Running Out of Friends

Cade has started to suspect that the people closest to him in the force are working against him. Whether the suspicion is fair, the episode does not rush to say. What matters is what he does with it: he stops trusting the usual channels and leans on an old friend instead. For a man whose whole working life is built on the chain of command, that is a bigger step than it sounds.

The episode keeps the paranoia at a low, believable hum. It never tips into a shout. Cade watches the faces around him in meetings and briefings, testing every word for the sound of a knife being sharpened, and the viewer is invited to share his uncertainty. The old friend offers a way out of the official structures, and the contrast between the two routes runs through the whole episode. The script is patient with that ambiguity, and it pays off in the quieter scenes. It is a story about loyalty, and about what happens to trust when the institution that is supposed to embody it starts to look like the enemy.

Martin Shaw plays Chief Constable Alan Cade, with Bosco Hogan as Deputy Chief Constable Wes Morton, Gillian Bevan as Det. Supt. Rose Penfold, Davyd Harries as Sam Lester and Brian Bovell as PC Charlie Webb. Julian Glover appears as Andrew Blake, Shelagh McLeod as Maria Romero, Martin Troakes as Michael Penfold, Colin Mace as DI Gerry Garton and Robin Hellier as DS Jenkins. Jeffrey Caine and Ian Kennedy Martin wrote it, and Tom Cotter directed.

But the strongest thing here is seeing a seasoned operator stripped of his usual support. Cade has spent years inside the machine, and this episode quietly asks what he has left when the machine turns on him. The answer is an old friend and a long memory, which is a better answer than most. It does not settle the question of whether his suspicion was ever justified, which feels right for a story this careful.