The Ring

The trouble with a romantic present is provenance. When the wealthy, unattached Dave Connally starts courting Maggie, the whole thing is rather lovely, until the Victorian ring he gives her turns out to match the jewels her colleagues at Seven Dials are examining. Delight curdles into suspicion, and the episode does something quietly good with the collision: the man who might be a suitor might also be a thief. A ring is a small thing to give a woman you are courting, and a very convenient one to hide in plain sight.

There's a neat irony in Maggie working a case that keeps landing in her own lap. She examines the ring the way she'd examine any exhibit. And the questions come hard: where did Dave get it, and what else might he have taken? George Sewell plays Connally with the smooth charm the part needs, while Gascoine lets you watch the shift from flattered to watchful without a single scene of hand-wringing. The episode keeps its attention on one woman's judgement, and on how easily a compliment can start to look like evidence.

William Marlowe and Terence Feely wrote it, Paul Annett directed. The regulars are all present: Marlowe's Russell, Derek Thompson's Fenton, Paul Moriarty's Jake Barratt and Brian Gwaspari's Bob Croft, plus Nigel Rathbone as Steve, James Ottaway as George Taylor, Bernard Spear as Solly Goldmeir and Tim Pearce as Frank Crowley.

It's a satisfying piece of television because it refuses to choose between romance and police work; the two keep tripping each other up, and Maggie has to sort out her own feelings before she can sort out the case. The ring, as it turns out, is the least sentimental thing in the episode. That's the joke, and it's on nobody in particular, which is the kindest way to play it.