Multistorey (2)

The first half left Boyd's judgement in doubt; the second half tests everyone else's evidence instead. The team working the multi-storey car park massacre keeps finding exculpatory material on the convicted spree killer, and worse, signs of several cover-ups along the way. The Gunman's claims of innocence, dismissed for so long, start looking less absurd by the hour. It seems someone else may have been involved.

That's a nasty position to put a squad in. Every new piece of evidence pointing away from the convicted man points towards people who had every reason never to revisit this case, and the episode enjoys that slow inversion: the official version of events turning out to be the least reliable thing in the file. Boyd, meanwhile, is still wrestling with his past, investigating a mass murderer who also killed his close friend, and the two struggles feed each other badly.

Barbara Machin and Ed Whitmore keep the personal and procedural strands braided without letting either become soap. Robert Bierman directs. The cast around Trevor Eve earns its keep: Sue Johnston as Dr Grace Foley, Holly Aird as Dr Frankie Wharton, Claire Goose as DC Amelia Silver, Wil Johnson as DS Spencer Jordan, with Robert Pugh as Robert Cross, Jason Hughes as Andrew Cross, Kim Vithana as Beth Downing, Sean Pertwee as Carl Mackenzie and Lara Cazalet as Fiona Mackenzie.

It aired on 15 September 2003, one night after the opening part, and it pays the season opener off properly. The first half was all suspicion and stalemate; this one moves. What stays with me is the show's honesty about institutions: cover-ups don't require monsters, just enough people with something to protect. And the question of whether Boyd can trust himself with this case never quite goes away, even as he's proved right about the things that matter.