The Outcasts

The squad is chasing two teenagers, and nobody is quite comfortable with it. The pair pull armed robberies with a swagger that looks amateurish until you notice the skill underneath, and the list grows: arson, murder. Charlie Scott's team are used to professional villains. These two are young and fearless, which makes them harder to read than any professional, and they do not leave an obvious trail. The squad has to learn them the hard way, street by street.

The hunt takes the squad into London's shadier corners, turning over the lives of rent boys and underage prostitutes for any lead that holds. It is grim work, slower than it looks on paper, and the episode does not pretend otherwise. Getting a result is easier said than done, and the episode lets that difficulty show. Then the pair bolt for the coast, and the chase becomes a proper pursuit with a showdown waiting at the end of it. The change of air does the episode good; a straight road gives the story somewhere to run.

Brendan J. Cassin wrote it, Douglas Mackinnon directed, and it aired on 7 March 1996. Reece Dinsdale's Scott runs the pursuit, with Brendan Coyle's Tate, Lynda Steadman's Ash, Robert Willox's Donachie, Gary McDonald's Oxford, Pooky Quesnel's Harris and David Sterne's Uttley along for it. The pursuit gives everyone something to do, which is not always the case in these team shows. Liza Walker plays Katherine Baker, Danny Dyer plays Alex Peters, and Thomas Goodridge plays Simon. It is one of those outings where the young faces carry the weight, and they carry it well.

And the two of them get the Bonnie and Clyde billing, but the episode keeps the camera on the damage instead. The result is a brisk, uneasy hour that builds from bafflement to a showdown without ever making the pair look cool.