Cab Rank Cowboys

Cab Rank Cowboys is a case about a cab firm and the person inside it. Ray Watts, an old friend of Ken's, runs Crest Cabs, and a series of executive cars have been stolen. Each time, the firm gets a hoax call, the driver gets out to find the fare, and thieves jump in and drive away. They always take the most expensive cars, and Ray fears the firm will go under.

Ken talks to the drivers, to the dispatcher, Judy, and to John Blake, the garage owner who supplies and services the cabs. Blake thinks the cars are being stolen to order for export, and does not like being treated as a suspect. Ken spends an evening riding with one driver, Frank. They are called to a warehouse late at night, Ken gets out to find the passenger and is attacked, Frank goes to help, and the thieves get in and drive off with the car.

Judy tells Ken that Ray is a compulsive gambler who makes payments to Blake that never reach the books. Laura, playing a naive woman looking for a car, overhears Ray and Blake arguing. Ken breaks into the garage and finds a file showing that Joey Wallis, a mechanic with a criminal record, is giving the cars new identities. Blake catches him, and confesses that he and Judy had an affair and that he is the father of her two-year-old daughter.

Ken is convinced that someone inside the firm is passing information to the thieves. He decides to use Harry's Jaguar as bait, with a tracking device, but the device does not work, and Rocky has to hide in the boot with a mobile phone.

The thieves, Gavin and Mandy, pick up the car as a fare at East Midlands Airport and take it to a garage under a railway arch. Joey will not take it, because of damage from a collision, and they take it to a crushing plant. Rocky is nearly crushed, but a worker hears his shouts in time, and he tells Ray where the garage is.

Judy overhears. She knows the game is up, and she admits that she is the mole, passing details to Joey, who is her boyfriend. She goes to warn him, Ken and the police arrive, Joey escapes on foot, and Judy gives herself up. Ray is devastated, but his business is safe.

There is a second story. Rocky has been feeling undervalued, tells Ken he is in a rut, and applies to emigrate to Australia. Laura is heartbroken. Harry and Ken make him an offer he cannot refuse: a junior partnership with a share of the profits.

Peter Mann wrote the episode and Michael Winterbottom directs. Roger Lloyd-Pack plays Ray, Stratford Johns is Blake, Suzanna Hamilton is Judy, and Samantha Morton plays Mandy.

The strength is the scrapyard. A comic idea, Rocky in the boot of a Jaguar, becomes a real danger without changing tone. The weakness is the first half, which spends a good deal of time on Blake before the story turns to Judy. Rocky's partnership is the lasting result.