Inside

Jordan goes into Wormwood Scrubs as a prisoner, and nobody is allowed to ask why. The cover is total: he is inside to get close to a convicted spy and find out what secrets the man is still holding. The convicted spy knows things, and the only way to reach him is to become his neighbour. Inman, who put him there, is not explaining anything either, and he is the one who looks worried. He believes time is running out, and that the department itself could be in danger if the mission does not produce results. The mission is simple to describe and near impossible to do.

Undercover in a prison is this show's favourite kind of pressure: no exits, no backup you can call on. Every conversation is a risk. Jordan has to live as a lag among men who have spent their lives learning to spot liars, and the walls do most of the acting. A wrong word in the exercise yard lands harder than a wrong word in Whitehall. Around him move Gillard, Sarah, Falk, Scace, Sephton and Dishman, inmates and staff with reasons to watch him closely, and somewhere on the outside Det. Con. Jane Simpson keeps her own watch.

Trevor Preston wrote it, Guy Verney directed. Derren Nesbitt is Det. Chief Insp. Jordan, Fulton Mackay Det. Chief Supt. Inman and Morris Perry Charles Moxon. Michael Goodliffe plays Gillard, Wendy Gifford Sarah, Kenneth Watson Falk, Constantine Gregory Scace, Hayden Jones Sephton, Simon Gough Dishman and Anne Rutter Det. Con. Jane Simpson.

'Inside' is a taut, claustrophobic season opener that locks its hero up and keeps the key away from the audience as well as the warders. But nobody doubts Jordan will walk out of the gate eventually. The question is what he can get out with, and whether Inman's clock runs down first. The clock, for once, is on the outside looking in.