Chinese Whispers

Frank becomes a local celebrity almost by accident, thwarting a bank robbery and capturing one of the villains in the process. The town likes a hero, and Frank, in his collar, is an easy one to cheer. But the captured man is a problem: Danny is now obliged to help him escape, and on top of that the £140,000 lost in the raid has to be handed to Walter Fagin, or Frank will be seriously hurt.

It is a nasty little trap, and the episode enjoys watching Danny work his way around it. The celebrity bit is the joke at the centre: the more the neighbourhood applauds Frank, the more dangerous things become for the family. Frank's heroism has a price list, and somebody is adding it up.

The escape business keeps the hour moving, with Danny pulling strings he would rather not pull and the police asking questions he would rather not answer. The £140,000 is the weight that sinks every plan: everybody wants it, nobody wants to admit to having it. What makes it work is the family logic underneath. Danny cannot let his brother take the fall for a rescue he performed, whatever the cost of the rescue turns out to be.

The supporting cast gets a fine run-out. Jonjo O'Brady and Polish Joe hover, Ron Blythe turns up, and the Leung family, played by Kwong Chee Leong and Violet Lee-Own, bring a new corner of London into the story. DS Jack Nesbit and DI Goodchild handle the police side.

Murray Smith wrote it, Colin Gregg directed. Don Henderson's Frank, Leslie Grantham's Danny and Barbara Wilshere's Carol lead, with Peter Gowen, Leon Herbert, Kevin Short, Jack Galloway, Nick Kemp, Kwong Chee Leong and Violet Lee-Own completing the cast.

The title is the theme: a story passed from person to person comes back distorted. Nobody in the chain means any harm, which is exactly how the harm happens. And by the end, Frank's little moment of heroism has been whispered into a full-blown crisis.