Fatal Error

A man's body is found wedged between rocks on the moors, with nothing to identify him. A woman named Maeve comes forward and names him as Michael Greenholme, her former lover, whom she last saw fifteen years ago. Janet and Chris Crowley follow the trail to farmer Callum Pritchard, who recently employed Michael. Michael bolts from the property, and his car overturns. He dies before anyone can ask him anything. Fifteen years is a long gap between last seen and found dead, and Maeve's identification is the only thread the team has.

But a search of Pritchard's farm turns up something far worse than a dodgy employment record: three men imprisoned there as slaves. The murder inquiry suddenly has a second case and a third, and a simple employee of Pritchard's is brought in to explain what the farm was actually for.

Around the edges, the personal weather closes in. Janet tells Gill's friend DSU Julie Dodson that she is worried about Gill's drinking at work, and Dodson cannot simply ignore it, which puts Janet in an awkward position she started with the best intentions. Rachel learns from her sister that their mother has died, and tries to keep working through it. Then she makes a fatal error, and it puts Janet and Chris in genuine danger. The title is not decorative.

Amelia Bullmore, Diane Taylor and Sally Wainwright wrote it, Neasa Hardiman directed. Amelia Bullmore's Gill, Suranne Jones's Rachel, Lesley Sharp's Janet and Pippa Haywood's Dodson carry the weight, with Camilla Beeput's Maeve, Danny Webb's Chris and the usual squad of Tony Mooney, David Prosho, Delroy Brown and Judy Holt in support.

A cold case on the moors that opens into something brutal and current, and a detective who cannot afford to be distracted. The moors keep their secrets better than anyone wants to admit, and Rachel's grief has a price the case is about to collect. The pieces are all in the air at once, and that is exactly how the show likes to leave them.