Chalk and Cheese

The title is the whole story. "Chalk and Cheese" is about a pair who shouldn't be in the same sentence: Giles Nunn and Caroline Selhurst, upper crust, robbing lonely country lanes for profit and, mostly, for the sport of it. They recruit Tommy Garret, a working-class lad whose father happens to be an old acquaintance of George Carter. But that connection is the fly in the ointment, because Tommy's involvement pulls Carter into a case that is suddenly personal.

Regan is on to the pair early, and the episode's nastiest turn comes when Caroline is arrested. She refuses to cooperate, and her silence costs the next victim their life. It is a cold beat for a show that could usually find a laugh somewhere, and the script, by Trevor Preston with Ian Kennedy Martin, lets it sit there. Terry Green directs, and the robbery itself is a nasty piece of work, all the nastier for happening in daylight on a quiet road where nobody expects a hold-up.

The casting is inspired. Lesley-Anne Down gives Caroline the glittering, bored cruelty the part needs, and Shane Briant's Giles Nunn is the weak half of the partnership, the one who knows the game has turned but cannot stop. Paul Jones's Tommy is believable as the boy out of his depth, and David Lodge's Pop Garret is a lovely piece of warmth in an episode that doesn't have much to spare. Carter's reunion with the family is exactly the awkward, painful thing the title promises.

Haskins is there keeping order, and the usual faces, Peter Howell, Ken Wynne, Jeremy Child, fill out the edges. The country settings give the episode a different texture from the usual Sweeney streets, all hedgerows and gravel drives and very little to hide behind. It is a strong start to the second season, and a reminder that the Sweeney could go quiet and country when it wanted to. The countryside didn't make the villains any less vicious.