Warrant for a Phoenix

Interpol want a respected Greek historian extradited from England to face a theft charge, and on paper it is a simple request. Inman reads the file and does not believe it. That is the whole episode, in the best way: an extradition request that sits wrong from the first reading. The Greek community in London closes ranks around the historian, and the case becomes a standoff between the paperwork and the people. For a man whose job is reading people, the file reads wrong.

Stewart Farrar wrote it and Jim Goddard directed, and the investigation takes Jordan and Det. Chief Insp. Baynes through the heart of that community. Costas Petrides, Mikhali Joanides, Emil and Loukia Kazakos all have something to say about the case, and none of it quite matches the warrant. Everyone is polite and careful, and nobody is exactly lying. The truth, if there is one, is being kept somewhere out of reach. Jane Simpson and Proudie move through the margins, gathering the small details that never make it into the warrant.

And the title earns its keep. The phoenix has a way of surviving, and the episode enjoys watching the historian do it. Inman's instinct is that the story on the warrant is not the story in the file. The accusation is theft, a strange crime to lay at the door of a man the whole community vouches for.

Derren Nesbitt's Jordan and Fulton Mackay's Inman anchor it, with Morris Perry as Moxon, Paul Stassino as Emil Kazakos, Monica Vasileiou as Loukia Kazakos, John Bennett as Costas Petrides, Stephen Greif as Mikhali Joanides, Anne Rutter as Det. Con. Jane Simpson, Clifford Rose as Proudie and William Abney as Det. Chief Insp. Baynes.

It is a quieter outing than most: interviews, loyalties, a case that turns on character rather than gunfire. Whether the historian is guilty is a question the episode is happy to leave open.