All the King's Men

A man has barricaded himself in an office building with a hostage and a fair amount of explosive, and he is threatening to take out an entire block of flats. He is a former CID officer, which means he knows the police playbook from the inside, and he is in no mood to be talked down. The explosives are laced through the building, which gives the standoff its shape: even a successful entry could end badly for everyone. Craven and the team are called in with the clock already running.

Negotiation fails, and fails again. The man keeps the detonator in his hand and lets everyone know the devices are wired and ready, and the episode does the patient, horrible work of watching the options run out. Geoffrey Bayldon plays Sumner, the man at the centre of it, with a stillness far more frightening than shouting. Ursula Howells is Mrs. Sumner, Brian Haines is Webb, Tamara Hinchco is Mrs. Kesky, Donald Webster is Kesky, Jumoke Debayo is Sheila Fenner, James Bree is Ray Beckett and Harold Kasket is the Psychiatrist.

Trevor Preston wrote it, Dennis Vance directed. George Sewell leads as Craven, with Roger Rowland's North beside him. Bayldon is best remembered as the befuddled wizard Catweazle, which makes this outing something of a treat: the same gentle presence, doing very different work. The neighbours, colleagues and one psychiatrist give the siege a civilian face, people whose ordinary day has turned into somebody else's fuse.

The episode keeps its focus tight, one building and one very angry man, and lets the tension do the expanding. But the clock is never far from the frame, and every failed offer from outside only tightens the screw. Siege duty suits Craven, who works best when there is nobody to delegate to, and Preston's script knows that the quiet moments before a blast are the ones that count.