Breaking Glass (2)

The race is on. The team still has no name for the care home paedophile who killed a boy and abused his friends, and now two of his victims are hunting him: Tanner, the dead boy's twin brother, and another former resident. Whichever side finds him first decides how this story ends, and the squad knows it. Reach the killer before the victims do, or there'll be another death on top of all the old ones.

That double chase gives the second half of Breaking Glass its engine. The procedural work, identifying a man who has spent decades hiding behind institutions that protected him, runs against the clock, while the personal pursuit runs against plain human fury. Stephen Davis and Barbara Machin keep both threads taut, and David Thacker directs without letting the grimness tip over into exploitation. This is heavy material handled with a steady hand.

Charlie Creed-Miles carries much of it as Tanner, whose vendetta has become indistinguishable from grief. Navin Chowdhry as Rainman, Saskia Reeves as Dr Laurie Poole, Michael Pennington as Macintosh and Ian Hogg as Oliver Gill fill out a supporting cast where almost nobody is what they first appear to be. The regulars close ranks around the case: Trevor Eve's Boyd, Sue Johnston's Dr Grace Foley, Holly Aird's Dr Frankie Wharton, Claire Goose's DC Amelia Silver, Wil Johnson's DS Spencer Jordan.

Aired on 28 September 2003, one night after the first part, which means viewers got all of this across a single weekend. Brave scheduling for material this heavy.

The ending lands hard because the episode never lets you forget that everyone chasing this man was damaged by him first. Justice, revenge, protection: the show declines to sort those neatly into separate boxes, which is about the most honest thing a drama on this subject can do. You leave it understanding Tanner completely and hoping the squad still catches him. Difficult viewing, done properly.