Hell's Kitchenette

Just as Danny decides to go straight, the Inland Revenue turn up at the door, which has the timing of a bad joke and the weight of a real one. Danny's plan to go straight has lasted about as long as such plans do, and the taxman has timed his visit perfectly. They want £230,000 in ten days, or Danny faces arrest. He does not have £230,000. The one asset he can sell is the Paradise Club itself.

But Frank rallies the residents instead. The club has always been more than a business to the people who live and work in it, and the episode turns the cash-raising into a community effort. Everybody chips in; nobody can quite cover it alone. There is something almost touching about hardened villains passing the hat.

It is a soft-hearted hour underneath the crime-drama trim, and the show wears it well. The threat is an invoice, which is a more believable villain than a man with a gun, and the deadline gives the whole thing the shape of a countdown. The fund-raising takes in every corner of the club's world, and the episode finds a warm comedy in criminals discussing tax.

The regulars get their moments. Jonjo O'Brady, Polish Joe and Ron Blythe all do their bit, while DS Jack Nesbit, Max Wartbug, Ignatius Dundas and Jessica Daltry add new faces to the mix. David Swift's Max Wartbug is a name worth saying aloud.

Murray Smith wrote it, Colin Gregg directed. Leslie Grantham's Danny, Don Henderson's Frank and Barbara Wilshere's Carol lead, with Peter Gowen, Leon Herbert, Kevin Short, Jack Galloway, David Swift, Toby Salaman and Sian Webber in support.

Hell's Kitchenette is the episode where the family business is tested by accountants instead of gangsters, and it turns out the accountants are the scarier enemy. It is a bottle episode in spirit, everyone pushed together until something gives.