Evil Eye

The raid goes wrong in London. A policeman is killed and the diamond thieves get away with a large haul. The armed raid is the kind of job that goes wrong for everyone, and the thieves spend the rest of the episode discovering exactly how wrong. The trail leads back to Scotland, to Taggart and Jardine, and it brings with it something the case files do not usually include: talk of a gypsy's curse. When the matriarch of a travelling family is found murdered in her caravan, the curse talk stops being colour and becomes a lead.

The second strand is simpler and uglier. A trio of robbers, running from the policeman's death, crash their car and are tended to by a local traveller. They kill her to keep their secret. It does them no good. And her death is quickly tied back to the killing of the officer, pulling the two investigations into one.

Glenn Chandler wrote it, Haldane Duncan directed. Mark McManus is DCI Jim Taggart and James MacPherson is DS Mike Jardine, with John Hannah as Danny Bonnar, David O'Hara as Malcolm Durie, Sam Graham as Billy Galloway and Berwick Kaler as George. Jill Gascoine is Jane Antrobus, Arturo Venegas is Emilio Gonzalez, Johnny Beattie is Frank Rourke and Graham De Banzie is Rourke's driver. Hannah and O'Hara are both here before Hollywood came calling, which makes the cast list a small pleasure in itself.

The curse business stays atmosphere rather than explanation, and the police keep their feet firmly on the pavement. There is also the small matter of a curse that appears to work, which the script never feels the need to explain, and the restraint is part of the charm. The result is an odd, satisfying episode that works as both a police procedural and a piece of Scottish gothic. The travelling community comes off better than the robbers, and the sympathy is welcome.