A Policeman's Lot: Part 1: The Row On The Stairs

The address is the sort London keeps in its back pocket: a private detective's office above an adult shop. The police turn the place over, and almost at once an employee from the detective's office goes missing. Finding him is only the start of the trouble, because the detective's name rings a bell with Barlow. But bells like that are never good news.

The missing man is the thread the team pulls, and the case comes apart along the lines of a small business district's secrets. Marjorie Rhodes' Mrs Granger, Sharon Duce's Mrs Nicholson, Roy Sone's Nicholson and Christopher Hancock's Meadows all live on top of each other's business, and they give the episode the texture of a street where everyone watches everyone. The row of shops is the kind of place where a missing man is noticed slowly, by people with their own reasons for not asking questions, and the episode enjoys that wariness. There is a downstairs and an upstairs to the place, and the story makes sure you notice the difference.

Elwyn Jones and Alan Plater wrote it, Peter Cregeen directed. Stratford Johns is Barlow, Norman Bowler's Det. Insp. Harry Hawkins works beside him, and David Lloyd Meredith's Sgt. Bob Evans, Terence Rigby's PC Henry Snow and Brian Hall's PC Drake do the thankless parts. Heather Stoney's PW Det. Sgt. Green keeps the paperwork honest. Barlow's memory of the name is the hook the whole trilogy hangs on.

It is the first of three parts, so the episode is allowed to end with questions rather than answers. Part one has the job of setting the table, and it does so without rushing. The office above the shop, the vanished employee, the name that will not leave Barlow alone: each piece is placed with care, and the viewer is trusted to keep them in mind.