A Long Cold Lonely Winter

Alan Cade's first day in the top job, and the phone is already ringing. Three former workers have hijacked an offshore exploration rig, an American gas rig, and they want the world to know about the conditions they worked in. Cade has been chief constable for about five minutes and he already has a hostage situation with no easy exit. The rig is a world of its own, out of sight of the county map, and the new chief has to reach it without any of his usual tools.

The episode is about his choices, and the biggest one is who does the negotiating. Cade turns to Anne Stewart, the colleague he beat to the job, and the hour earns its interest from that decision. She is good at the work, and he is smart enough to use her. Whether the two of them can share a room afterwards is another question entirely. The negotiator choice is the heart of the hour, and the show keeps it open as long as it can.

Ray Jenkins and Jeffrey Caine wrote it, A.J. Quinn directed. Martin Shaw's Cade carries the day with Karen Archer's Anne out on the rig side of the crisis, while Michael Cochrane's Nigel Crimmond and Stuart McGugan's Det. Chief Supt. Sean McCloud hold the force end. Alex Norton's Gordon Mackie, William Macbain's John Reid and Roy Alon's Andrew Cochrane give the hijack its human faces, with Katrin Cartlidge's Liz Williams, Garrick Hagon's OIM Bergholtz and Robert Alexander's Simon Harris filling out the rig.

The title promises something bleak, and the hour mostly delivers the cold and the waiting. But Cade's choice of negotiator is the real story, and it suggests the new chief might be better at this than his rivals hoped. It is a solid first day, as first days go, and a fitting test for a man who will be judged on his choices.