Say It With Flowers

Grant has a theory about Micky Dixon, and the theory involves a flower shop on Church Street. It is not the kind of lead that impresses the squad room at first, a London villain and a florist's, but Grant keeps pulling on the thread until it takes him to a man called Aldridge. Then Dixon is arrested on suspicion of driving a stolen car, which would be convenient if Grant did not need him back on the street before the bigger picture goes cold. Half the episode is the team trying to untangle the arrest from the investigation.

The pleasure is in the mechanics. Tony Hoare and Elwyn Jones wrote the script, Alan Dossor directed, and the case moves between desk work and pavement work without ever rushing. Watt, Hawkins and Grant carry the pressure; Lincoln and Pearson do the legwork; Pat Gorman's desk sergeant holds the station together from behind the counter. It is the kind of episode where the most dramatic moment may be a phone call or a door closing.

The guest list is where this one gets interesting. Alan Ford plays Dixon, some years before Snatch would give him the kind of face every film fan knows, and he is already good at menace that stays just below the surface. Carol Harrison is Lynn Haynes, Anthony Langdon is Bob Norton, and Bill Nighy turns up as Albert Blake before the world had learned to watch for him, doing quiet work in a minor role as if he had no idea what was coming.

The whole thing hangs on a simple idea: a suspicion about a shop can grow into something neither side expected. It is a modest episode that knows exactly what it is, which is most of its charm. Sometimes the flower shop is just a flower shop. And sometimes it isn't.