Death Without Dishonour

The team is handed a protective detail: look after the witnesses in a 'cab war' trial. Then the prosecuting barrister turns up murdered, which rather suggests there is a hidden agenda underneath the case. A witness who dies is a case that dies with them, and everyone on the detail knows it. The trial is supposed to be the safe part; the danger is everywhere around it. Meanwhile, attempts are made on the lives of Strachan and Liz Galbraith, and Sean O'Donnell becomes Taggart's prime suspect. The danger is not confined to the courtroom; it follows people home.

And off duty, Alison Taggart keeps playing the field, to her father's visible disapproval. It is a small thread, but it stops the episode from being all procedure. Her father's disapproval is the closest the episode comes to a lighter touch, and it lands well. Family and work keep tripping over each other, and neither gets a clean run.

Glenn Chandler and Barry Appleton wrote it, Alan Macmillan directed. Mark McManus is Taggart, James MacPherson is Jardine, Blythe Duff is Jackie Reid, Iain Anders is McVitie. Stewart Preston is Brian Mills, Andy McEwan is Matt Dillon, Peter O'Brien is Bill Hamilton, Julie Peasgood is Michelle Duncan, with Harriet Buchan as Jean Taggart and Leigh Biagi as Alison Taggart keeping the home front in view.

Witness protection is a thankless job at the best of times, and this is not the best of times. The episode does a good job of showing how quickly a protected person's safety can come apart, and how much of that falls on the officers standing in the way. The barrister's murder makes the point for them, and the pressure never lets up from the first scene to the last. It is a solid entry, built on pressure rather than surprises.