Neglect

Baby Drew Redhead dies in hospital, and his injuries do not match anything his parents have said. Jenny and Marcus are interviewed, and the two of them could hardly be more different: Marcus stays remarkably calm, Jenny is openly hostile. Gill notes that Drew had previous injuries reported by different hospitals, which is the kind of pattern that speaks for itself.

The parents point the team towards their babysitter Adjoah and her drug-addicted boyfriend Nick Wootton, and cocaine in Drew's system puts Wootton squarely in the frame. Then Adjoah tells Janet that Jenny was an inadequate mother who took drugs herself, and Marcus backs her up. But it is Marcus who eventually comes up with the revelation that lets Janet solve the case, and the solving is quiet and grim rather than triumphant. The case ends with answers nobody wanted to hear, which is the show's specialty.

Around the case, the personal weather is rough. Rachel is punishing Janet for not telling her the truth about the sergeant's job, which Rachel took as second choice. Janet feels inadequate as a mother now that Elise has moved in with Ade, and she has not quite given up on the boyfriend idea. Gill, meanwhile, has got wind of Rachel's affair with Will Pemberton and is not pleased about it, which is a conversation Rachel has been avoiding. The professional and the personal keep tripping over each other, and nobody is winning.

Lee Warburton, Diane Taylor and Sally Wainwright wrote it, Noreen Kershaw directed. Lesley Sharp and Suranne Jones lead, with Andrew Knott's Marcus, Steve Toussaint's Will, Judy Holt's Scary Mary and the usual squad of David Prosho, Tony Mooney, Delroy Brown and Danny Webb in support.

A baby's death with no clean villain, and a team whose own messes keep intruding. Nobody comes out of it looking brilliant, which is probably the honest note to strike.