A Pretty Face

A break-in at a chemical engineering warehouse leaves a young constable badly injured in a hit-and-run, and Cade is ready to throw the book at whoever did it. The book lands on an awkward target: the culprits turn out to be customs and excise officers working undercover, and doing a poor job of it. Furious is putting it mildly. The injured officer is the sort of collateral the show never glosses over, even when the case turns farcical.

The other thread is softer and stranger. With Anne Stewart gone, Cade hires Alison Dell, a public relations executive described as pushy, to polish the force's image after the terror business earlier in the season. The phrase 'boost the force's image' is doing a lot of work, and the script knows it. She is good at her job, which is the problem. The working relationship starts to spill into their private lives, and the episode watches it happen with a raised eyebrow. Outsiders rarely last long in this station; Dell may be the first one it does not manage to repel.

Dinah Stabb's Virginia Chapel, Terence Beesley's Andrew Rouse, Andy Rashleigh's Gerry Goold, David Collings's David Anson, Tony Rohr's Det. Insp. Geoff Fielding and Brian Gwaspari's Det. Sgt. Turner work around Michael Cochrane's Nigel Crimmond and Stuart McGugan's Det. Chief Supt. Sean McCloud.

Jeffrey Caine and Michael Russell wrote it, Roger Gartland directed.

And Ingrid Lacey's Alison Dell is the reason to watch. The show has never quite trusted public relations, and watching a PR woman outmanoeuvre a chief constable in his own station is a quiet pleasure. The customs men are the crime of the week, but the real story is the one that does not need handcuffs. Office romance in a police drama is usually a trap; here it stays human. The title, A Pretty Face, turns out to be about the force as much as anyone in it.