Tequila Sunrise

Sid Lowe rules an entire London region with an iron fist, and when one of Makepeace's informants, Wee Jock, gets beaten up by Lowe's men, the reaction is not what you would expect. For once it is Dempsey who is the reasonable one, holding his partner back while she does the fire-breathing. The role reversal is the point of the episode, and it is a good one.

Ranald Graham wrote it, Tony Wharmby directed. Milton Johns makes a fine, slippery Lowe, with Edward Kelsey's Stavros and Stephen Frost's Big Mall beside him. Lou Hirsch's Wee Jock has the unenviable job of being the beaten informant, and he does it with the right amount of dignity. Tony Osoba's Chas Jarvis, Roy Evans's Sims and Lloyd McGuire's Norman fill the rest of the board, with Angela Bruce and Johnny Dennis among the guests.

The title promises a cocktail; the episode delivers something stronger. Watching Makepeace want blood while Dempsey plays the brakes is a pleasure the show had not tried before, and it works, mostly because Glynis Barber sells the fury and Michael Brandon sells the awkwardness of being the voice of reason for once. The beatings that drive the plot are kept ugly enough to justify her anger, and the episode never pretends the informant trade is a clean one. It went out on 28 September 1985, a month into the second series' run, and it is Ranald Graham's second script of the season after Silver Dollar. He has a talent for stories where the real fight is between the partners and the crime is the excuse to have it, and Tequila Sunrise does that trick as well as any of them. Milton Johns, a familiar face from decades of British television, plays Lowe smooth enough to make you almost see his side.

It is a solid, character-driven hour, and the image of Dempsey holding Makepeace back is the one that stays with you.