My Friend Charlie

"My Friend Charlie" puts Hungerford in danger and Bergerac in the middle — a story about loyalty, lies and a deal that was never what it seemed. Charlie has been approached by Karl Goldman, a businessman who claims he made his money in aviation, with a proposition: invest seven million pounds, and share in whatever comes next. Charlie, naturally, tells Bergerac about it — which is how Bergerac ends up on the trail of a man who kills people who owe him money, a wife who knows about his drug trade, and a stepdaughter who wants him taken to America to stand trial for her mother's murder.

Graham Hurley's script, directed by Michael Rolfe, is a slow-burn thriller in which the client's daughter is the one who wants her father gone. Giselle Goldman tells Bergerac that her mother drowned ten years ago — a diving accident, Goldman claimed, with a lawsuit against the school for negligence. The instructor, she says, saw Goldman tear off her mask and hold her under, and was paid to stay quiet. Her private detectives in Florida are building a case; she wants Bergerac to help her get Goldman off the island; and Bergerac, who has just spent the season learning the limits of his new job, is reluctant to take part in an abduction.

The truth, when it surfaces, is worse and better than the story. Giselle is not a grieving daughter; she is La Cortesana, a member of the drug syndicate, sent to retrieve the seven million Goldman stole. The men who went to collect it — the two missing Spaniards — were killed on his boat. Goldman, confronted, is chillingly calm: he has never been married before, he is infertile, and his wife Cathy backs him up. The real question of the episode is not whether Goldman is a monster, but who will get him first.

The finale has everyone at the marina: Goldman and his family ready to flee, Billy Lowry arriving with the drugs, and Giselle — armed — revealed for what she is. Bergerac overpowers her; Goldman is shot; and the Bureau, watching from a distance, moves in. Charlie, who nearly invested seven million pounds in a drug lord, is left to reflect on how close he came. A taut, well-played hour that shows the final series could still do menace with precision, and a reminder that the friendship between Bergerac and Charlie was always the series' quiet heart.