Seasons & episodes

The UCOS team are drawn into a world of immigration loopholes, Albanian gangs and family feuds when they reinvestigate the death of an unidentified male discovered on farmland outside Waltham Forest in 1996, in what appeared to be a crucifixion.

New information links the unexplained death of a market trader to a series of drug rapes in east London - but with that case still ongoing, Ucos are unable to question the chief suspect, so they have to look into their victim's past in their search for clues. Gerry soon finds a likely culprit in the shape of the market inspector who clamped his car, while Sandra has problems of a more personal nature when her hated mother arrives for a visit.

After psychologist Samantha Gerson shows up at UCOS to conduct a study on older men in the workplace, she ends up getting a mixed reception. Samantha also wants a favour and asks Pullman to look at her brother's case. Darren Gerson was the victim of a hit and run in May 2006 which left him with a serious brain injury and complete memory loss of anything about his life before the accident happened. Darren now is convinced that he is still a target because of the package he was carrying at the time.

Sandra's old flame DCI Larson, head of the Met's arts and antiques squad, asks the team to reinvestigate the murder of antiques dealer Mal Baxter. His death was originally thought to be the result of a burglary gone wrong, but new evidence suggests Baxter was a police informant while conducting underhanded deals.

A woman is sent anonymous emails from someone claiming to know what happened to her husband Phillip Mackenna, a prominent scientist working on cold fusion who disappeared while on a train to Paris. As the team investigate, DAC Strickland receives a warning from Whitehall.

As part of his initiation into a motorbike gang called The Braves, Reece Chapman plans to murder the rival gang member he believes killed his father Eddie, the former leader of The Braves. Desperate to stop Reece, his girlfriend Stephanie Parr turns to UCOS for help in solving Eddie's murder to prove he's targeting the wrong man.

The investigation of the murder of Christopher Collins, who was listed on a website as missing by a former employer, meets a dead end until it is revealed that he was in the witness protection programme. Meanwhile, the team wonder what effect the upcoming cuts to the police force will have on UCOS.

The team reopen the case of zookeeper Zac Halsey, originally thought to have been mauled to death by a tiger, when blood evidence discovered in his lodgings suggests he was killed before he was found in the tiger's enclosure.

S9 · E1A Death in the Family 2012-08-27 · 60 min＋

Jack announces that he he has decided to leave the team, but before Sandra, Brian and Gerry can question his reasons, Whitehall figure Stephen Fisher shows up with one of his secret cases featuring the unsolved murder of a woman dating back around a hundred years. With only 24 hours to solve it, the team attempt to find time to get to the bottom of Jack's surprising decision and attempt to persuade him not to leave.

The team are called in to reinvestigate the disappearance of PE teacher Jason Bowe after a body is found on the perimeter of the elite public boarding school where he was employed. The investigation has come at a really bad time for the school, which is getting to welcome a former pupil, the Rt Hon Geoffrey Parkes MP, for the opening of a new computer centre.

DS Pullman breaks the rules to explore a possible cover-up at the Foreign Office.

Retired DI Steve McAndrew from Glasgow joins the team to reopen one of his old cases when the DNA of a woman who went missing as a teen turns up at the scene of a petrol station robbery.

The team become concerned that undercover police operations may have been compromised when the body of a computer expert who worked with the Met turns up under a false name at a teaching hospital.

The team investigate the death of a 16-year-old tennis star who fell—or was pushed—from a penthouse balcony after she lost an important match to a rival.

UCOS re-open the case of Sean Docherty, a talented young poet whose burnt body was discovered ten years ago in the scrapyard of a known gangster. While Standing is convinced that the murder is related to Docherty's criminal connections, Lane is sure that the answer lies in his poetry.

The team investigate the murder of an East German immigrant, but they only have his mysterious final words to work with. As they attempt to piece together his remarkable story, Sandra attempts to gain the trust of his estranged daughter.

McAndrew and Standing are sent to Scotland by Strickland for a week, to help the Glasgow Police try and establish a new UCOS section led by DCI Fiona MacDougall. While there, they end up being caught up in a cold case from 1993 featuring the murder of bookie James Soutar.

Thirty years ago, Strickland and a group of his associates, including Stephen Fisher, were involved in a covert operation on behalf of MI5. Now, someone is trying to kill all the members of that group and Strickland turns to the UCOS team for help.

S10 · E1The Rock: Part One 2013-07-30 · 60 min＋

Lane's future at UCOS is threatened by a death in custody which emerges from his past. Meanwhile, the discovery of a mysterious gun in the Thames re-opens the unsolved 1998 murder of a playboy shipping heir and leads the team to the Rock of Gibraltar.

S10 · E2The Rock: Part Two 2013-08-06 · 60 min＋

The team unlock over three decades of secrets and lies on the Rock of Gibraltar and find the link which solves the murder of a playboy shipping heir from '98 and a young local boy from '82. With both cases solved, they return to England where Lane faces a disciplinary hearing, dragging up a death in custody from his past which threatens his career in UCOS.

S10 · E3The Sins of the Father 2013-08-13 · 60 min＋

Brian Lane knows his days at UCOS are numbered. Meanwhile the team investigate a 16-year-old murder of a young mum by her criminal husband that could be a miscarriage of justice. However Gerry Standing feels very strongly that the conviction should not be called into question.

S10 · E4The Little Brother 2013-08-20 · 60 min＋

As Lane comes to terms with life after UCOS, Esther asks him to help one of her book club friends find her missing brother - but will his nose for the truth get him into further trouble? And how will his former colleagues cope without their most dogged sleuth?

S10 · E5Cry Me a River 2013-08-27 · 60 min＋

A young woman's paternity test leads to the reopening of a notorious murder case from the seedy underworld of 1980s Soho in which the prime suspect was mysterious ex-jazz chanteuse Angela Gold. Meanwhile in UCOS, feathers are ruffled when recently retired police officer Dan Griffin joins the team.

S10 · E6Into the Woods 2013-09-03 · 60 min＋

When blood-stained clothes belonging to Simon Belgrade, missing for five years, are uncovered in a London forest, UCOS find themselves trying to solve the conundrum of what seems to have been the perfect vanishing act. Standing finally faces up to a childhood fear, while Griffin is a comfort to Pullman as she passes a milestone and McAndrew makes a big decision about his son.