Decoy

A string of rapes has the area on edge, and the usual methods aren't turning up the attacker. So Maggie goes undercover as a barmaid, offering herself as the bait she hopes he can't resist. It's a brave, uncomfortable plan, and the episode never lets you forget the arithmetic at the centre of it: every shift she works, she is a target.

The pub setting suits the show. Behind the bar she hears the boasts and the jokes, and the men who talk about the attacks with a grin that doesn't quite reach the eyes. The undercover work means long shifts and invented small talk, and the episode is good on the grinding detail of pretending to be someone else. Feely's script keeps the menace real without making the pub a den of obvious monsters, which is harder than it looks. But the danger comes from the one man who doesn't fit the picture.

Richard Owens's Dr Bill Ryder is the kind of local figure who should be above suspicion, which is precisely why the episode keeps him in view. Michael Watkins's Max Trenton and Peter Davidson's Tommy Hunter circle the bar with their own reasons for being there. Behind the scenes, William Marlowe's Russell, Derek Thompson's Fenton and Brian Gwaspari's Croft wait for Maggie to hand them something they can use, while Paul Moriarty's Barratt and the rest of the squad keep the operation's plates spinning. James Ottaway's George Taylor and Nigel Rathbone's Steve Forbes appear on the edges, a reminder that Maggie has a life beyond the bar.

John Reardon directed, with Terence Feely writing.

It's tense in the old-fashioned sense: no chase, no explosion, just a woman doing a dangerous job and counting the minutes until closing time. The show knows what it's asking of its star, and Gascoine delivers an episode that belongs entirely to her.