Secrets

Four people are under arrest and nobody is talking. The wall of silence around the murders holds until the questioning turns to Liam Walsh, who used one of the victims' cashpoint cards, and Nadia, the last person seen with Darren Rigby, stays stubbornly unhelpful. Nikki Madden and Anthony Stainfield, linked to Nadia by a joyride in a stolen car, are equally evasive. The breakthrough comes when another victim turns out to be Nadia's brother. Janet persuades her to expose the gang that preys on men's sexual weaknesses, and the case finally cracks. The gang's trick was to reach men through their sexual weaknesses, which makes the victims hard to discuss and harder to investigate.

But the domestic side is a different kind of mess. Rachel wakes up in bed with Sean, a mistake she is keen never to repeat. Sean is charming and relentless, and Rachel is not sure which of the two is the problem. Janet wants to keep her newly single status quiet, which lasts about as long as it takes her daughter Taisie to tell Andy Roper that her dad has moved out. Andy, learning that Adrian has gone, decides the coast is clear. Janet disagrees, and has to keep saying so.

Sally Wainwright and Diane Taylor wrote it, China Moo-Young directed. Lesley Sharp's Janet and Suranne Jones's Rachel lead, with Sean Maguire as Sean McCartney, Nicholas Gleaves as Andy, Amelia Bullmore's Gill, Judith Barker as Dorothy, Harriet Waters and Olivia Fenton as the Scott girls, David Prosho and Tony Mooney in the ranks, and the squad in support.

The case closes with the culprits exposed, but the episode's real business is elsewhere: two women trying to keep their private lives from becoming evidence. Neither succeeds, which is probably the point. And the clean solve leaves a sour taste, because everyone involved has lost something.