Tainted Love – Part 1

The last Gold story takes the series back to the street. Tainted Love begins with the body of a black woman, whom Rose identifies as Marva, and with the arrival of new forces on the Lane: gangsters from Leeds and a confused, dangerous young woman called Jae who between them control the lives of the women working there.

The murder brings Rose into direct danger. The police question a man called Raymond, and he blames Rose for putting them on to him. When he is released, he comes after her with a gun. Her position between the women and the police, the premise of the whole series, now makes her a target.

Carol's family arrives at the same time. Her half-sister, Lisa, turns up at the big house because their mother is in hospital. The visit ends in a row in which Lisa calls Carol a whore, and Lisa leaves, only to be drawn on to the Lane herself by Charlie, a young man known as Little Charlie for his ambition to run the street. Carol's wealth has bought her a new address but not her family's respect, and the sister who despised her is now in the life she left.

Catherine Johnson wrote the final two-parter, and Rachel Talalay directs. The guest cast includes Alicya Eyo as Jae and Ifan Meredith as Little Charlie.

The episode's strength is its return to the dangers that made Band of Gold matter: violent men, exploitation and the vulnerability of women working the street. After the community-liaison stories, it feels like the series remembering where it came from.

The weakness is crowding. The Leeds gangsters, Jae, Raymond, Lisa and Charlie are all introduced or developed in a single episode, and few of them can be more than functions of the plot. Gold's IMDb ratings, lower than those of the first two series, reflect a sense among viewers that the series had become busier and less intimate.

Louise Atkins, Judy Brooke and Daniel Edwards return as Helen, Julie and Sherrie, giving the final story a link with the earlier Gold episodes, and Laura Kilgallon's Emma is still part of Carol's household as the story begins.

The first half ends with Rose under threat from Raymond, Lisa in the hands of Little Charlie, and Marva's killer still unidentified. The stage is set for a finale that would bring the whole of Band of Gold to an end.