John The Lad

John Peter Morton is back in Hartley, and Inspector Kate Longton wants to know why. John The Lad is built on the return of a dangerous young man to a town that remembers him, and the tension that one reappearance can generate in a community that thought it was rid of him. Broadcast in November 1983, mid-way through the fourth series, it shows the Longton-era station at its most watchful, pointed at one man and waiting for him to move. That patience is repaid in the slow build of the hour.

The episode grounds the threat in procedure. Longton makes her enquiries, checking what Morton has been doing and what he might be planning, and the routine machinery of the force gets pointed at one man's movements. Sergeant Joseph Beck and Sergeant George Parrish support the inquiry, PC Danny Sparks and PC Brian Kelleher keep the ground covered, and the people around Morton, his mother Norah, Louise Matthews, John Holden and Janet Philips, each have their own read on his return. David Milner plays Morton with the right edge of menace, a young man whose reputation walks into rooms before he does.

Tony Parker 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, David Milner is John Peter Morton, Jo Rowbottom is Louise Matthews, Christine Hargreaves is Norah Morton and Lizzie Mickery is Janet Philips.

The episode's contained drama comes from the way local rumour translates into police work. Nobody has proof Morton has done anything yet, but the town's memory of him is enough, and the show is honest about how much of policing is managing the fear before the fact.

It is a solid hour about the edges of community safety. One man's return, and the whole patch holds its breath.