Runner

Not every raid is what it looks like. A gun shop gets hit and the guns turn out to be junk, which is the first clue that something else is going on. The something else is Duffy, a member of the political terrorist group the Organization, and his plan is to discredit the main body of the group, the part that has just agreed a truce with CI5.

But Duffy has a personal score to settle as well. Doyle killed his brother, and Duffy wants Doyle dead for it. He lures him into a trap and plants a bomb in a public car park, which means the chase carries a clock on it as well as a grudge. The raid was never about weapons; it was about starting a street war that would burn the truce down, with Doyle's corpse as the kindling.

Michael Kitchen plays Duffy, and it is a treat watching him do menace with that quiet voice of his, years before Foyle's War made him a beloved figure on British television. Brian Clemens and Michael Feeney Callan wrote it, Martin Campbell directed. Barbara Kellerman is Sylvie, Ed Devereaux is Albie, James Cosmo is Glover, Sean Caffrey is Ted, Billy Murray is Morgan and Valerie Holliman is Alice.

The truce angle is the interesting bit. The Organization has decided to talk instead of fight, and Duffy hates that enough to wreck the whole arrangement. It is a neat portrait of a man who would rather destroy his own side than share the peace, and the episode lets the political logic sit alongside the personal revenge without forcing them together.

Martin Campbell would go on to direct Bond films, and you can see the eye for action here. The car park finale is one of the better set pieces of the season, and it earns its place without ever losing sight of the man behind the bomb.