Right of Entry

Series four opens with a dead burglar and a case of paranoia, and the two make awkward bedfellows. There is a body to be processed and a neighbourhood convinced of things it cannot prove. Neither yields a clean lead, and the episode works best when the strands trip over one another. It is an odd double load for a first case back, and the script never lets her forget it. The title cuts both ways: a legal term about entering property, and a quiet question about how far Maggie is allowed to push.

The script comes from William Marlowe and Terence Feely, with John Reardon directing. Marlowe also plays Det. Ch. Insp. Russell, which gives the show a pleasing sense of the author standing inside his own story. Brian Gwaspari's Bob Croft and Paul Moriarty's Jake Barratt fill out the squad, with Kevin O'Shea's Peter Phillips completing the set. The usual domestic relief arrives through Nigel Rathbone's Steve Forbes and Avis Bunnage's Auntie Win, while James Ottaway's George Taylor and Barbara Young's Paula Ferris drift around the edges. Clive Swift, a long way yet from Keeping Up Appearances, turns up as Dalziel, a surname that surely made somebody smile. The episode went out on 22 October 1982, early in a season that kept her busy all winter.

The paranoia strand is the sharper of the two. A frightened mind reads harder than a fingerprint, and the writing takes that difficulty seriously. Maggie's patience gets tested in ways her training never covered, and she meets the test with the quiet firmness the character wears so well. There is a decent point buried in here about how suspicion feeds on itself, and the show lets it sit rather than spelling it out. And Russell, to give him his due, backs her without fuss.

Not the flashiest opener the series produced. A steady one, though, and a fair promise of the season to come.