Marksman

The witness is one of those people the police dream about: observant, precise, and willing to talk. What she describes points straight at a trio of bank robbers, and the squad is off. The twist of the episode sits in a detail the investigation only appreciates later. Det. Insp. Hawkins keeps up his shooting practice at the police range, and when the moment comes, that practice proves useful, though not without a cost.

Watt runs the pursuit with the squad around him: PC Snow and Sgt. Cooper on the ground, Sgt. Toovey and PC Harris in support, Chief Constable Cullen looking on from a height, and Radar the police dog picking up clues a human nose would miss. Tony Caunter's Murray completes the picture, the sort of name on the board that has to be checked twice. The pursuit, when it comes, has the momentum of an hour that knows what it is doing, and the range practice pays off in a moment the episode sets up early and collects late.

Frank Windsor leads as Watt. Norman Bowler's Hawkins gets the episode's key scene at the range, and Walter Gotell's Cullen brings the weight of the county into the room. Elwyn Jones and Allan Prior wrote it, Brian Parker directed.

The episode has the quiet thrill of a skill finally paying off. Hawkins practises because it is routine, and routine is exactly what saves the operation when it matters. But the hour is honest about the arithmetic: the shooting range is a clean place, and the street is not, and somebody always picks up the bill. It is not a showy entry; it is a competent one, built on the quiet idea that a man who keeps his eye in will thank himself later. A solid, workmanlike hour, and the dog, as ever, earns his keep.