Lies and Liars

A pet shop owner stands accused of inappropriate relations with a young child, and the whole of Hartley holds its breath. Lies and Liars is one of those episodes where the accusation itself is the story: it carries weight, it can unravel lives in a hurry, and every officer handling it knows that getting it wrong in either direction is a disaster.

Inspector Jean Darblay leads the inquiry with Superintendent Albert Hallam looking over her shoulder, and the pair of them, still circling each other after their first-season clash, have to find a way to work together on the most delicate kind of case. Sergeant Joseph Beck and Sergeant George Parrish gather the details, PC David Gallagher runs the messages, and the community offers its own uncomfortable testimony. Anne Latimer and Steve Ramsay find themselves forced into positions of observation and suspicion, while Mrs. Stannard and Mark Stannard are among those implicated or left witnessing events they would rather forget.

Ray Jenkins wrote it, Jonathan Alwyn directed. Stephanie Turner is Jean Darblay, James Grout is Hallam, with David Hargreaves as Tom, David Ellison as Beck, Noel Collins as Parrish and Gerard Kelly as Gallagher. Jeff Rawle plays Steve Ramsay, Rowena Roberts is Anne Latimer, and Jean Boht, later of Bread fame, is Mrs. Stannard, with Timothy Cogley as Mark Stannard.

The episode's care is in the handling. It never lets the accusation become spectacle, and it never forgets that the child at the centre of it is a child. The suspicion spreads through the town like a stain, and the show is honest about how little can protect a reputation once the word is out, whether the accusation is true or not.

The law is applied with diligence here, and the truth still comes out complicated, tangled up in human failings and outright deception. That is the episode's quiet argument, and it is a strong one.

It is uncomfortable viewing in the best way. Some weeks the show asks you to sit with the uglier side of community life, and it trusts you to do it.