Seasons & episodes

Beech finds himself under pressure when the daughter of an old friend is implicated in the violent murder of accountant Clive Vardy, who is found with his head caved in an industrial warehouse. Determined to try to keep his daughter off the hook, the girl's father tries to set her boyfriend up for the killing, aided by the fact he was stopped by police in the area just minutes after Vardy was killed. Can Beech keep his old friend out of trouble?

The quiet of a tranquil Sunday morning shift is soon disrupted when a number of cases flood CAD. Cryer investigates when a young partygoer disappears and ends up in hospital following a suspected drugs overdose. Slater deals with a disturbance where a man has been attacked by his wife. Garfield deals with a family row between a referee and his son-in-law, which turns nasty, and Keane deals with an irate man making a protest in a local supermarket.

Quinnan is accused of sexual harassment by the victim of a burglary, but McCann refuses to confirm his alibi, having not been with him at the time. However, when the victim is found badly beaten by her boyfriend, she admits the claim was false and that he pressured her into making a false statement. Meanwhile, Stamp and Ackland catch a burglar who provides some vital information for Greig and Croft's latest investigation.

Garfield and Keane find themselves on the opposite side of the fence when they are thrown out of school grounds whilst trying to pursue a drug dealer. While Keane offers support to a young boy found in possession of ecstasy, Monroe visits the headmaster, who refuses to recognise that there is a drugs problem, despite the same young later overdosing on school grounds, and some strict intervention from the boy's teacher.

A raid on a crack house sees DC Carver arrest a young prostitute, Paula, for possession of drugs. While waiting to be processed in custody, Paula is distraught, saying her infant daughter is in danger from her pimp who will hurt or kill her if he doesn't get the crack she was bringing him. Despite DS Boulton's lack of sympathy, Carver convinces his colleagues to raid the pimp's flat and save the child.

Greig and Skase are given the task of taking up the investigation into a man badly beaten outside a pub on the Netherlake estate, eleven months after Lines initially investigated the case. It soon transpires that the attack may have been motivated by rival burger van owners warring to take over a prime location outside the pub, but angered at the lip from Skase, Lines decides to give the case another crack and the three soon discover who was responsible.

Boyden and Woods investigate a suspicious death when the body of a man is found in the passenger seat of a car. They discover that the man led several double lives – including two wives and two mistresses. With the cause of death determined as natural causes, their only task is to find out who he was with on the night he died, and who moved his body into the car. Whilst dealing with the identification, Monroe tries to avoid the man's two wives meeting.

A young girl disappears on her way home from a sports club, and a short while later, telephones her parents to say she has been abducted. Croft recognises the voice of the kidnapper, and Deakin subsequently makes an arrest, but the kidnapper refuses to acknowledge where the abducted girl is hidden. When they discover she is being held in an airtight van, they realise time is slowly running out and the girl could soon suffocate.

Carver and Croft investigate the murder of a convicted child molester in his prison cell.

Ackland and Quinnan question a lodger when his landlady is abducted from her office. When they later find the missing woman in the back of the lodger's van,

Boulton and Woods investigate the kidnapping of a teenage girl. When they tail the girl's stepfather as he attempts to pay a ransom of £1,000, Woods is recognised by the suspect, whose escape leads him into the path of a moving car. However, when the young girl comes to visit the victim in hospital, Boulton discovers the missing teen is the victim's girlfriend – and that her stepfather invented the kidnapping to cover up the fact he has been sexually abusing her.

Marshall attends to a widow who thinks that she is being stalked, but whose son doesn't believe it. When Jarvis and Keane arrest a young man trying to break into her car, they discover a schoolboy crush that has spiralled out of control. Meanwhile a raid on an illegal drinking club gives Monroe a lead in the search for a driver who fled from the scene of an accident that left a motorcyclist with serious injuries.

Greig leads the relief as they tackle a group of rioters on the Meadowlark estate, but the violence spirals out of control when a TSG sergeant has a slab of concrete dropped on him. As Greig builds up a picture of the thugs who Meadows believes are responsible for the crime, Garfield is worried when Loxton comments that his violent restraint of a thug during the riots led to the man ending up in hospital, leading him to ask Greig for help.

McCann learns some hard truths about what it takes to be a sergeant as he and Stamp search for a troubled schizophrenic who has been harassing his neighbours. As they speak to the young man's grandmother, who appears to be the driving force behind his recent campaign, they discover his neighbours may have been responsible for a fire which burned down the man's flat six months ago. As they continue their search, McCann is devastated when they find a body in the local park.

Boulton and Lines investigate when a businessman reports his credit card stolen, claiming that a man posing as a police officer telephoned him to confirm the pin number. Meanwhile, Loxton and Marshall stop a man attempting use a stolen credit card in an electrical shop. He later reveals he was subcontracted by the victim to carry out work on a building site but was never paid – but refuses to identify who stole the card for him.

Slater and Page are called to a break-in and discover a woman drowned in her own bath. Initially, the woman's ex-partner is suspected of murder when her GP confirms that she was in hiding from him to prevent him getting access to their unborn baby. However, Slater's interview with a tenant in the same housing block soon reveals an alternative cause of death, and Monroe pursues the woman's dodgy landlord for manslaughter, for reconnecting a dangerous water heater leaking carbon monoxide.

Deakin and Croft investigate a blackmail threat against a supermarket owner, after Stamp and Garfield are handed a contaminated pie which has given a woman food poisoning. Boulton attempts to use state-of-the-art forensics to decipher indentations on one of the ransom notes, while Lines speaks to an ex-employee who initially denies all involvement – until he discovers that the victim of the contaminated pie is none other than the woman's daughter.

Stamp and Keane attend the scene of an RTA involving a car and a double decker bus, but find the car to be stolen and the juvenile driver over the limit. When one of the passengers on the bus later dies of a heart attack, Stamp tries to implicate the youth in the woman's death. Meanwhile, Garfield spots a familiar face at the scene of the RTA, but is unable to place him, until he discovers the man is a wanted criminal who escaped serving a 10-year jail sentence for fraud.

Lines takes part in a new mediation scheme to encourage attackers to face up to their victims, unaware of the response he is going to receive. Meanwhile officers from Sun Hill take on young offenders in a game of football, but the poor decisions of the referee and the settling of some old scores lead to Loxton being sent off. However, the event yields a surprise result for Beech and Woods when they catch a runner for a major dealer delivering a shipment of drugs.

Deakin investigates a bungled armed robbery at a betting shop, where one of the robbers managed to shoot himself while attempting a getaway on a stolen motorbike. When the robber then absconds from hospital, the race is on to find him before he bleeds to death. Meanwhile, Boulton manages to identify the man's accomplice as a villain he nicked several years previously. The getaway car then used to take the injured villain to hospital is found in a lock, with his body in the boot.

Loxton attends a possible break in at a snooker hall, but finds himself in trouble when he sets off some sort of smoke trap, leaving him open to attack. He then arrests the owner when the owner tries to assault him, suspecting him of being a burglar. However, Loxton isn't convinced that the man is telling the truth, and believes the man was sitting in wait for the real burglar to arrive. When the club is then ransacked, Loxton's suspicions are proven to be correct.

Cryer and Keane pursue a drink-driver responsible for the death of a young Asian woman. When they interview the registered owner of the car, she denies all knowledge of the incident, despite the car having been driven off with the keys inside. Their strongest lead comes when McCann and Jarvis arrest a noisy neighbour for breach of the peace and assault, and during a search, they find a bottle of homemade spirit which matches a bottle found under the driver's seat of the car which killed the woman.

Skase investigates an ex-informer's love life in his hunt for clues to a series of arson attacks which have been left unsolved following the swift departure of DS Pearce. When she offers the identity of the arsonist in return for getting her boyfriend off the hook, Skase suspects that she is simply toying with the police in order for her boyfriend to receive immunity. However, when another fire breaks out, Skase realises she may have been telling the truth all along.

Ackland and Stamp deal with a teenage tearaway whose petty criminal career spirals out of control when she flirts with some serious villains. A search of her bedroom yields a substantial amount of stolen gear as well as drugs and a large sum of money. As the search for the young girl gets underway, Hollis minds an elderly woman who has been robbed and assaulted by a local boy, who is easily able to identify her attacker – who happens to be one of Ackland and Stamp's targets in the stolen gear operation.