Teacher's Pet

The anonymous telephone call comes in, and Inspector Kate Longton has to move fast to save a life. Teacher's Pet drops the new inspector straight into a race against the clock, the sort of episode where every minute of screen time is spent in the anxious space between the call and the outcome. It went out in September 1983, only the second episode of the fourth series, and it proved an early test of how Longton's station would run under the new inspector.

The search pulls in the whole station. Sergeant Joseph Beck and Sergeant George Parrish marshal the ground teams, PC Danny Sparks and PC Brian Kelleher do the urgent legwork, and Longton co-ordinates the scramble with the calm that is rapidly becoming her signature. Around the search move the people who might hold the key: John Holden, Geoffrey and Pamela Parsons, Margo Renton, and WPC James, each with a connection to whoever is in danger. The episode keeps the tension tight from the first ring to the resolution, and it works, because the show understands that urgency is built out of details, not shouting.

Wally K. Daly wrote it, Leonard Lewis directed. Anna Carteret is Kate Longton, with David Ellison as Beck, Noel Collins as Parrish, Mark Botham as Sparks and C.J. Allen as Kelleher. Tom Georgeson plays John Holden, Tim Wylton is Geoffrey Parsons, Sally Sanders is Pamela Parsons, Penelope Nice is Margo Renton and Rachel James is WPC James.

The episode is a reminder of what a well-constructed race against time can do for a series. There is no villain to outwit, no twist to unpick; just a life hanging in the balance and a police force trying to find it in time. That is enough, when it is done this well.

It is a tight, focused hour, and a fine early outing for the Longton era. Some mysteries do not need to be complicated. They just need to matter.