Extreme Delegation

Hilary Scott is on her way to the clinic when anti-abortionists attack her. The campaign against her has been building, and this time it turns physical. Terrified, she goes home to rethink the decision she had made, which is exactly what the protesters wanted. The clinic visit was her own business; the walk to it became everyone's.

The episode tracks what that does to a small community and does not pretend the police can fix any of it. John Shrapnel's Dan Cheyney and Stuart McGugan's Det. Chief Supt. Sean McCloud manage the fallout. Ingrid Lacey's Alison Dell hovers on the edges of Cade's week, and Jeff Rawle's Stephen Lester and Harriet Bagnall's Susan Braddon move through the margins. Around the Edgell family, Kathryn Pogson's Dorothy and Ray Ashcroft's PC Tom, with Tim Preece's The Dean, the show builds its familiar texture of duty and doubt. The Edgells are the episode's anchor, a family trying to live ordinary lives next door to a war of conscience. The police can guard the clinic and escort the woman, but they cannot unhappen the attack.

Martin Shaw's Cade stays mostly in the background, which suits the material. This is a woman's story, and Catherine Cusack's Hilary earns the hour. The writing lets her sit with the fear instead of racing her to a resolution, and that restraint is the whole episode. It is a hard subject handled without preaching. Cade keeps his distance here, and the distance is deliberate.

Jeffrey Caine and Michael Russell wrote it, A.J. Quinn directed.

But the show keeps its nerve. The episode offers no easy answer and no neatly villainous face. There is just a woman at home, deciding whether to go back. That is more uncomfortable than any chase, and braver television too. Her decision stays hers, which is the point. For a series that usually deals in committee rooms, this is unusually intimate, and it is better for it.