Turbulence

Turbulence takes Kate Longton out of her usual patch and into the army's. Major Alan Garwood turns up asking for help finding a corporal who has gone absent without leave, and the search takes the episode into a different set of rules: service discipline and regimental loyalties, and the question of why a soldier would walk away from it all. The army has its own way of doing things, and the station has to learn it fast.

Malcolm Stoddard's Major Garwood steers the inquiry from the military side, while Christopher Fulford's Cpl. Tom Warren is the man in question, with Debbie Armstrong's Jean Warren and Nora Connolly's Mary Marshall caught in the search. The Warrens' home life, such as it is, becomes part of the picture, because a deserter usually leaves more than a barracks behind. The search moves between barracks and back streets, and the show enjoys the contrast. Longton works with her usual team, Sergeant Joseph Beck, Sergeant George Parrish, PC Brian Kelleher and PC Danny Sparks, and Detective Chief Inspector Mark Perrin (Edward Peel) adds the senior perspective.

Tony Parker wrote it, Colin Cant directed. Anna Carteret is Kate Longton, with David Ellison as Beck, Noel Collins as Parrish, C.J. Allen as Kelleher, Mark Botham as Sparks and Edward Peel as Perrin. Malcolm Stoddard plays Major Alan Garwood, Christopher Fulford is Cpl. Tom Warren, Debbie Armstrong is Jean Warren and Nora Connolly is Mary Marshall.

The episode is a good reminder that the show can step sideways and still feel like itself. Longton is the civilian in someone else's institution. But she handles it the way she handles everything, by asking the right questions and refusing to be impressed. The title does its work: the turbulence is the soldier's, and also the department's, and also Longton's for an hour. Nobody gets a hero's exit, and nobody expects one. A tidy hour about desertion and the reasons people leave, told without sentiment.