Trial & Retribution IV (2)

The cold case is no longer cold, and it is no longer private either. A crusading television documentary-drama has taken up James McCready's cause, turning the whole affair into public spectacle. Now the key witness is Fiona, Gary Meadows' daughter, who was seven when her father died. She is prepared to testify that she was there when he killed himself, and her account backs McCready's version of events. A child's memory, after all these years, may be all it takes to undo everything. But the deepest pressure lands on Fiona, a girl asked to relive the worst day of her life in front of strangers.

Walker is suspended, vilified, and at odds with Pat North, who did what her conscience told her and now has to live with the consequences. He goes to Glasgow to run his own private enquiries, working the case alone, away from the force and the cameras. There is something properly lonely about those scenes, a senior officer reduced to asking favours in the city where his story began. The friction between him and North keeps running underneath it all, and neither of them can afford to let it show.

Lynda La Plante wrote it, Michael Whyte directed. It went out in October 2000, the night after the first half. The cast is in fine form: James Wilby's McCready, Steven Hartley's Gary Meadows, Richard McCabe as Roger Barker, Zöe Lucker as Catrina Roberts, and Dorian Lough's Satchell keeping the home fires burning. Charles Cartmell and Tristan Gemmill play the actors playing McCready and Meadows in the documentary, which is a neat touch, the story reflecting itself back at the viewer.

The stakes have gone public, and that changes everything. A case that was once about evidence is now about reputations and airtime, and above all a girl's memory of the worst day of her childhood. It is hard to watch at times, and harder to look away from.