Episode 1

Series eight opens on a question with only two answers, and the team has neither. Harry Pearce is missing: no body, no message. Section D has to carry on with his office door shut. Then the picture sharpens. Before he vanished, Harry thwarted a clandestine operation to smuggle weapons-grade uranium into Iraq, cargo that was meant to hand the war its justification. The rogue officers who set that up want their uranium back, and they will go to any length to get it, through anyone who knows where Harry is.

That changes the search. Now it is a race to find him before the men who lost a war's worth of bargaining chips find him first. The episode keeps both questions open and lets them pull against each other: is Harry dead, and if he is not, is there still time? Neither answer looks good from where the team stands, and the trail is cold enough that the uranium is the only thing still giving off heat.

Ben Richards and David Wolstencroft wrote the script, and Alrick Riley directed. Richard Armitage's Lucas North leads the search, with Peter Firth's Harry looming over it from wherever he is. Hermione Norris's Ros Myers, Miranda Raison's Jo Portman and Genevieve O'Reilly's Sarah Caulfield work the case from the Grid, while Ace Bhatti's Amish Mani, Paul Birchard's Libby McCall, Daniel Rabin's George, Andrew Scarborough's Stephen Hillier and Robert Glenister's Home Secretary circle it.

Opening a season on a missing boss is a gamble, because the audience knows Harry's face and the team knows his habits, and neither helps. The episode gets away with it by keeping the search urgent. And the uranium gives the hour its teeth: everyone chasing Harry has a reason that has nothing to do with loyalty. That is the sort of hook that earns the next hour a viewing.