Seasons & episodes

Sgt. Cryer and PC Hayward attend an incident at a local school where an angry divorcee, Chris Finnessey, is demanding to see his son. When the boy's teacher warns the police of Finnessey's violent reputation and a possible restraining order against him, he grabs a Stanley knife and takes the teacher and Sgt. Cryer hostage. Faced with an armed suspect and two hostages, Supt. Chandler calls in SO19, although the only Trojan unit available is that of the newly-qualified PC Smith and PC Stanley. When Finnessey and his son leave the school building, Chandler gives authorisation to fire. Smith shoots first but to his horror, accidentally hits Cryer. Stanley takes down Finnessey. Cryer survives the shooting, but his career in the police is over.

Visiting Bob Cryer in hospital, June Ackland is horrified to find that Cryer doesn't know he has already been replaced at Sun Hill. His replacement is Sgt. Craig Gilmore, transferring from Manchester Police. Gilmore wastes no time in telling the relief that the rumours are true: he is gay. DC Lennox investigates the harassment of a local publican by a gang of youths, but when Gilmore organises a 'beat sweep' of the local estates, they find the publican's daughter is involved with the gang. Her information leads them to an illegal drinking club. After the police raid the club and arrest the gang members, one of them accuses PC Harker of brutality.

On temporary assignment to the Serious Crime Group, DC Lennox is surprised to find Liz Rawton is Acting DI at SCG. The body of a young girl, later identified as Hayley Mills, is found in a concrete slab in a cement works. Rawton and Lennox question the new owner of the cement works, Digby Leake, and Rawton tells Lennox off for his aggressive approach to the case. Hayley's ex-boyfriend tells them of a modelling agency which doubled as an escort service where Hayley worked and that Hayley was pregnant, and the owner Leon Walsh is certainly suspiscious, especially when the police find a car of his containing Hayley's blood. Forensics reveals that Hayley died of an ectopic pregnancy, and was not murdered, Leake admits that he was the father and that his assistant Harry Rawlings dumped the body when Hayley died from the complications. Lennox forms a bond with Hayley's friend Karen, who confides to him that Rawlings and Leon are involved in smuggling heroin from Hong Kong, and the pair are

It's Sgt. Matt Boyden's 40th birthday, and to make matters worse, he has to cancel a date to attend an outward-pursuit weekend with PC Vicky Hagen and a group of wayward teenagers. CID investigate the serious bashing of an elderly man, and their prime suspect is Jason Wyatt who had attacked the same man some months previously. Jason is one of the group with Boyden and Hagen, and his aggressive personality causes several arguments and fights over the weekend. Boyden forms a bond with the boy though, and suspects Jason's abusive father had more to do with the attack. Forensics prove him right, but to Boyden's dismay, Jason faces a manslaughter charge as the injuries he inflicted on the man months ago caused the man to die. Hagen promises Boyden a birthday drink, but the relief have organised a surprise party, so they take a raincheck.

Tony Stamp joins a dating agency for professional people, telling them he is an antiques dealer, and as he is living in the section house, gives them Polly Page's address. A CID operation involving forged banknotes goes wrong, and Sgt. Gilmore tells Stamp and Hayward off when they pursue and arrest an armed suspect without backup. When DC Webb and DC Spears investigate a series of robberies, they discover a link to Tony's dating agency, and that Tony's date Lisa invites men to stay at her flat and then arranges for their house to be burgled. CID set up surveillance outside Page's house, and catch the thieves, and Stamp must sadly arrest Lisa.

The relief have organised a farewell party for Bob Cryer, but it sounds like he's not too keen to go, so Ch. Insp. Conway pays him a visit. The police inquiry clears PC Smith of charges relating to Cryer's shooting, although his probation period is extended. PC Worrell and PC Clarke attend a reported break-in at the house of a hippy couple, who claim a valuable necklace was stolen, and the intruder turns out to be a plumber who still has the key. PC Klein and PC Hayward are called when a strange young woman accuses her neighbour of torturing her elderly mother. When the old woman disappears, it appears she was taken by her son who is wanted for parole violation in Manchester. Cryer turns up for his leaving do at the Bell & Badger, and is in high spirits, though he is angered by Supt. Chandler's speech. Cryer also announces he has brought along a special guest: Dale Smith - he insists he has no hard feelings against Smithy, and that the others should forgive him as well.

A man matching the description of a local paedophile is seen lurking outside a local school, but when the police visit him, he denies it. Outside the school, PC Reg Hollis sees three men fighting, and one of them bundles a struggling young boy into a car, one of the men in the fight runs but is arrested, and he denies knowing the boy. PC Vicky Hagen pursues in the Area Car, but dents the side when she swerves to avoid a head-on collision. The police investigate the case as an abduction, but the boy's aunt reports that he is safe and well and living with his mother - or as safe as he can be, since his mother is living with local scumbag Shane Weller. The boy Jack's mother tells Sgt. Boyden that the man they have in custody is Murad Gocek, Jack's Turkish father, and that he wants to take the boy back to Turkey with him. When Jack goes missing for real, his aunt tells Boyden that his father is staying in a hostel, and that Weller is on his way there. As the police arrest Weller's thugs, W

DS McAllister is surprised to run into her former lover and informant Jamie Ross in a bar, when he returns to Sun Hill after the man who wanted him dead dies of a heart attack. Ross is in a new line of work: organising adventure holidays - but he still has plenty of inside knowledge, and when he and McAllister resume their relationship, he reveals the man responsible for a hit-and-run on a drug dealer and a schoolgirl. To McAllister's horror, she realises that Ross has used her, as he is deeply in debt to Brett Sadler who ordered the drug dealer killed. DI Cullen convinces Ross to help them catch Sadler, but Ross is shot and killed by a sniper.

New Area Car driver, PC Des Taviner, makes an instant (but negative) impression on the relief when he starts work on the night shift at Sun Hill, with his overbearing manner and sharp mouth. He clashes with PC Worrell, and demands she be taken off Area Car duty with him, as he says she is ""clueless"". Paired with PC Hollis, Taviner chats up two girls waiting for the night bus and offers them a lift home. DC Glaze makes a breakthrough in a series of brutal rapes on the Jasmine Allen estate, and when residents report a woman screaming on Canley Fields, all Sierra Oscar units race to the scene. Taviner is sympathetic towards the victim, prostitute Lynn Roberts, and vows to ""get the bastard"" responsible.

DS McAllister and DC Glaze are certain they've got their man for the Jasmine Allen rapes - Lenworth Lomanu, a convicted rapist who was seen by Klein and Stamp in the vicinity at the same time as Lynn Roberts was attacked. PC Des Taviner is not so sure, and he suspects that the young man he and PC Worrell questioned outside a pharmacy before it was robbed is responsible. As Taviner and Hollis do their own investigation, Lomanu's arrest causes a near riot on the Jasmine Allen, and Sgt. Gilmore is attacked when he returns two housewives to the estate. Taviner gets his man, Conrad James, but his solicitor brother gets him off the hook. Clear evidence that Conrad is dealing drugs on the estate gives the police the opportunity to raid and search his house, and Conrad admits to the rapes as well.

PC Klein and PC Taviner arrest two men fighting in the street. DC Danny Glaze is surprised to see one of the men is his old school friend Lol Redman. He is even more surprised when Redman is charged with racial assault after the other man, Devon Russell, says Redman called him a 'black bastard'. Redman is bailed, Glaze gives him lift and arranges to meet him in the pub later. As Glaze waits, Redman is arrested again outside Russell's house. DS McAllister visits Russell's wife whilst he makes a statement at the station, and she admits that she and Redman had an affair and that her husband is a violent and paranoid man, and that Redman was just concerned with her well-being. Back at the station, Russell claims to have a tape of Redman's verbal abuse, but the tape is inconclusive and Redman is released again, although he admits to Danny he did say those things in the heat of the moment. As Glaze gives him a lift home, Redman is set upon by three men, led by Devon Russell's brother, and be

A ten-year-old boy who calls himself 'Billy the Kid' is arrested twice in one day, and when Sgt. Boyden speaks to him, he reveals he wanted to speak to the police without being a grass, and that he is concerned about his sister, Kate, an underage prostitute who is being used by her stepfather in a blackmail scam. DI Jane Edmonds from SCG arrives to investigate the scam. She flirts with Boyden - the two clearly have a previous history together - which stirs up the jealousy of Vicky Hagen. When Billy is hit by a car, he is abducted from St Hughs hospital by Kate and their stepfather Tom Adams, who is behind the blackmail and whom Kate is besotted with. Edmonds is all for arresting Adams when they use one of the previous victims in a sting operation, but Boyden risks letting him go so he will lead them to the missing kids.

PC Dave Quinnan returns to duty, and is determined to prove to everyone that he's back to normal after his breakdown. Out in a panda car, Quinnan sees a man shot in the head in a van - he calls for assistance, but by the time reinforcements arrive, the victim, the van and the main witness have disappeared. Desperate to prove his sanity, Quinnan pursues the case vigourously, and enlists the help of DC Paul Riley's brother Joe, who asks the wrong people the wrong questions. PC Polly Page is outraged by a practical joke played by PC Taviner, but she and Quinnan get their revenge in a most amusing way.

DS Vik Singh goes undercover to a 'car cruise', where he becomes involved with a well-organised car ringing gang led by Kevin North. Meanwhile, DC Mickey Webb tries to cultivate an unofficial 15-year old snout named Tyro Shaw, in the hope that he will grass up his father, Steve Shaw. Singh poses as a car thief, and is soon in with the gang, even gaining a meeting with North's boss - Jennifer Salter. As Webb gets frustrated by Shaw's dead-end leads, Singh pushes the boy too far about his involvement with the gang.

Tyro Shaw threatens to blow DS Singh's cover in the car-ringing gang, but is convinced otherwise. Singh seems to have impressed both Kevin North and his boss, Jennifer Salter, who seems quite taken with him. Salter tells Singh the gang is moving on soon, and he realises he must get the evidence in North's office. As Singh enters the office, Webb realises that Tyro Shaw has set them up, and Vik is abducted by North and Salter. Webb convinces Tyro to tell them where Vik was taken, and CID narrowly rescue him from being set alight.

DI Cullen leads a drugs raid on a warehouse owned by his old nemesis, Terry Barlow, but finds nothing. Cullen is furious with DC Glaze, whose snout tipped them off about drugs on the premises. PC Harker and PC Rickman deal with a domestic case involving an argumentative couple, the Carters, and their baby. Neither case makes any progress until a neighbour reports that Barlow has been to visit the Carters on several occasions. Determined to get one up on CID, Harker puts the pieces together and comes up with a theory that the Carters are putting their baby up for sale on the Guatemalan black market with the help of a doctor at St Hugh's, and Barlow is the broker. Despite warnings from Glaze, Harker presses on and is proven correct when they raid a hotel where the exchange has taken place. Baby Sean is recovered, and the police race to an office building where Jackie Carter is threatening to kill herself.

The Section House is closing, and PC Reg Hollis is not only looking for a new place to live, he is also applying for a transfer to SO14 (the Royal Protection unit). He is about to buy a flat owned by an elderly friend, Doreen Tyler, but she changes her mind at the last minute, so he moves in with Tony Stamp temporarily. Hollis's intuition gives CID an important lead on a planned armed robbery, but his uniformed colleagues conspire to have Nick Klein organise the Section House closing party instead of him. Deciding to skip the party, Hollis goes to visit Doreen, but finds her dead in her flat. With no alibi, Hollis is the prime suspect for her murder, and he is suspended from duty. As Stamp and Klein work to find someone who can verify Hollis's whereabouts, CID discover a woman posing as Mrs Tyler's adopted daughter.

A mad gunman is on the loose in Sun Hill. Supt. Chandler takes a personal interest in the case, but when he confides his reasons to a young woman who was threatened by the gunman, he is horrified to find she was a journalist and the story is published in the Sun Hill Gazette. Feeling unappreciated in the job, DCI Meadows considers other options, and attempts to smooth things over with his long-suffering wife, Laura. Meadows teams up with DS McAllister and the two of them strike out on their own, and after a few close calls, arrest their prime suspect - a motor mechanic with a history of firearms offences. As they interview him however, the gunman strikes again...

At the stakeout of the prime suspect, Chandler prevaricates, and Meadows has to act quickly when McAllister is in mortal danger.

After a minor car accident in the High Street, PC Jim Carver breathalyses an elderly man, but takes sympathy on him and allows him to leave in a taxi. The man turns out to be Hugh Alexander, a High Court judge with a renowned pro-police stance, and Carver finds himself suspected of showing bias, particularly when the other man involved in the accident threatens legal action against the Met. At the trial of a man accused of murdering a PC, PC Worrell feels marginalised as a black officer when she is asked to testify and be a character witness for the dead officer. Ch. Insp. Conway meets with Gary Fablon, and discovers that Fablon is addicted to litigation, and the accident was his fault. Carver, meanwhile, has a chance to redeem himself when Conway hears that Alexander may be drink-driving again that night.

A spate of graffiti taggings in Sun Hill sees the police showing zero tolerance to the perpetrators. PC Carver is sympathetic towards an alcoholic teacher at Canley Art College when his classroom and students' work are defaced. Sgt. Boyden asks PC Hagen to move in with him, but she is reluctant, wanting her own space. To her outrage, Boyden moves her belongings to his house as a surprise. Boyden arranges for the council to paint a wall blank to set a trap for the graffitists, catching quite a few in the process. The defacement at the art college turns out to have been committed by the teacher who is jealous that one of his students is sleeping with his ex-girlfriend, life model Moira Sutherland.

PC Roz Clarke has been working double shifts all week, and goes behind Sgt. Ackland's back to get some more overtime from Boyden as she is desperately in debt. PC Taviner promises her some time in the Area Car, much to Reg Hollis's annoyance. Taviner and Clarke interview Warren Debdale, a student who was brutally beaten, but he insists he didn't know the perpetrators. His father suspects the boy's friends are involved, but DC Glaze discovers the father is being blackmailed by a drug smuggling gang. Assigned to watch Warren in the hospital, an exhausted and miserable Roz Clarke has a coffee with a nurse and is horrified to find Warren missing when she returns. With DI Cullen and CID holding back from raiding the gang in case they hurt the boy, Clarke spots Warren's friend Karen on the estate and she admits he is staying at her flat. CID sweep in and arrest the gang, and Clarke is off the hook for the moment, although her flatmate threatens to throw her out unless she pays the rent she o

Clarke helps Taviner track down stolen diggers and crime families while moonlighting in telesales to pay off her debts.

A distraught PC Roz Clarke fails her probation exams, and goes AWOL instead of returning to the station. A gang of thieves on rollerblades are rampant in Sun Hill, and their mobility makes it very difficult for the police to catch them. PC Taviner arrests a girl, Jackie Burns, at a skate park, but she insists she was just watching the skaters. As the skate gang gets more violent, animosity between PC Worrell and Clarke also grows more fierce, and the two come to blows in the corridor. A tearful Clarke admits her debt problem to Taviner. Scrutinising CCTV footage reveals Jackie's involvment with the gang - she phones them when a potential victim withdraws money from an ATM. Clarke returns home to find the bad news that her telesales commission has fallen through and her flatmate Caitlin wants her out.