Trial & Retribution XV: Rules of the Game (1)

Series eleven opens with a scare at Heathrow. An abandoned suitcase, a terminal held at arm's length, everyone braced for the worst. The bomb squad can stand down: what the case contains is worse than any of them expected and nobody's idea of terrorism. Inside is Sofia Petrenko, a high-class prostitute, strangled.

The suitcase leads quickly to Vitali Malikov, a Ukrainian billionaire with money, lawyers and friends in exactly the places that make police work difficult. He doesn't deny knowing Sofia; he admits hiring her services. But his account is a masterpiece of calm. She was alive when she left him, he says, and the suitcase was a gift. A gift. You have to admire the nerve, and Marcel Iures plays him with just enough charm to make you uneasy about admiring anything at all.

Walker arrests him on suspicion of murder, against diplomatic advice and fully aware of who Malikov knows. It's the most Walker thing imaginable: he'd rather be wrong and inconvenient than right and polite. And then comes the part that stings. He has to let the man go. Worse than that, by the end of the night Walker realises he hasn't been hunting anyone; he's been moved around the board by people whose game started long before Sofia died. The title isn't decoration. This is an episode about rules, about who writes them and who they protect, and the answer to both is: not coppers like Mike Walker.

Dudi Appleton and Jim Keeble wrote it, David Moore directs, and David Hayman anchors it as ever. Around him: Olga Fedori as Sofia, Branka Katic as Maryna Petrenko, Jamie Glover as Dan Vaughan, Simon Hepworth as Martin Billington, Senia Devine as Teresa, plus Martin Heathcote's Sgt West and small turns from Andy Beckwith's cabbie and Jason Ebelthite's estate agent.

A strong start to the run. The first night mostly positions its pieces, but it does so with real menace, and Hayman's slow-burning fury at being outmanoeuvred carries it easily.