Black Out

A woman collapses in a church, and the only thing she can tell Cowley is a garbled warning about an attack on a diplomatic meeting the next day. She is German, she has no memory of who she is, and when the ambulance taking her to hospital is attacked, it is clear she matters to someone. Gerda is the whole case in one person, a witness who does not know what she witnessed.

Her memory comes back in fragments, and the fragments lead Doyle and Bodie to a quiet Kentish village. There she remembers the rest: she is a nanny, and her employers were taken by gunmen who plan to hijack the diplomatic talks. CI5 now have a day to find a missing family and the armed men holding them, before the meeting they are meant to protect becomes the target.

Brian Clemens wrote it, William Brayne directed. Linda Hayden is Gerda, and she carries a lot of the hour on her own, giving the amnesia the right mix of fear and frustration. Ben Cross is Stuart, not long before Chariots of Fire made him a name, Steve Alder is Murphy, Jill Martin is Mrs. Parker, Sylvester Morand is Mr. Parker, Timothy Stark is Henry and John Arnatt is Humber.

The amnesia gimmick could be a cheat, but the episode plays it fairly, letting Gerda's memory come back in pieces the audience discovers alongside her. The village setting is well used, all closed doors and people who know more than they say, and the missing Parker family gives the search a human face. Gerda's employers are ordinary people caught up in something far too big for them, which makes the rescue feel personal.

A tidy, contained thriller, and a good example of the show making a lot out of a single strong idea, with the clock on the diplomatic meeting ticking throughout.