Strike The Father

Strike the Father takes the show's favourite kind of trouble, the kind that arrives from inside, and makes it personal. A police officer's son is arrested, and the station has to go about its work with one eye on the family in its own ranks. The title gives away which officer, but the episode is less interested in surprise than in the slow, uncomfortable business of duty against loyalty. Nobody at Hartley gets to be a spectator; an arrest like this touches every desk in the building.

The Parrish family carries the weight: Rosalind Bailey's Pamela, Jason Littler's Simon, Adam Kotz's Colin and Philip Lewis's Phillip, with Ian Wilkinson's Adrian nearby. Inspector Kate Longton leads the investigation with Sergeant Joseph Beck, while Sergeant George Parrish watches his own name get dragged through a case file. PC Danny Sparks and PC Brian Kelleher handle the legwork. A boy's future sits in a file that his own family's name is written across, and the case is ordinary in its details, which is exactly what makes it awkward.

Graeme Harper 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. Rosalind Bailey plays Pamela Parrish, Jason Littler is Simon Parrish, Adam Kotz is Colin Parrish, Philip Lewis is Phillip Parrish and Ian Wilkinson is Adrian.

What makes it work is how little anyone grandstands. But the officers know the boy, or know of him, and the questions they ask each other are the ones they would rather not answer. The uniform does not stop at the station door, and neither does the damage. There is no tidy way to separate the policeman from the father, and the show does not pretend there is. Beck, as ever, is the calm centre. The episode never lets anyone off that hook, least of all Parrish himself, and it is the sort of hour that makes you glad the show does not sentimentalise its coppers.