In a Man's World

In a Man's World gives Kate Longton the worst possible day for an interview. She is on her way to be considered for the post of Chief Inspector of the Juvenile Board, a real step up the ladder, when she is stopped by a deranged woman threatening to harm her own children. The promotion can wait. But the crisis cannot. The interview is the career; the woman is the job, and the episode knows which matters more. It is the kind of day that makes a career ladder look faintly absurd.

Longton sets aside the interview and puts her skills to work on something no board room could prepare her for: talking a woman down and protecting children, all without the familiar machinery of a case file. The scene plays out in ordinary streets, which makes it worse and better at once. Her usual team hovers in support: Sergeant Joseph Beck, Sergeant George Parrish, PC Brian Kelleher, PC Danny Sparks and WPC Sheila Saunders (Julie Foulds), while the senior ranks look on: Edward Peel's Detective Chief Inspector Mark Perrin, Bernard Kay's Chief Superintendent Alec Maxwell, Antony Carrick's Assistant Chief Constable and William Simons's Chief Superintendent Jim Catley. The senior ranks watch from a respectful distance, which is itself a judgement.

Tony Charles 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, Edward Peel as Perrin, Julie Foulds as Sheila Saunders, Bernard Kay as Alec Maxwell, Antony Carrick as the Assistant Chief Constable and William Simons as Jim Catley.

The episode's quiet point is that the job's real tests never come with an appointment time. Ambition is a fine thing, but Hartley keeps interrupting it, and Longton keeps answering. There is no triumph in the episode, only competence, which is its own kind of drama. The board, whenever it meets, will have to take her as she is, crisis and all. It is a strong hour for the character, and the title's irony does not need spelling out.