Wild Card

An armed gang hits a plush London casino, and the first thing they do is shoot DS Bob Tate. He is working undercover as a punter, one of those nights he is probably enjoying, and then it all goes wrong. The raiders take a terrified croupier hostage, clear out thousands of pounds, and leave Tate on the floor with everyone wondering whether he will pull through. It is touch and go, and the episode means it. Casino security is meant to stop this kind of thing; tonight it barely slows them down.

With Tate in hospital, Grace Harris stays undercover to find out who tipped off the villains. She almost gets away with it, right up until she lapses into police jargon in front of the wrong people and blows her cover. And as if that is not enough, there is the matter of her and Donachie, a fling that is doing her concentration no favours. The squad, meanwhile, chases the men who escaped in the confusion.

Sian Orrells wrote it, Terry Winsor directed, and it first aired on 15 February 1996. Reece Dinsdale's Scott steadies the investigation, Lynda Steadman's Ash works the leads on the outside, and Pooky Quesnel's Harris carries the episode's messier half. Robert Willox's Donachie, Gary McDonald's Oxford and David Sterne's Uttley fill out the ranks. Trevor Byfield plays Jack Villiers, Denise Stephenson plays Val Douglas, and Jay Simpson plays Kelvin Jenkins.

Wild Card is a casino heist with a personal casualty at the centre, and the title fits. The raid is only the start; the interesting business happens afterwards, in hospital waiting rooms and in the space between two detectives who should know better. Tate's recovery is the anchor. The rest is the squad trying to look professional while their private lives keep pulling them off course.