Journeys

Two investigations run through Journeys, and they could hardly be more different. Inspector Jean Darblay is trying to solve the mystery of an old woman's remarkable journey, while Sergeant George Parrish is being surprised by the revelations of a minor criminal, the sort of man who usually does not merit a second thought.

The old woman is Elsie Harben, played by Katharine Page, and her journey is the episode's centrepiece: a life's movement retraced through paperwork, memories and the people who crossed her path. Geoffrey Bayldon, a long way from Catweazle, appears as Jack Lord, with George Simmonds close by, and the tracing of Elsie's route gives Darblay the kind of case the show does best, one where the truth is hidden in ordinary lives. Parrish's thread runs in a different key. The minor criminal's revelations land on him like a slap, forcing the sergeant to look at things he would rather not have seen, and the episode lets that discomfort sit.

Ian Kennedy Martin wrote it, Ben Rea directed. Stephanie Turner is Jean Darblay, with David Hargreaves as Tom, David Ellison as Sergeant Joseph Beck, Noel Collins as Sergeant George Parrish and Tony Caunter as Detective Chief Inspector Jim Logan. Lloyd McGuire is Detective Sergeant Bernie Duckworth, Gerard Kelly is PC David Gallagher, Geoffrey Bayldon is Jack Lord, Joby Blanshard is George Simmonds and Katharine Page is Elsie Harben. It aired on 21 November 1981, and the series once again found its best material in the quiet corners of ordinary lives rather than in spectacular crime.

The two threads balance each other nicely: one about a life fully lived, the other about the debris a half-lived one leaves behind. The routine machinery of the investigation gets disrupted by both, and that is the point.

It is satisfying to watch the unexpected details of ordinary people's lives send the whole station off balance. That is where the show always lived.