Lost and Found

Most episodes of this show end with a conviction. Lost and Found starts after it, with Inspector Kate Longton in the witness box watching a defence barrister take her motives apart in public. The case itself has already been tried; what is on trial now is the investigation. The courtroom is the whole battlefield. No chase scenes, no scrapes; just the slow, bruising work of having every decision she made questioned by somebody paid to make her look wrong. Courtroom episodes are a test of a show's confidence, and this one passes.

Edward Peel's Detective Chief Inspector Mark Perrin looks on from the body of the court, and Frances Viner's Barbara Trevor and Jo-Anne Knowles's Judith Trevor give the case its human side. John Gill is the judge, and Iain Cuthbertson is the defence counsel doing the attacking, a part he clearly enjoys. Around Longton sit the familiar ranks: Sergeant Joseph Beck, Sergeant George Parrish, PC Danny Sparks and PC Brian Kelleher. Every question lands in front of an audience that has heard it all before.

Tony Charles wrote it, Paul Ciappessoni 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. Edward Peel plays Mark Perrin, Frances Viner is Barbara Trevor, Jo-Anne Knowles is Judith Trevor, John Gill is the judge and Iain Cuthbertson is the defence counsel.

But the episode's point is that a case can be won in court and still cost something. Longton survives the barrister's attentions, but the pleasure of a verdict is thinner when your own integrity was the exhibit. She answers, and answers, and does not flinch. Watching her hold the line is the whole entertainment. The verdict matters less than the survival. It is a contained hour, and all the tenser for staying in that room. The courtroom drama here is about the woman who put the defendant there.