Chasing the Dragon

Chasing the Dragon starts with the grim chore every officer dreads: knocking on a door to tell a mother her daughter is dead. The girl has died of a drug overdose, and Inspector Kate Longton does the telling. What should be the end of the story is where this one begins, because the mother, Beth Cunningham, seems to be hiding something, and grief is not the only thing in her eyes. The title, an old phrase for the heroin habit, does its own quiet explaining. The knock is the easy part; the conversation is not.

The Cunningham household becomes the case. Karen Archer's Beth, Sally Dynevor's Wendy and Jonathan Newth's Alan sit at the centre of it, and the investigation has to pick its way through the family's silences. Every interview is a test of what the Cunninghams will admit to, and of what they think they can keep. The house itself seems to be holding its breath, and the camera respects that. Longton works with Sergeant Joseph Beck, Sergeant George Parrish, PC Brian Kelleher and PC Danny Sparks, with Detective Chief Inspector Mark Perrin (Edward Peel) and Detective Sergeant Jack Phelan (David McAlister) on the detective side.

Frank W. Smith directed. Anna Carteret is Kate Longton, with David Ellison as Beck, Noel Collins as Parrish, C.J. Allen as Kelleher, Mark Botham as Sparks, Edward Peel as Perrin and David McAlister as Jack Phelan. Karen Archer plays Beth Cunningham, Sally Dynevor is Wendy Cunningham and Jonathan Newth is Alan Cunningham.

The episode understands that a death notification is only the first layer. And underneath it sits the question of what the family knew, the slow realisation that some households carry secrets heavier than any dose. There is no neat villain; there is just a family, a habit, and the wreckage in between. Grief is present throughout, but the mystery is what grief is hiding. It is a sombre hour, well made, and it stays with you. The episode earns its seriousness by never reaching for it.