Seasons & episodes

DC Mickey Webb arrives for his first night shift at Sun Hill, and assists an under strength uniform to track down dangerous prison escapee, Craig Ronson, who has served 8 years of life sentence for armed robbery and murder. Ackland warns the newer members of the relief that Ronson assaulted several officers when he was arrested in 1992. With Quinnan and Smith injured in separate mishaps, Ackland attends a break-in at a local sports complex and is confronted with an armed man who tries to attack her with a sledge hammer. Webb arrives and finds it to be Ronson's brother Colin, and uses his arrest to gain information as to Ronson's whereabouts. When Harker goes missing during a door-to-door on the Jasmine Allen, Rickman arrives to find him badly beaten – and herself confronted by an angry Ronson.

Holmes investigates a suspected money-launderer named Terry Jowit, who is wanted by police in Scotland. Holmes discovers a cheque in Jowit's mail from an antiques dealer, which leads her to suspect that he buys expensive antiques with 'dirty money' as a means of laundering it. What Holmes doesn't count on is antique dealer Judy Ryan having a tape of Beech accepting a bribe from herself and Jowit, and Beech willing to do anything to keep it a secret. However when Holmes confronts Beech, he threatens her with the evidence that she has illegally opened Jowit's mail. When Judy Ryan is later victim in a hit-and-run, Beech uses the opportunity to fit Jowit up – but he finds himself unsuspecting when Jowit tells Holmes' about his dodgy dealings, leaving the corrupt DS scrambling to cover himself.

Brownlow and Mannion attend the panel for a Metropolitan Police hearing against a Sergeant who is charged with disobeying a direct order, which resulted in the career-ending injury of another officer. Mannion is easily convinced of Sergeant Gartland's guilt, but Brownlow isn't so sure. When Ch. Insp. Caine struggles to explain the evidence presented against him, and corroborative evidence from Sergeant Tillman, who is based at another station, soon begins to sway the evidence in Gartland's favour. However, when the injured officer, PC Beckett, takes to the stand, her testimony sounds a little too much like she is trying to cover for Gartland's mistake, but Brownlow remains convinced of Gartland's innocence.

Lennox is tasked with assisting Webb and Holmes on a drugs bust, but after meeting with an old friend, who is a well-known figure in the Scottish parliament, he is more concerned with carrying out an unofficial investigation into a possible blackmail racket. When one of the suspects in the drugs bust manages to get away, Meadows and Webb are left furious. However, when Lennox explains to Meadows that he is acting on behalf of a friend, to the consternation of his colleagues, Meadows offers him support to investigate the detective agency involved in the blackmail scam, much to Webb's dismay. Lennox enlists Hagen to help out on an obbo.

Sun Hill has been given a new "crime car" for quick arrests and Boyden, Hagen and Proctor are chosen to crew it, much to the other officers' annoyance. Proctor is given a list of targets by DI Deakin and has been told to collar at least one to count towards his appraisal. However, Boyden is more concerned about his own collars. TSG have been assigned as cover as the relief are very low on manpower, but seem more determined to ruin the collars of the crime car than actually do any work themselves. When they dangerously vy for an arrest, disaster strikes. Meanwhile, Mannion arrives for a tour of the station just as the CAD room goes down due to an electrical fault, a fault caused by someone whom Ackland later discovers to be a regular in the cells.

Stanton and Lennox are tasked with investigating a brutal assault outside a nightclub where the victim had pouches of what appear to be drugs stuffed into his mouth. The owner, Vince Carter, is a well-known figure on the plot, being the son of an old school villain, Frank Carter. Meanwhile, Boulton, bored of having to transcribe the tape of a murder confessions, assists when a young girl is run down by a car, and a witness claims that it was no accident. Boulton vigorously questions the witness when he discovers the man is blind, but soon finds himself believing that the incident was no accident. As his and Stanton's cases soon reveal a close link in Vince Carter, Stanton is tailed by an unknown assailant and run-off the road.

Boulton and Stanton's personal affairs threaten to get in the way of their investigation, as Stanton attempts to block out the events of the night before. Persuading Meadows to separate the two investigations, Holmes discovers another link in the cases in a second witness who is involved with both victims. However, refusing to have her statement recorded on tape, Boulton is forced to use the information to place a 'bomb' underneath the Carter family, hoping it will go off and that they will all implicate themselves in the separate crimes they have committed. Stanton tries to distance herself from a smitten Boulton, who is unaware that the "sick mother" she keeps visiting is actually CIB's Detective Superintendent Steve Hodges.

Cryer, Smithy and McCann attend the scene of an RTA, where they find a supply of cocaine as well as two firearms in the boot of one of the cars involved. Smithy accompanies one of the victims involved to hospital, where he discovers him to be a member of the regiment in which Smithy served during his time in the army. Smithy enlists one of his old army buddies, Tony Mitchell, to do a little digging on his behalf on the quiet. However, when a CID operation is blown out of the water, McCann reveals Smithy's intentions to Meadows. Realising that his old friend is heavily involved with the operation himself, Smithy is torn between his loyalties to an old friend and his loyalty to the job.

Conway jumps at the chance of helping Sixties pop idol Sadie Tyler after the draft of her autobiography is alleged to have been stolen by an obsessive fan. When the compere for a charity event Conway is organizing drops out at the last minute, he asks Sadie to step in and perform instead. As Klein and Worrell continue to investigate obsessive super-fan Pete, a conversation between Conway and Sadie's manager Bob Warner reveals a shocking revelation – Pete believes he is the father of Sadie's daughter. As Conway's personal feelings get in the way of his professional judgement, Warner uses Conway's information to exact revenge on Pete.

With the Flying Squad suffering from a staff shortage, Stamp is seconded away as a temporary driver. He struggles to impress senior officer, DS Harrap, but DI Lomax continues to encourage him. Lomax is left furious however, when a bank robbery they are trying to discretely bust is ruined by a silent alarm and appearance by Klein and Hagen in the Area Car. Stamp's standing with Harrap declines when he loses a car that kidnaps the bank manager's family. Lomax works with Monroe to negotiate with the robbers, but when he is arrested, he refuses to reveal the location of the missing family. Stamp gets a chance at redemption when the family are tracked down at a remote country house, taking a major risk to draw out the kidnappers.

A Barton Street PC is stabbed when he pursues two robbery suspects into Sun Hill. A black youth, identified as Mark Okin, is found beaten unconscious at about the same time. Carver is assigned to the Okin family in his first role as Family Liaison Officer, but further investigation by CID discovers Mark to be a suspect in PC Brennan's stabbing. Carver is horrified when Daly asks him to use his position of trust with the Okin family to collect evidence against Mark. Evidence soon mounts against John Wilson, the boyfriend of Mark's sister Amy, as Daly suspects that he is responsible for the robbery, stabbing PC Brennan, and assaulting Mark when he refused to take the rap for Brennan's stabbing.

Stop and search is resumed when there is an outbreak of street robberies. Mannion asks Brownlow to stand in for him for a TV interview, but he ends up shifting blame after two undercover journalists are subject two stop and searches. With the relief furious at their chief, Brownlow joins Conway on the beat in the C.I.D. car. They respond to a call and collar one of the street robbers, but when the other robber hops onto a bus and Brownlow gets uniform to stop the bus, he comes under public criticism, although uniform can only see the funny side.

Boulton and Holmes are left to pick up the pieces when the key witnesses in a robbery case refuse to give evidence. Holmes notices Boulton's change of attitude and suspects he may have found himself a woman. As word gets around the relief, Stanton attempts to cool things off with Boulton, which leaves him devastated. Meanwhile, Stanton's suspicions about Beech increase after she discovers his involvement with a credit card thief, Billy Bullock. Bullock pays Beech £1000 to destroy a CCTV tape of him stealing credit cards from a hotel conference. When Smithy and Hagen pursue Bullock, Beech's cover is nearly blown. When Bullock goes to make the drop, Stanton follows with the hope of catching Beech.

Webb investigates the brutal beating of businessman Kevin Hewlitt, who is found unconscious in his kitchen by his wife, Sandra. The investigation provides little information as to the motive for the attack, and very little description of the assailant is given by those who saw him. CCTV footage shows Sandra having intercourse with another man in her car a week before Kevin's attack, and she later admits to Webb that she and her husband were no longer in love. Lennox tries to break the alibi of Hewlitt's business partner Paul Wilcox, convinced that he is somehow involved in the attack. Webb makes the decision to mix business with pleasure as he begins to fall for Sandra.

When an apparent drug-related murder leads Operation Trident onto Sun Hill's patch, they suspect Yardie street gangs could be active in the area. A new scheme by Conway to encourage taxi drivers to help the police bears fruit when an overzealous cabbie brings a 'prisoner', Wesley Carter, to the station, saying he heard him making a drug deal. When Carter is linked to gangster Leroy Jones, Trident get Rickman to go undercover. As they reunite, Jones admits there are Yardies operating on the patch and he is trying to take on their drug running operation - but that a rival firm is trying to stop him - leaving Rickman caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting.

To finance his buy-in to the Yardie drug dealing operation, Jones and his gang rob a building society, with Rickman forced to be getaway driver. Despite Trident being tipped off, the relief are left lying in wait for them at the wrong bank when Jones spots a cash in-transit van, with a special constable who tries to disarm Rickman being seriously injured. The relief buzzes with rumours that Rickman has "gone native", and she finds loyalties torn as she gets close to her target. However, she is given a harsh reality check when Jones is kidnapped by rival gang leader Touissant - who gives her an ultimatum.

With Leroy Jones being held captive by rival dealer Touissant, Rickman is sent to make a second purchase from the syndicate. Rickman tails her contact to a tower block in the city, where Touissant's crew burst in and shoot the ringleader of "The Syndicate" and Rickman's contact. When Jones is ordered to kill Toussaint's main rival, Nathan Clarke, Rickman finds she has fallen for Jones and confesses her love and status as a police officer. When he abandons her, she goes back to Sun Hill before getting into Touissant's so SO19 can conduct a raid. With Jones a surprise member of the group, Rickman warns him to leave, but she finds herself as a hostage for a vengeful Touissant when SO19 storm in.

Stanton is desperate to be discharged from the Beech case due to her love for Boulton, but Hodges assures her she is doing well. Boulton accepts a free night at a plush Docklands hotel, and invites Stanton to join him. Sure enough, as the pair settle down for their evening of luxury, an assault and robbery at the hotel sees Sun Hill officers arrive to investigate, and their night is ruined. The next day, CID investigates the theft of a laptop computer, and Beech is intrigued by reports of a "mystery blonde" sighted fleeing from the hotel. Horrified that Beech could have discovered their affair, Boulton and Stanton send Beech to the other side of London on a wild goose chase while they solve the case themselves.

Responding to an urgent call for assistance, Smithy arrives and has to deliver a baby in the street. Worried about the mother's condition, he investigates her background, and discovers a history of prostitution and drug abuse. When she vanishes from the hospital and abandons her newborn baby, Smithy has no choice but to inform her father, who subsequently reveals that he and his wife will be adopting the baby and bringing it up as their own. Smithy enlists the mother's help to catch her pimp, who is also dealing drugs in the process, by setting up an obbo to catch him in the act. However, the obbo goes badly wrong when the girl makes off with the drugs and tries selling them herself to local users.

Klein and Hagen are called to a stabbing at a shopping centre, where a foreign aid worker has been attacked and left for dead. Initially, suspicion falls on a local youth, Wayne Stevens, who has previous for similar offences and was seen running away from the scene. However, when another witness claims she heard the victim shouting something before she was attacked, the pair find themselves on the trail of a Rwandan war criminal, Colonel Augustus Ngeze, who is wanted for mass genocide and rape by the UN. Klein's personal views begin to cloud his judgement when they fail to obtain any evidence to prove Ngeze's identity, so he sets up a chance meeting with a Rwandan national in an attempt to identify him.

Proctor, under pressure over his poor performance, decides to trap a burglar to avoid being transferred from Sun Hill after being told by Deakin that he has a new job lined up for him at the Isleworth CSU, who are looking for a DC to investigate domestic violence. Proctor's hospital interrogation of the victim nearly results in the man's death and a bust up between his wife and his secret girlfriend. Proctor goes undercover with Page in an attempt to catch the culprit, but a jealous Quinnan, leaves the obbo, and Proctor's Sun Hill career in tatters. Meanwhile, when Hagen hears an Area Car crash on the main set, her investigation uncovers the car being chased by the officers wasn't the only vehicle involved in the crash. Things escalate when one of the officers involved in the crash dies.

Boulton is determined to bring down a known drug dealer by using his wife as an informant to gather information. However, when a raid on his property goes pear shaped, Boulton is less than pleased. When broker Neil Ramsey is discovered to be part of the scam, Lennox's loyalties are tested when he discovers that Ramsey is one of his wife's business associates. Lennox attempts to gain Webb's silence in order to protect his wife, but Boulton soon gets wind of what is going on and threatens that Lennox could lose his job if he tries to intervene. Lennox is forced to make a tough decision when he has Ramsey in his clutches – let him go and his wife is off the hook, or arrest him, and she is in deep trouble.

Ch. Insp. Conway is astounded when an elderly man (and former police officer) turns up at the station with a suitcase containing half a million pounds, which he claims he found on the street. As PC Rickman counts the money, Conway decides to do some digging, as surely no-one could be that honest.

Glaze and Holmes investigate the apparent suicide of local councillor Anthony Snape, and uncover a plot involving two other councillors, Colin Cooper and Steven Trent, to pervert the course of justice by ensuring that massage parlours with links to the local freemasons' lodge are not raided. Glaze treads very close to the edge as he becomes determined to prove Brownlow is bent, as he is a member of the same lodge; even leaking information to a journalist who prints the story on his front page. When Glaze enlists Cooper's daughter as his star witness, it is soon discovered that Snape may not have committed suicide after all, and may be the victim of a very carefully planned and executed murder.