The Floater

The river is the thing that stays with you in this one. A man who lives a hand-to-mouth existence on and around the water sees a chance to make real money and takes it, teaming up with a female drug dealer whose business is far heavier than his. But the association looks like an escape from poverty, and it turns out to be a route to prison. The story ends where it began, back on the riverbank. The water is the one constant, patient and indifferent to the people who try to use it.

The episode has the contained dread the series does so well, the sense of a man watching his own mistake close in on him. Roger Tallon plays Ian Yellop, the river deadbeat at the centre of it, and Vicki Michelle's Rae is the dealer with the dangerous connections. The pairing is the whole drama: a small-time man out of his depth and a professional woman with everything to lose. Natalie Kent appears as Mrs. Yellop, giving the story its domestic edge. It is a small story, but the stakes feel enormous because the man at the centre has so little to lose.

Barlow and Hawkins take the case, with PC Snow, PC Drake and Insp. Daley in support and Radar providing the canine contribution. Elwyn Jones and Allan Prior wrote it, and Paul Ciappessoni directed. The episode moves at the river's pace, unhurried and knowing. Vicki Michelle, later to become a familiar face in a certain French village sitcom, is convincingly hard-edged as Rae.

The ending does not let anyone off. The river, as ever, keeps its own counsel, and the man who thought he could read its moods ends the episode exactly where he started, only with less freedom. It is a small, sour little story, and it knows exactly what it is. Whatever else it is, it is a story told with a straight face, and the straight face is what makes it work.