Flight

Kingley Airport is already tense when the holiday firm Jason Travel goes under. But the collapse turns the terminal into a place where a riot is one announcement away, and stranded travellers do not riot politely. A holiday firm going bust with its customers in the building is a particular kind of mess: nobody is hurt, and everybody is furious. In the middle of it sits Barlow's undercover operation into the thefts working the airport, and the two situations collide hard enough to threaten both.

The answer is PC Snow, sent in undercover to keep the theft investigation alive while everyone else manages the crowd. It is a good use of the character: the unremarkable constable nobody looks at twice, given a proper run at the job. Michael Forrest's Dunston, Nicholas McArdle's Ken Priest, Raymond Westwell's Maycroft and Rita Merkelis's Ann Peters populate the airport around him. The airport is a good setting for the whole business: all transience and nowhere to hide, with the crowd scenes giving the hour its heat.

Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor lead as Barlow and Watt, with Gay Hamilton's Jean Watt and John White's Christopher Jones in support. Terence Rigby's Snow gets the episode's best work, with Brian Hall's Drake alongside him. Elwyn Jones and Arnold Yarrow wrote it, Geraint Morris directed.

The episode has the rare quality of a thriller with its sleeves rolled up: a big public scene with a quiet operation inside it, and a constable in the middle of both. The collapse of a holiday firm is a very 1970s disaster, and the episode treats it with the seriousness it deserves while keeping its eye on the people. Snow earns his hour, the thefts get their answer, and the whole thing closes the way the series does best: with the job done and nobody celebrating.