouse as AMIP continue their investigation, but Cooper sneaks out overnight to buy drugs. Unaware he has blown the security of the safehouse, Sophie is abducted as Amy has a walk with her father, leaving Boyden determined to find the murder suspects and rescue Sophie, but he struggles to impress onto Amy that she needs to get away from Cooper for her own good.

Deakin mounts an OBBO to catch a girl gang who have been robbing punters in nightclubs and casinos. Sending Skase undercover to pick up one of the girls, he finds himself ambushed and humiliated, but Deakin is furious about his decision to go to the girl's car instead of his own where the OBBO team was situtated. The following morning, Skase and Lennox get another case in which a car dealer was robbed for his car and a quantity of cash at a local casino. Meanwhile, Boulton is left heading up a drugs investigation when Proctor has to conduct CPR during the raid and another girl comes in reporting her sister fatally overdosed, with both users told the drugs are called "flat-liners". Elsewhere, Harker and Rickman attend a disturbance where two local girls have vandalised the house of a neighbourhood watch coordinator, whose camera has recorded an apparent drug deal. As the dots connect, it appears all three cases are all down to the same girl gang.

Leaving a pub, a drunken Jim Carver is approached by Alec Facer, a former DI who he met while in CID. Facer offers him a job at Marlowe's, a prestigious private investigation firm, and Carver jumps at the chance. With the job all but his, Facer asks Carver to look up the location of a woman he suspects of embezzling, which turns out to be in a women's refuge. To Carver's horror, Facer turns out to be an alcoholic wife-beater who has just used him to find his estranged wife, and as he and DC Lennox race to the women's shelter, CAD radios through a report of an assault there.

A Polish shopkeeper tells police he was attacked by three black youths, and DC Duncan Lennox and DC Tom Proctor arrest the main suspect, Davy Rawlings. After an attempted escape, Rawlings accuses Lennox of racial abuse, saying that he called him a 'black bastard' during the arrest. As usual, Ch. Supt. Brownlow scrambles into damage control with more regard for the Met's public image than for the welfare of his officers. DC Danny Glaze is furious when Brownlow insists he take DC Proctor's place on the case to ease the 'racial sensitivities', but thanks to PC Gary McCann, he and DS Geoff Daly manage to find the 'third man' involved in the beating, who tells them what really went down. The other suspect in the van, Errol Price, is brought to the station by his father and he clears DC Lennox of any racial abuse during the arrest.

Burnside recruits a team of Sun Hill officers as he goes undercover with Stanton, posing as his wife, to track down a group of property scammers. Carver is assigned to the team, who shows up late and is immediately reprimanded when Ackland reports the night shift found a bottle of whisky under the passenger seat of the Area Car after his shift. Burnside is furious when he works out Carver has become an alcoholic, and tries to make his old friend face his problem, but he gets another shock when his prime suspect's partner in crime is a face from his past, and when Ackland discovers this she suspects Burnside's personal motives may jeopardise the case.

Stamp and Page attend a break at the home of Barton Street PC Steve Bennett, who returns after a night out with Quinnan to find his daughter's bedroom has been vandalised. He enlists the help of Stanton to investigate what Bennett's wife claims has been an ongoing campaign of harassment. Bennett points Quinnan in the direction of an ex-lover, but it proves to be a non-starter. Attention then turns to local villain Dougie Davis, who has history for a similar campaign of harassment against another Barton Street PC, however he is incarcerated. Attention then turns to an unlikely source, but events take a dramatic turn when Bennett is injured in a hit and run. Meanwhile, Jenny has a frosty encounter with uniform at Stamp's birthday party, dampening her relationship with Quinnan.

DCI Meadows and DC Skase are furious when PC Jim Carver turns up drunk to give evidence in a court case - evidence which is so unreliable the judge throws the case out of court. As his colleagues begin to realise the extent of Carver's problems, Insp. Monroe decides to put him on an easy task - escorting a convoy of confiscated drugs to a Home Office depot for destruction. As Carver enjoys a sly drink with depot floorman Vernon Liggett, he accidentally mentions the convoy's destination. The next day, he and Stamp drop behind as Carver dashes out to be sick. When they catch up, the convoy is under attack from four armed men. With little regard for his own safety, Carver dashes forward and tackles one of the men, who abandon their assault, although an SO19 officer is shot during the raid. Despite his heroics that day, Carver is in trouble for breaking procedure, and it could be far worse as there could be an inquiry into how the convoy route was known.

DCI Scanlon from Kent Constabulary arrives to investigate the attack on the Home Office convoy. PC Jim Carver pays Vernon Liggett a visit, but he denies any involvment. Scanlon and Meadows interview the warehouse staff, with Liggett high on their list of suspects, but when DC Lennox goes to his flat, Liggett has disappeared. One of Liggett's colleagues mentions him drinking with a copper named Jim, and Lennox confronts Carver and demands he admit his mistake to Meadows. Insp. Monroe makes Carver go on leave, but when Carver returns to the station he is so drunk he passes out in the yard. Sgt. Ackland and hide him in the FME's room and a van, but he ends up in the Elcott Arms where Lennox drags him out and forces him to confess. Tracing a call Liggett made from the pub to a hotel, Lennox poses as a taxi driver to drive their suspect to a nightclub where he and his associates are arrested in an SO19 raid.

On a romantic night with her new boyfriend Steve, Ackland's neighbour interrupts after revealing she has found a gun in her tenant's room. Beech is determined to set up an OBBO at her flat, but Deakin warns him off. Ackland is determined to avoid it, not just because of her past, but because she wants another night in with Steve. However, when no suitable OP is found, Ackland reluctantly agrees to let Beech and Lennox have the OBBO in her flat. The situation gets compromised when Ackland clashes with her neighbour after finding a spliff in her house, but they get back on track and arrest their suspect. When he is alibied, Beech and Lennox realise they’ve been looking at the wrong person.

Daly leads a raid on the home of a violent pimp who has been recruiting teenage girls. However, the prime suspect vanishes after attacking Proctor during the raid, with Holmes distracted by a car driven by Rita Davis almost hitting her, Davis a prison inmate with Holmes when she went undercover at a woman's jail (Follow Through). Davis tracks Holmes and asks for help; the pimp has been trying to recruit her 14-year-old daughter, but the info she provides for two potential leads go nowhere. Events take a sinister turn when one of the girls rescued from the brothel is subjected to an acid attack, while Daly's informant turns up dead. When Davis and her pimp report that their suspect has abducted Davis' daughter, Holmes gets personally involved, however Proctor threatens to undermine her efforts.

Carver is assaulted before his shift and mugged, and as he wanders the streets dazed and confused, he befriends a group of homeless drunks. When they point Carver in the direction of a local pub that sells out of hours, Carver bribes his way in to get free drinks. At the pub, he begins talking to a petty thief, who after robbing a local off license for booze, takes him back to his home to meet his wife. Realising the man prostitutes his wife, she discovers Carver is a copper, but rather than tell her husband they bond and she tells Carver he needs to get his life sorted out before it's too late. However, as he tries to come to terms with his problem, he gets a horrendous shock that threatens to sidetrack any hopes of getting his life back on track.

Jim Carver wakes up to find himself in bed lying next to the dead body of Clare Sullivan, an aged prostitute. He is utterly distraught, and, not knowing what to do, he takes JohnJo's clothes and leaves the scene. Vicky Hagen and Reg Hollis discover the body while searching for Jim. Jim's warrant card is found at the scene, and Jim's tie is around Clare's neck. Ex-Sun Hill DCI Frank Burnside is assigned to the case - something he does not relish as he is also Jim Carver's best friend. Jim meanwhile, is suicidal, considering throwing himself in the Thames, and then falling at the knees of a priest, confessing to his ""crime"". Eventually he finds himself eating a discarded pizza from a skip. He takes a swig from a bottle of wine, then catches a glimpse of his reflection. He regards his reflection for a moment, shaking his head - then tips the rest of the wine away. Frank eventually locates Jim at a hostel. He is arrested on suspicion of murder and taken back to Sun Hill.

Boyden leads a dog racing syndicate with Klein, Stamp, Rickman and Quinnan. He is keen to keep it secret from fiancee Jenny, however she ends up finding out, and joins in to help boost the wedding fund. Things only get worse when he falls victim to an ATM scam that drains his account, leaving Boulton liaising with OCG to track down the gang of scammers responsible. The first race fails, but they soon uncover an elaborate scam that gets them a windfall on the second race. However, it's inevitable that they’ll be found out, leaving them in hot water with Brownlow. When they track down the ATM scammers off duty, they jump at the chance to earn some brownie points.

As Dave Quinnan's stag night begins, an old friend turns up - Steve Loxton. A newly sober Jim Carver faces temptation and ridicule from his colleagues as the night wears on. Jenny and her friends rope DC Procter into helping them investigate a stripper who is indecently assaulting the patrons of the strip club they attend, but Vicky Hagen is forced to take matters into her own hands. Insp. Monroe waits desperately for the duty inspector to relieve him, but he is delayed for most of the night. Paranoid that the lads have hired a stripper, Quinnan takes refuge at Polly Page's flat, where she drops a bombshell that she is in love with him. Dave returns to the party, but falls on a bottle, injuring his hand. Arriving at St Hugh's, he is alarmed when his 'doctor' removes her clothes and tells him he's been a very naughty boy and will need to be punished!

Dave Quinnan wakes up on the day of his wedding with a splitting headache and bleached eyebrows. Despite the incompetence of his best man, Reg Hollis, the actual wedding goes ahead with only a few minor hitches - including the attendance of a known fugitive arrested by Tony Stamp and Polly Page, and the unexpected appearance of George Garfield. As Hollis hasn't organised any transport to the reception on a boat, Dave and Jenny hitch a ride in a police transit van. As Steve Loxton gives the other PCs a lift to the pier, he is pulled over by Stafford Row police for speeding, and it turns out his car is flagged by Manchester Drug Squad. Meanwhile, the reception turns out to be a disaster as they run out of food and drink, and one of Jenny's aunts falls into the river, only to be rescued by the extremely sober Jim Carver.

DC Liz Rawton arrives at the station to find an envelope on her desk containing cut-up lingerie and rose petals. After the action-packed arrest of Joseph Anderson, a man suspected of organising lorry hijackings, Rawton receives a phone call asking if she liked her 'gift'. DC Duncan Lennox offers to let her stay at his house, and the two end up nearly kissing after a few drinks. Anderson abducts Rawton when she stops at a cash machine, and reveals that he is an associate of Brian Hill, a man she put away while she was with SO10. Anderson hands Rawton over to Hill, who is obsessed with her and takes her to a hotel room. An interview with another of Hill's associates reveals the name of the hotel, and CID and SO19 storm the room - but Hill jumps to his death rather than go to prison again.

DS Stanton, DC Lennox and DC Proctor are on an obbo at a spooky old building called the Old Pumping Station, which is supposed to be haunted. The trio tell each other ghost stories: back in his uniform days, Proctor was assigned to watch the house of a serial murderer. Investigating a noise, he meets a young woman called Cathy, who turns out to have been on of the killer's victims. A skeptical Stanton reveals how a psychic's assistance with a case she worked on turned out to be a hoax. Lennox, when he was in the Glasgow police, meets a dying crime boss who promises revenge from beyond the grave.

A young runaway waiting for his foster parents, a bickering Russian barbershop quartet and a drunk and disorderly elf from the North Pole are all part of the job for the Sun Hill night shift on Christmas Eve.

On a night out with her friend Lynn, Cass Rickman meets two men, Jamie and Ben, who offer her some dope which she refuses. To her horror, Ben is arrested the next day by DS Boulton for possession of drugs, a charge which Ben manages to drop onto Rickman when he insists the drugs are hers. Rickman is investigated by CIB, and things look bad for her when her friend Lynn makes a statement that Cass took drugs the previous night. DS Beech and DS Boulton follow Lynn and discover that she is the drug dealer, and she is linked to another dealer, Cairns, whom Boulton has been after for a long time.

It's New Year's Eve 2000, all police leave has been cancelled and even CID officers are back in uniform for the night. Chief Insp Conway and DCI Meadows just want to enjoy a drink of whiskey, but their plans are dashed at every turn. An obsessed DS Boulton drags PC Hollis around the city in pursuit of a suspect. PCs Quinnan and Page are trapped in a lift, and DC Lennox and PC Stamp have a wager going on who can make the first arrest.