Party Fun

Inspector Jean Darblay is left holding the baby when a prisoner is released from HM Prison Parkhurst. The title, Party Fun, does not prepare you for the image: a senior police officer, a wrapped infant, and a man walking free into the day. It is the sort of situation no training manual covers.

The episode runs on the collision between procedure and the utterly unexpected. The prisoner's release is the event, the thing everyone is watching for, and Darblay finds herself with the baby in her arms at exactly the wrong moment, which turns out to be the right one for drama. The station's regulars orbit the situation: Sergeant Joseph Beck, Sergeant George Parrish, Detective Chief Inspector Jim Logan and Detective Sergeant Bernie Duckworth, with Tom Darblay and Annie Howlett in the family corner. The wider community is drawn in by Old Man Miller, his family's Eddie Miller, and Jack Willis, each adding weight to the world around the prison gates.

Ian Kennedy Martin wrote it, Leonard Lewis directed. Stephanie Turner is Jean Darblay, with David Ellison as Beck, Noel Collins as Parrish, Tony Caunter as Logan and Lloyd McGuire as Detective Sergeant Bernie Duckworth. David Hargreaves is Tom, Ann Curthoys is Annie Howlett, Frank Middlemass is Old Man Miller, Robert Austin is Eddie Miller and Ray Mort is Jack Willis.

The premise sounds like farce, and there is a touch of it, but the show plays it straight. A baby in the middle of a police operation changes everyone's priorities in a hurry, and watching hardened officers go soft around the pram is a genuine pleasure. Underneath the comedy is the serious business of a man coming out of prison and the question of what happens to him next.

It is a lovely, odd hour, the kind only a show confident in its own voice would attempt. The release happens, the baby survives, and Darblay earns her tea.