Seeing Red

Cade's first big test as chief constable arrives with two problems bolted together: a royal visit that demands a huge security operation, and an administrative review of his spending. The two sit awkwardly side by side. Every pound spent on the visit is a pound he has to justify, and the whole thing cooks without a lid. Royal visits are where security operations go to be photographed; the review is where they go to be judged.

Trouble arrives in the shape of a doctor who has been running a private scam. His claims about corruption involving a prominent local councillor get nowhere through official channels, so he picks a larger platform: the school concert at the heart of the royal visit. He breaks through the cordons and airs his allegations in front of everyone, at precisely the worst moment for a man trying to hold the line on order and reputation. There is no shoot-out and no chase. The weapon here is timing, and it is handled beautifully.

Karen Archer's ACC Anne Stewart, Stuart McGugan's Det. Chief Supt. Sean McCloud and Colum Convey's Det. Insp. Davies carry the investigation. The political fallout spreads through Kate Binchy's Councillor Rosalind Maxwell, Shaun Curry's Councillor Jack Welford and Ayub Khan-Din's Councillor Mani Shankar, with Ron Cook's James Baddeley, David Hunt's David Kendal and Juliette Mole's Marie-Pierre Arnoux filling out the edges.

Ray Jenkins and Jeffrey Caine wrote it, A.J. Quinn directed.

And nothing here explodes. Nobody gets shot. The drama sits in what the cameras keep off-screen: a man's career hanging on whether he can smile through a school concert while a doctor shouts about corruption behind him. It is a modest sort of thriller, but a sharp one. In this force, the scariest thing in the building is an audit, and the episode knows it. The title is about the anger, not the colour scheme.