Bargains

Somebody is stealing from the high-end dress makers, and the copies are turning up in Kingley Market. Hawkins and Evans mount the operation, and what they find behind the market stalls is a proper little industry: original designs copied and manufactured to order, sold to anyone who wants the look without the price tag. It is trade, plain and simple, and the men and women working the stalls treat the thefts as a supply problem rather than a crime.

The trail takes the pair from the polished shop fronts to the clutter of the market, where the goods are made on demand and nobody admits to knowing anything. The contrast between the shops, all quiet carpets and commission, and the market, all noise and cash, is the episode's best joke. Anna Cropper's Barbara Broszac, Peter Birrel's Fender, Kristine Howarth's Mrs Nicholls, Yashar Adem's Hamil and Makki Marseilles' Andreottis all drift through the stalls with their own versions of the story, and the detectives have to sort the made-to-measure lies from the off-the-peg ones. WPC Arthur puts in an appearance, and Jenny Hanley's Sara Hawkins keeps the domestic side of the squad alive.

Elwyn Jones and Arnold Yarrow wrote it, Gerald Blake directed. Norman Bowler's Hawkins and David Lloyd Meredith's Evans carry the investigation with their usual easy partnership, and the episode keeps its tone lighter than most, none the worse for it.

The fashion setting gives the production a bit of colour, and the idea that a designer's original can be knocked out on a market stall in a day is the kind of everyday crime the task force was built for. And there is a dry joke in the title, because everyone at Kingley Market thinks they are getting a bargain, including the police, who get the whole operation for the price of watching. It is a breezy, tidy hour, and the market scenes alone are worth the admission.