Games

A surprise security check at the local station turns into something else entirely when the officers find themselves investigating the assault of a teenage girl. The timing is pointed: sexual assaults on children are rising, the episode notes, and Watt and Hawkins are determined to crack this one quickly and set an example. The urgency is understandable. It is also, the show quietly suggests, exactly the wrong mood for careful police work. The difficulty is that pressure and judgement pull in opposite directions, and the squad has both in generous supply.

The episode keeps its nerve. The team want a result fast, and the temptation is to take the first confession that comes along, the version of events that fits. But things may not be what they seem, and the episode's confidence shows in how patiently it lets the case turn over. Frank Windsor's Watt and Norman Bowler's Hawkins are in charge, with Insp. Armstrong, Sgt. Evans and PW Det. Con. Donald working alongside them. Sgt. Beckett (Colin Rix) and Police Cadet Shepherd (John Yule) fill out the station end, while Timothy Lee, Mrs. Lacey and Emma Jones, played by Terence de Marney, Jean Boht and Jane Sharkey, bring the human cost of the case into the room.

Elwyn Jones and Arnold Yarrow wrote it, and Michael Simpson directed. The title is a quiet warning: games are being played here, and not only by children. The episode trusts its audience to understand the weight of the subject without hammering it home, and it is the stronger for that restraint. There is no lecturing, and nobody is let off with an easy answer. The investigation simply takes the time it takes, and the ending leaves a few questions open in a way that feels honest rather than frustrating. The case is not tidy, and the episode does not pretend otherwise.