Retribution

The man in Kate Longton's office is a ghost from her past, and he is not here to talk. As a sergeant in another area, Longton arrested a man for inappropriate behaviour with young girls. Now he has spotted her in the street, followed her to the station, and taken her hostage in her own office, with PC Danny Sparks caught in the same room.

Retribution is a siege episode played in close quarters, and its power is in the intimacy of the threat. The station becomes both the scene of the crime and the place where the response has to be organised, with Sergeant Joseph Beck and Sergeant George Parrish marshalling the officers outside the door while Longton has to keep her captor calm from the wrong side of it. Detective Superintendent George Austen and Chief Superintendent Tompkins, played by Edward Clayton and William Gaunt of The Champions fame, take charge of the unfolding crisis, and DS Bernie Duckworth works the edges. John Lambert and Ann Lambert add their own connection to the man's grievance.

Ewart Alexander wrote it, Leonard Lewis directed. Anna Carteret is Kate Longton, with David Ellison as Beck, Noel Collins as Parrish, Mark Botham as Danny Sparks, C.J. Allen as Brian Kelleher and Lloyd McGuire as Duckworth. John Woodvine plays John Lambert, Rosalie Williams is Ann Lambert, William Gaunt is Chief Superintendent Tompkins and Edward Clayton is Detective Superintendent George Austen.

The episode uses the contained threat to show the personal jeopardy behind professional actions. The arrest Longton made years ago has followed her home, and the show does not pretend that police work comes without a price. The hostage scene is properly tense, the kind of television that makes you hold your breath despite knowing how these things usually end.

It is a strong, claustrophobic hour. The past, the episode argues, does not stay in another area. It finds you eventually.