Expectations

WPC Hannah Maynard is in over her head, and the rescue falls to Inspector Jean Darblay. Expectations is a mentorship story dressed up as a police procedural: a young officer making her first mistakes in public, and a chief who has to decide whether to reel her in or let her learn the hard way.

The episode lets the two women carry it. Hannah Maynard, played by Rosalind Wilson, is given room to be genuinely out of her depth, and Darblay's handling of her is the quiet drama at the centre of the hour. Around them the station goes about its business: Tom Darblay, Sergeant Joseph Beck, Sergeant George Parrish, PC Roland Bentley, and a supporting cast that includes Jennie Randall, Vivian Maxley, Laura Cartwright and Dr. Jason, each adding a little weight to the world the young constable is trying to find her footing in.

Paula Milne wrote it, years before she became one of the sharpest political dramatists on British television, and Peter Moffatt directed. Stephanie Turner is Jean Darblay, David Hargreaves is Tom, David Ellison is Beck, Noel Collins is Parrish and Mark Drewry is Bentley. Rosalind Wilson plays WPC Hannah Maynard, with Wendy Allnutt as Jennie Randall, Doreen Andrew as Vivian Maxley, Jean Rimmer as Laura Cartwright and Mike Hall as Dr. Jason. It aired on 8 November 1980, and it is the kind of episode that shows how much of the first season's drama lived inside the station rather than out on the streets.

The episode's best decision is not to humiliate the young constable. She makes mistakes, she gets rescued, and the show understands that rescue is not the same as a reprimand. Watching a senior officer build somebody up instead of tearing her down is a small pleasure, and one the series would return to.

Expectations is about the gap between what new officers think the job is and what it turns out to be. The gap is where the drama lives.