Fashion Victims

It starts with a smash-and-grab at a fashion show, all panic and sequins. Armed robbers walk off with thousands of pounds of clothes, which sounds like the kind of crime the squad could enjoy. Then the counterfeit ring turns up, the glamorous world of haute couture shows its gruesome side, and the case stops being funny.

Into this walks Pieter Kluivert, a Dutch detective with a personal reason for being there. His son was murdered by an arms dealer, he's convinced the fashion raid is linked to the man, and he wants the squad's help. John Castle plays him with the right obsessive sheen. Glenn Matteo, played by Grant Masters, starts to wonder how much of Kluivert's story is actually true. It's a neat trick, keeping him sympathetic and slippery at the same time, and the episode manages it.

The case drags the team through the counterfeit trade, and the glamour wears thin fast. There's a decent line in the script about fashion being cut-throat, and then the episode shows you what that actually means. Around the edges, Simone Lahbib's Lucy McCarthy keeps the squad end grounded, while the guest list does its work: Tony Armatrading's Patrice Mabelle, Adam Bareham's Brian Benson, Ricci Harnett's Baz King, Martha Cope's Lizzie, Hilary Lyon's Christina and Kerry Maloney's Cindy. The ring's Mr Big stays out of sight for most of the running time, and the episode is better for it; the obsession is the interesting part.

Andy Lynch and Roy Mitchell wrote it, Keith Washington directed, and it balances the silly-sounding premise with real menace. The clothes are the bait, though the real engine of the episode is the vendetta.

It went out in October 1997, and the best thing about it is that Kluivert never quite tips over into villainy. But you're never sure whether Matteo's suspicion is copper's instinct or paranoia, and the episode leaves you to sit with that.