Friends and Neighbours

Friends and Neighbours gives Kate Longton the kind of call she would rather not take: an intruder has been reported at a friend's house. The job follows her home in a way it usually does not, and the episode is interested in that bleed, the moment police work stops being a shift and starts being personal. The door is familiar; the report is not, and the difference is the whole episode. The friend is somebody she knows well, which is exactly the problem.

The Markham household is the scene: Martin Jarvis's Clive, Rosalind Ayres's Linda and Janet Brennand's Jill, with Hilary Mason's Mrs. Unwin as the neighbour who has seen something. Each of the Markhams reacts to the intrusion in their own way, and the reactions matter as much as the break-in. Longton works the intrusion with Sergeant Joseph Beck, Sergeant George Parrish, PC Brian Kelleher and PC Danny Sparks. The police response is textbook; the personal cost is not. But the real investigation is into how much of herself the job has already claimed.

William Humble wrote it, Michael Owen Morris directed. Anna Carteret is Kate Longton, with David Ellison as Beck, Noel Collins as Parrish, C.J. Allen as Kelleher and Mark Botham as Sparks. Martin Jarvis plays Clive Markham, Rosalind Ayres is Linda Markham, Janet Brennand is Jill Markham and Hilary Mason is Mrs. Unwin.

The episode wears its concern lightly, which is the right way. No speeches about work-life balance, just a woman doing her job at a friend's door and noticing, for once, what the uniform costs. It is the sort of episode that rewards a rewatch, when you know where the small details are pointing. Martin Jarvis, as ever, brings more to the guest part than the script strictly requires. A quiet hour, and one of the more honest ones.