Chinese Whispers

Every man Bulman put away during his years on the force is a loose end, and the first episode of the second series pulls one of them back into view. But the meeting is not a coincidence, or not a comfortable one. The convict remembers who put him there, and Bulman remembers putting him there, and the episode is built on what happens when that history walks back into a quiet life.

Murray Smith wrote it, William Brayne directed, and the opener does what a second series opener should: it reminds you what the show is for without re-announcing it. Don Henderson's Bulman meets the past with the same mixture of weariness and obligation he brings to everything else, which is the character in a nutshell, and the convict's reappearance gives that manner something solid to push against. Siobhan Redmond's Lucy McGinty is the witness to it all, the person who sees that this case is different because it carries a personal weight. The episode is also a quiet demonstration of the pair's shorthand.

The title is the episode's theme in two words. Chinese whispers are how rumours travel and how the truth gets bent, and a convict's account of who did what to whom is rarely straight. The game may be one children play, but the stakes here are adult ones. Bulman has to decide what the man's return actually means, and the episode is smart enough to leave some of that open. Not every old case has a tidy verdict, and the show has always been honest about that.

The past is not a drawer you can close. The second series opens with a hand already reaching for the handle, and the episode is a reminder, delivered in the warm, unhurried style the show does so well. It is a strong start to the final season.