The Good, the Bad and the Rest

Maggie Forbes has usually kept her family life and her job at arm's length, but the two collide here when her son Steve learns about criminal activity at his college, and Maggie steps in to help him. He is at an age where you would rather not call your mother, so when he does, the trouble is real. The college looks respectable enough from the outside. But it is the inside that is the problem.

The case pulls Maggie onto the campus, where respectability is doing its best to hide whatever the college is quietly running. George Taylor, the Bursar, Mrs Young, Rupert Jackson and Ivy Salmons all cross her path as the truth comes out in pieces. The emotional stakes are higher than usual because the trouble is close to home, and the show leans on that without leaning too hard.

The episode is a contained procedural: one institution with one set of secrets, and a detective with a personal reason to want them sorted. It works because the mystery stays grounded in the college rather than wandering off into the wider city. It is the sort of episode the series could do in its sleep, and that is exactly why it works.

Anthony Couch and Terence Feely wrote it, Gerald Blake directed. Jill Gascoine is Maggie, with Nigel Rathbone as Steve Forbes, William Marlowe as Chief Inspector Russell, Paul Moriarty as Jake Barratt and Bernard Holley as Detective Inspector Mike Turnbull. Around them, James Ottaway's George Taylor, Charlotte Mitchell's Mrs Young, Frank Gatliff as the Bursar, William Boyde's Rupert Jackson and Myra Frances as Ivy Salmons fill out the place. It is a big cast for a small story, and everyone earns their line.

Families complicate detectives. That's the point of the piece, and the show is honest about it. Even the most polished institution can hide a genuine menace, and Maggie does not need to be told twice.