Nobody's Fireproof

Clark's boast in the very first episode was that his cover was fireproof. Nobody's fireproof, says the title of this one, and it means it. The trigger is almost comic: Supt. Billy Urquhart gets caught kerb-crawling in King's Cross with a prostitute in his car. Then the raid on his home reveals a man living on far more than a Superintendent's salary, and the mood turns.

J. C. Wilsher wrote and Alan Dossor directed, and the episode turns Urquhart's night out into a proper scandal: murder, blackmail and pornography, with rumours about his links to porn king Dennis Ralston going back years. Larry Lamb, decades before he was Gavin and Stacey's Mick, plays Ralston, and Stephen Moore's Urquhart does a fine job of looking like a man watching his own life come apart in public. The case could finish several careers, and the show doesn't pretend that's a bad thing. Matters darken further when the flatmate of the woman in his car is found dead, putting Urquhart in the frame for a second crime, and Ciaran Madden's Sandra Urquhart, the wife, watches the scandal land on a household as well as a career.

Meanwhile the Carswell inquiry reaches its end, and it isn't a kind one. Jenny Dean's part in the affair carries tragic consequences, and the episode balances the sordid spectacle of the Urquhart business with a genuine sense of loss.

It's satisfyingly messy television. Professional misconduct, deep criminality and personal tragedy all under one roof, each thread pulling on the others. And by the end, the fireproof doctrine Clark wrapped himself in at the start of the season lies in pieces on the floor, which is exactly where the show always wanted it. The King's Cross setting does its usual work, all neon and bad decisions, and the raid on Urquhart's home is the moment the episode turns serious. The porn king connection is the kind of detail the show drops in without fuss, letting it sit there until the implications arrive.