Running out of Time

The week starts badly for DCI Matt Burke and gets worse from there. He is shot while taking a break from work, and on the same day a fraud squad detective's body is found by a colleague. Two men down, both on the same side of the job. When the searches of their homes turn up serious amounts of cash in both, the fear is that bribery has reached into the heart of police investigations. Burke lies in hospital with his reputation and his life both hanging by threads, and the team has to find the shooter before the whole thing collapses. It is the sort of week that makes an officer look twice at their own side.

That gives the episode a decent engine: a race against the clock with the boss as the prize. The fraud squad connection suggests the money was the motive, which means the killer may sit inside the wider machine rather than out on the street. Burke is out of action, which leaves the rest of the team carrying a case that concerns their own ranks. Suspicion falls on the people around his world instead of the usual suspects, and the guessing stays honest.

Glenn Chandler and Stuart Hepburn wrote it, Ian Madden directed. Alex Norton leads as Burke, with Blythe Duff's DS Jackie Reid, John Michie's DI Robbie Ross, Colin McCredie's DC Stuart Fraser and John Kazek's DS Kevin McQuillan doing the running. Julian Wadham is Brigadier Johnny Lewis-Scott, Coral Preston and Michael Nardone are Davina and Stevie Dixon, Anne Marie Timoney is Angela Meads, and Lewis Howden is Mickie Watson.

It is not a showy episode; the pressure builds steadily, and that suits the subject. Watching officers investigate a crime that smells of their own institution gives the whole thing an uncomfortable edge, and the questions it raises about money inside the job are left hanging rather than wrapped up. And for a show this far into its run, that is a quiet way to keep the fear close to home.