Silver Dollar

A group calling themselves the African Liberation Army is terrorising London, and Dempsey and Makepeace are on the investigation. So far, so much the usual business for a second series opener. Then the argument happens. Somewhere in the middle of the case the pair fall out over a misplaced set of car keys, the row escalates past all proportion, and Dempsey decides he has had enough: he turns in his badge and heads back to New York.

Ranald Graham wrote it, Tony Wharmby directed. The African Liberation Army gives the hour its legitimate threat, with George Harris's Reuben, Ben Thomas's Wes, Ronny Cush's Drew, Anthony Dutton's Maclean, Alan Downer's Solomon and Simon Harbrow's Gerry filling the ranks. Tony Osoba's Det. Sgt. Chas Jarvis is back on the supporting side, and Colin McFarlane, Norman Hartley, Ken Barker and Howard Cooke are among the guests.

But the row over the keys is the bit everyone remembers. The ALA case gives the pair something to argue over, which turns out to be its real function: two people who have been rubbing against each other for months finally hit the wrong grain, and the argument is funny and also, the episode suggests, a long time coming. The terrorists are the plot; the keys are the story. The episode went out on 31 August 1985, opening the second series after a summer away, and it chose to start with a row rather than a shootout, which is a fair statement of what the show thought its appeal was by then. It is the clearest example yet of what the partnership is made of: Dempsey's New York temper against Makepeace's London stubbornness, over a set of keys that no one can find.

It is a reminder that the biggest threat to this partnership has always been the two people in it. The episode has the good sense to let that carry it to the closing credits, and the series returns with its priorities straight.