You Don't Exist

A young woman lands at Heathrow from Rhodesia and immediately stops existing, at least on paper. Britain has broken diplomatic relations with her country, so she has no valid passport, and the usual route home is closed to her. Heathrow has no idea what to do with a woman who does not officially exist. A young officer is told to mind her until arrangements can be made. Instead he takes her for a tour of London.

That is the whole engine of the episode, and it is a good one. Every stop on the excursion is a small act of insubordination with a smile on it, and the day unspools through the corners of the city: a hotel, a receptionist, a pair of hippies, and police work trying to catch up in the background. The tour is a favour, an escape and a problem in one outing. Barbara Cartwright is the woman at the centre of it all, and her escort is somewhere between babysitter and tour guide, with a side order of lawbreaker.

Anthony Skene wrote it, Dennis Vance directed. Wensley Pithey is Det. Supt. Eden, Derren Nesbitt Det. Chief Insp. Jordan, Jennifer Wilson Det. Sgt. Helen Webb and Keith Washington Det. Con. Morrissey. Mel Martin plays Barbara Cartwright, Bill Horsley Branch, Clive Merrison PC Evans, Ian Gardiner the Hotel Receptionist, with Harry Meacher and Pamela Miles as the Hippie Man and Hippie Woman.

The title says it all. For the British state the girl does not exist, and for one young officer she is the most interesting thing that has happened all week. The episode sides with him, and you suspect it knows it probably should not. And that is the charm of the whole business: rules are rules, and then somebody breaks one and the day becomes worth having. Somewhere between the airport and the tour, the case stops being about passports.