Special Relationship (1)

The murder of Katherine Reed should have been straightforward. She was a prominent Home Office adviser; a petty criminal was charged with killing her. Then the jury acquitted him, and the whole thing landed on Boyd's cold case unit with everyone involved still very much in the room.

Reed herself is the interesting problem. Once a prominent feminist activist who attacked the establishment at every opportunity, she ended up working for it, and the episode clearly enjoys asking what that switch cost her, and whether it cost her life. Was she killed by someone from the world she left, or the one she joined? Part one isn't telling yet.

Boyd's difficulties stack up nicely. A Home Office audit means the team gets shadowed for the duration, so every hunch has to be performed for an audience. Worse, the original investigation was run by one of his old flames, which adds a personal awkwardness the show handles without milking it. Ruth Gemmell plays DI Jess Worrall with a guarded competence that makes those scenes hum; you can feel two professionals both remembering more than they're saying.

Stephen Davis and Barbara Machin wrote it, David Thacker directed. Trevor Eve leads as Boyd, with Sue Johnston as Grace Foley, Holly Aird as Frankie Wharton, Claire Goose as Amelia Silver and Wil Johnson as Spencer Jordan. The guest list is unusually rich: Corin Redgrave as Sir James Beatty, Patricia Hodge as Lady Alice Beatty, Anton Lesser as Professor Ray Levin and Amanda Root as Lorna Gyles.

There's something satisfying about watching this squad investigate people with clout. When the suspects sit in Whitehall-adjacent drawing rooms rather than tower blocks, the usual police weight stops working, and part one leans into that discomfort. The team spends the hour being watched while doing the watching, which suits Boyd badly and makes good drama out of it.