Tough Love

Mandy Sweeting disappeared twenty-three years ago, and her body has been kept refrigerated ever since, which is a sentence that takes a moment to sit with. Her husband Gary was the chief suspect at the time, and he has since died, which would normally close the file. But it does not close the file. Gary's mother Barbara is still furious that he was blamed on no evidence, and Rachel is annoyed at Rob's father Frankie, who led the original inquiry and wanted Gary for it without much to go on.

The original investigation was poor, and the team's job is partly to wade through it and re-interview a family who have spent two decades bruised. The truth eventually surfaces: Antony, Gary's brother, was the father of Mandy's child, conceived after a drunken night between them. Everything points at Antony for the murder. He claims he only helped Gary dispose of the body. The police think otherwise, and so will most viewers. Two brothers and one drunken night between them: a small family tragedy that took two decades to surface.

Janet, meanwhile, keeps Gill's secret and shares a smaller one with Rachel: she would like a boyfriend. It is a quiet thread, and the show lets it sit there while the case does the shouting.

When the case is solved, Gill announces she intends to retire. It lands with the weight it should, because Gill has been the fixed point this whole time. She has earned the exit, even if the squad has not quite earned letting her go.

Amelia Bullmore, Diane Taylor and Sally Wainwright wrote it, Simon Delaney directed. Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp lead, with Anna Calder-Marshall's Barbara, Judith Barker's Dorothy, Danny Miller's Rob and the usual squad of Delroy Brown, Tony Mooney, David Prosho and Danny Webb in support.

A body kept cold for two decades, a family still waiting for answers. And a boss preparing to walk away. Tough love is one name for it.