A Dead Man

Three robbers make off with two and a half million pounds' worth of rubies, which is a fine start for any episode. Then a second gang turns up dressed as the Flying Squad, takes the gems off them, and shoots the robbers. Their leader is Frank McGrath, and his speciality is cleaning up after his own kind. A robbery where the robbers get robbed by men in police uniform is a gift of a setup, and the episode knows it.

Scott gets the case and finds it tangled from both sides: an officious lawyer at his elbow, and McGrath quietly working through a list of people who used to be his cohorts. Then comes the personal blow. While chasing the rubies he discovers that an old enemy, a man he believed dead for years, is alive and coming for him and his family. The title earns its meaning: the dead man walks.

Roy Mitchell wrote it, Crispin Reece directed, and it aired on 24 October 1996. Reece Dinsdale's Scott carries the weight of the old enemy, and Kate McKenzie's Stephanie gives him a family worth worrying about. Brendan Coyle's Tate, Gary McDonald's Oxford and Pooky Quesnel's Harris work the rubies case around him. Amanda Pays plays DS Anna Dryden, with Bruce Byron as Ian Ripley, Clare Clifford as Claire Hegarty, Jon Conrad as Dominic Reed and Ben Murphy as Jeff Carpenter.

And the episode runs two threats at once, the loud one and the quiet one, and the quiet one is worse. McGrath shoots first and asks later; the dead man has been patient for years. A Dead Man is at its best when it lets the personal threat breathe, and the rubies are just the excuse to get there. Scott knows the score, which makes the last act feel heavier than the usual chase.