New Tricks

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Update: The BBC has commissioned a 9th and 10th series to air in 2012 and 2013. Series 9 is currently filming.

Note: Episode summaries are Brian-centric and contain spoilers, though the culprit is not named.

 

2003 & 2004:

New Tricks - Pilot & Series 1
Role	Brian Lane Co-starring role
My Rating	5 out of 5 stars.
Also Starring	James Bolam as Jack Halford; Amanda Redman as Sandra Pullman; Dennis Waterman as Gerry Standing; Susan Jameson as Esther Lane; Chiké Okonkwo as PC Clark
Availability	Region 1 (US) DVD available on Amazon. Region 2 (UK) DVD available on Amazon UK.
Pilot
Airdate	27 March 2003
After Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman loses control of a hostage situation - resulting in an injured hostage and a dead dog - her bright career path is sidetracked. She is assigned to lead a new Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad to be staffed by retired detectives. With the help of her old governor Jack Halford, she interviews a sorry bunch of applicants and reluctantly settles on Gerry Standing and Brian Lane. Brian is a recovering alcoholic with a host of eccentricities, but his ability to recall details of past cases and colleagues has earned him the nickname "Memory" Lane. For his part, Brian is keen to get away from gardening, but more importantly he wants access to the files on Anthony Kaye - a drug dealer who died in his custody. Kaye choked on his vomit when Brian left him alone for a few minutes. In the ensuing enquiry, Brian's failed his psychiatric evaluation and was pushed into early retirement. He is determined to prove that someone killed Kaye and that he was set up. He takes the first opportunity to look in the evidence room for the case file but finds it locked. Brian's wife Esther is worried that his renewed obsession will lead to another breakdown. For their first assignment, the team reinvestigate the case of Roddy Wringer, who was convicted 20 years earlier for murdering cocktail waitress Anna Dubrovski. Wringer frequented the night club where she worked and had a key to her flat, and her blood was found on his shoes. But detectives who worked the original case have recently been accused of corruption on another case, casting doubt on the verdict. Wringer is threatening to sue, and the Met wants the case against him to be reproven. Gerry went to school with Wringer and goes off on his own to see him and his wife Gaynor, who started a profitable porn business while her husband was in prison. Gerry interviews Wringer's mates and learns that Wringer was robbing a security van at the time of Anna's murder, but that he killed Willy Sefton for calling him a ponce. Brian tracks down Anna's friend Eve, who found the body, and she tells them Anna didn't know Wringer and wasn't interested in men. While organising the files, Brian finds an anonymous letter proclaiming Wringer's innocence that wasn't included with the evidence. A woman's DNA is found on the stamp and under Anna's fingernails, while another man's DNA is found on Wringer's shoes in addition to Anna's. Jack presses Ian Lovett, the original investigator, about the blood evidence, while a second interview with a suicidal Eve yields the information needed to put the pieces together and make two arrests.
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Did I mention gardening?	Mad Brian	I will get to the truth
Corns	Having a think	Nobody touches the desk
Evidence	The rest of the story	Free lunch
Episode 1
Airdate	1 April 2004
Brian tracks down Alan Wearing, who was the duty sergeant on the night of Anthony Kaye's death, thinking he's part of the conspiracy that forced him to retire. He barges into the Samaritans, where Wearing volunteers, and cuts off his phone call with a suicidal man. Brian admits to Jack that he's stopped taking his medication because it was blunting his edge. Esther hears a message from Wearing about the incident and leaves Brian without telling him, taking Scruffy with her. The team are investigating the murder of WPC Kate Daniels, who was shot in the back of the head in 1987. Most of the evidence was washed away in the Great Storm, and the weapon was not found. Recently, the gun turned up in a lake with a cache of replica weapons, and the fingerprints match Philip Sheppard, a flasher and underwear thief. Jack and Brian put him under surveillance and see him following women who are petite and blonde like Kate was. A witness who was a child at the time is unable to identify him in a line-up until Gerry pulls the fire alarm and she sees Sheppard running as he was that day. Sheppard admits to following Kate and taking the gun for his collection, which he discarded in the lake. Sandra reveals that she was in the same class as Kate at Hendon Police College. Brian becomes curious about another classmate, Nick Gilbert, who dated Kate and then dropped out of Hendon and became a security guard. Sandra claims she barely knew him but later admits to her therapist that she had an affair with Gilbert while he was seeing Kate. Brian comes home to discover groceries still in bags in the kitchen and Esther gone. He needs to start taking his meds again but realises he flushed them down the toilet. He goes to stay with Jack and annoys him by rearranging things as Esther likes them. Brian and PC Clark visit Gilbert, who was paralysed in an armed robbery two years before Kate was shot. Brian suspects Gilbert was the inside man on the robbery and was expecting only a shot in the leg. Gilbert tells them that the bullet ricocheted into his back. The bullet was recently removed, allowing him partial use of his legs. Brian steals the bullet from Gilbert's aquarium, and it turns out to be a match to the one that killed Kate. Sandra is enraged that Brian jeopardised the case and UCOS, but she is able to learn the source of both bullets from Gilbert. Jack convinces Brian to put aside his conspiracy theories and convince Esther to come home.
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Alan Wearing	Stop at nothing to get to the truth	Nobody home
Sandra's past	Where is Esther?	Reenactment
Fishy	Not bloody alright	Completely lost
Episode 2
Airdate	8 April 2004
The team are called to Buckingham Palace when one of Her Majesty's paintings is discovered to be a fake. Sir Timothy, the curator, claims his predecessor was selling off originals. A second forgery of the same painting was put up for auction by a widow whose late husband was a collector. Brian suggests tests for DNA from the spittle on the forger's brush, while Totty - seconded from Art Fraud - discovers matching thumb prints on the paintings. The prints belonged to Kieran Risk, an artist who committed suicide after his studio was destroyed by a fire. The studio was adjacent to a sweatshop with Bengali workers, suggesting the possibility of a racially motivated arson, but Brian thinks the artist may have been the target. He finds a white rat among the arson evidence, indicating that the fire was started by Pat the Rat whose method was to use burning rats covered in petroleum jelly, but the arsonist won't say who hired him. An examination of art gallery records brings up the name of George Wilson, a known criminal. Gerry was once wrongly accused by DAC Bevan of taking a bribe from Wilson and is taken off the case.  On his own, Gerry visits the forger's mother and finds a familiar name among his art school classmates, thereby cracking the case. In his perusal of art, Brian professes bemusement at the attraction of female nudes. Esther tells him he's a thinker rather than a passionate man, but that it no longer bothers her like it once did.
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Her Majesty awaits	I don't get it...the naked female form	Forgery
Not a passionate man	Good call Totty	Art appreciation
Episode 3
Airdate	15 April 2004
The murder of activist Josh Livesey in a peace camp outside a NATO base in 1984 is reexamined. Josh was sharing a tent with his girlfriend, Imogen Holt, and his friend Frank Fox, while another couple from their group, Colin Dobie and Eleanor Clement, were in a second tent. Josh's body was found in the woods, and the others claim none of them left their tents that night. The next day, Imogen was arrested for attacking DS Koumas, who cannot be found and whose police service record is unknown to Brian. Imogen is now married to Colin, who works for New Labour, and they are well-off. Eleanor lives on a houseboat and is still an activist. Frank is in Broadmoor psychiatric hospital for killing a postal worker. Frank claims the man was an agent of the intelligence services who are trying to assassinate him. Brian is deeply unsettled by his visit to Broadmoor and even visualises himself as a patient. He thanks Esther for not letting him reach that point. Despite his unease, Brian returns to Broadmoor twice more and pretends to go off his meds to get Frank to talk. Frank reveals that all the activists were taking drugs every night, and he later mentions a mole. Jack notices a difference in two photos taken of the NATO base fence before and after the murder. He realises that Josh made good on his intention to cut the fence and that it was repaired before the discovery of his body was made public. Sandra is contacted by Greg Johnson of Special Branch, whose suspicions were raised by their attempts to find Koumas. Johnson is attracted to Sandra, and he reveals that Josh's body was found inside the base; the body was moved and the bolt cutters that were used to kill him were disposed of by their agent Koumas. The team uncover the identity of the mole, but the motive and the murderer are not discovered until they unravel the relationships among the activists which culminate in a violent confrontation.
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A thing for Jayne Torvill	Broadmoor	New Labour
Thank you for not letting go	Mr Bonkers	Special Branch
Episode 4
Airdate	22 April 2004
While Sandra is on holiday in Italy, the boys relax and Brian brings Scruffy to work. When PC Clark warns them they've mistaken her return date, they rush to clear up the messy office, and Brian tries to hide Scruffy in a file cabinet to no avail. Sandra brings presents but refuses to dole them out. Jack requests that they reopen the murder of 10-year-old Jimmy Spencer who was killed on a golf course 20 years ago. At the time, 17-year-old Ken Rodgers was suspected but he hanged himself before any charges were made. Ken's father is dying and wants his son's name cleared. The team focus on the members of the Greens Committee who were meeting on the day of Jimmy's death. Ian Gordon is now the Club President and Fred Donaldson is a retired solicitor. Another member, Andrew Pimley, was killed in the Falklands but his sons Stewart and Dave, who were children at the time, now work at the club. Esther invites the team to dinner to make sure Brian is doing alright. Jack reports that he visited the Guards Museum and learned that Major Andrew Pimley was killed after repeatedly exposing himself to machine gun fire to save others - as if he wanted to die. Comparing the DNA from saliva on Jimmy's body to Gordon, Donaldson and Dave Pimley reveals a family secret and the motive for Jimmy's death, and also exposes another crime thanks to Gerry's ingenuity. Sandra is pleased and hands out the presents.
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When the cat's away	You're not going to shoot him are you?	Like having children
Comfy?	I'm fine ... aren't I?	A job well done
Episode 5
Airdate	29 April 2004
A missing persons case of Brian's from when he was a Police Constable back in 1971 is reopened when builders find a bag containing bloodstained clothes belonging to Donna Adamson, who disappeared with her baby son William. They were reported missing by Donna's husband Paul Adamson, a med student who is now a geneticist. PC Brian Lane performed only a cursory investigation on orders from his sergeant who was of the opinion that Donna ran of with, in his words, "another darkie." Paul tells Brian he came to the Finsbury Park station three times to speak to him but he was never available. The team's investigation starts with Paul. His parents disapproved of him marrying a black woman and they cut him off until after her disappearance. At first Paul didn't want to have a baby and asked Donna to have an abortion but changed his mind once William was born. Donna's mother tells them her daughter was unhappy about giving up her job at the telephone exchange, where she led a strike, and that she was inspired by Germaine Greer's book The Female Eunuch. Esther tells Brian that she started to read it too but had no time while taking care of their family. Watching a home movie of Donna, Esther remarks that she's obviously happy and in love with Paul. In the home movie, Donna pushes away a man who tries to dance with her. Brian realises it's Eric Grant, who bought the house where the Adamsons had a flat after Donna vanished. He lives there now with his wife Kay. Silver thread found in Donna's bag may be from Eric's embroidered coat and petals may have come from a pond where he fished. He refuses to give a DNA sample, but Brian prevents PC Clark from taking one of Eric's cigarette butts. He tells Clark he knows he's upset with him for letting Donna and William down, but it will do no good to jeopardise his career and the case. Clark finds the name of Donna's friend Jill Brewer in Brian's old notes, which Brian never followed up on. Jill's husband Rick tells them that his wife also disappeared, on the same day as Donna, though no connection was made at the time. Another girl named Karen Brown who lived nearby went missing a few weeks later. Suspecting that Eric may be a serial killer, the team obtain permission to take his house apart. The boys suggest Sandra should take a backseat in the interrogation because Eric won't respond to a dominant female. Karen Brown's belongings are found in Eric's house, but just as he begins to break down, Brian decides he's innocent and backs off. The case takes another turn when the team learn that Jill Brewer was depressed and underwent electroconvulsive therapy after having a stillborn child. One of the missing persons is found close to home, while a trip to Ireland leads to a family reunion for another, and the case is finally put to rest.
Notes	In this episode and in the Pilot, Esther mentions their son Mark as well as a daughter Elaine. But in future episodes, Elaine is never mentioned again and Mark seems to be their only child.
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Going all obsessive	Marc Bolan singalong	Caught on film
Let them down	Feel the fear and do it anyway	Think Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling
Not guilty	I understand why you did it	Stop beating yourself up
Episode 6
Airdate	6 May 2004
Jack goes to see a clairvoyant hoping to communicate with his wife Mary who died after a hit-and-run, but instead he is told about a girl who starved to death. Running the variations of names he was given through the police database, he comes up with Caroline Stillman - a 17-year-old from a wealthy family who went missing and was found dead in a shipping container. Her sister tells them of Caroline's troubled relationship with their parents and also recalls her going to psychic fairs. The case file has blacked out sections that refer to the participation of another clairvoyant, Martin Lombard. Lombard insinuates knowledge of Mary, but Brian warns Jack that it's a trick and that Lombard was involved in Caroline's death. Meanwhile, Sandra is being considered for a position with SO10, while the boys have to undergo physical and psychological evaluations, leading them to wonder if someone is trying to shut UCOS down. Gerry is late for his exam because of the birth of his grandson. Jack sends Mary's clothes to the lab for testing with no result, and he decides to resign from UCOS. Sandra convinces him to come back to try and trap Lombard, but the clairvoyant is one step ahead of them.
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Martin Lombard	Read you like a book	Faster than a man half his age
Feel the burn	Granddad	Interesting ethical dilemma

 

2005:

New Tricks - Series 2
Role	Brian Lane Co-starring role
Also Starring	James Bolam as Jack Halford; Amanda Redman as Sandra Pullman; Dennis Waterman as Gerry Standing; Susan Jameson as Esther Lane; Anthony Calf as Strickland
Availability	Region 1 (US) DVD available on Amazon. Region 2 (UK) DVD available on Amazon UK.
Episode 1
Airdate	9 May 2005
New Deputy Assistant Commissioner Robert Strickland assigns the team the case of murdered barrister David Barrie after receiving an award from Barrie's wife Yvonne. The original investigator Ronnie Ross is known as the Mountie because he always got his man, but he says this was the one that got away from him. A remark from Ross puts Brian and Gerry at odds as each tries to figure out how much the other is paid. Barrie was found dead in his car in a Soho carpark. He had been beaten and tied up with pink silk rope, which had been removed. One of the original suspects was Michael Pendle who said he hoped Barrie would die a long and painful death after Barrie him put away for murder. Brian and Gerry can find no record of Pendle, but Jack tracks him through a driving licence and discovers that Pendle has had a sex change operation and is now known as Michaela. Pendle tells them the murder she committed was the result of hormonal imbalance before her operation and that because of Barrie she had to wait nine years in prison before her sex change. Her alibi is that she was in hospital at the time of the murder, but Brian learns she not there as a patient but was working as a night porter. He times the journey from the hospital to the carpark - encountering a drunk, a prostitute, and a suspicious policeman along the way - and finds it would have been possible to kill Barrie. Upon learning that Barrie frequented prostitutes, the team track down Elaine Wanless who was an upmarket dominatrix at the time. She claims not to know Barrie, but it turns out she was Pendle's girlfriend and that the man Pendle killed was her abusive pimp. Yvonne Barrie becomes upset when the team start asking personal questions about her marriage, and she tells Strickland who issues a warning. The team realise that Ross may have solved the case after all but had reasons for not charging anyone.
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Are you fully cognizant of the size of my packet?	Where did you get the money?	I've seen better fights over handbags
Used to be just like you	Have you got the time?	Suspicious behaviour
Episode 2
Airdate	16 May 2005
A 1997 attack that left Shivani Das in a coma was initially thought to be racially motivated, but the suspect Gary Palmer has become a born-again Christian and has confessed to four other attacks but not this one. The team are assisted on the case by an Asian officer, Sgt. Pushkar Guha, at the insistence of the victim's husband, Milan Das. Milan runs a fruit business with his brother Vikram and his sister Mughda - who also has a restaurant. The team use the money from their swear box contributions - mainly from Gerry - to have dinner there, with unpleasant aftereffects the next day. Shivani and Milan had an arranged marriage. Rick Mayo - a friend from Shivani's school days who later married her sister Dipti - was surprised that she would accept an arranged marriage, but she repeatedly told him she was happy with Milan. They had been married for a year, and Milan was away much of the time on business. Shivani's inlaws were nosy, especially her sister-in-law Mughda. Jack takes an anonymous call from a woman saying Shivani thought she was being followed. A private investigator named Pat Gannon went missing from the area less than a week after the attack on Shivani. Brian and Gerry visit Gannon's partner Roger McHugh, an ex-cop known as Dodgy Roger. McHugh mocks them for being "hobby bobbies" and Gerry has to pull an angry Brian away. Later after Gerry threatens his business, McHugh suddenly remembers that Gannon was expecting a big profit from a case. At the UCOS office, McHugh recognises Mughda's picture as one of Gannon's clients. While Sandra and Jack question Mughda, Brian and Gerry take Vikram for a walk on the towpath where Shivani was attacked. Under pressure, Vikram requests a solicitor. Gerry and Brian stage a scene with a fake solicitor and a gun that scares Vikram into revealing what happened to Gannon. But Shivani's attacker remains a mystery until a note found among Gannon's belongings is matched with a card in Shivani's hospital room and the anonymous caller is discovered along with a mobile phone once owned by Shivani.
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Not a swear word	Curry aftermath	I don't like you McHugh
Episode 3
Airdate	23 May 2005
Hannah Taylor and Michelle Davis both went missing within three weeks of each other in 1992. Six years later a body was found and was misidentified as Hannah's. A lab mixup was recently discovered, leading to the reopening of both cases. A murder squad led by DI Wilson investigates the death of Michelle Davis, while UCOS takes the missing persons case. Gerry acts as liaison to the murder squad and engages in an escalating prank war with DI Wilson. Hannah's mother Dr. Madeline Taylor received a ransom demand for £20,000 and paid it with money from her ex-husband in America. The drop-off was made in a park by Simon Webb, an ex-cop now running a kitchen showroom, who had an affair with Madeline while she was duty doctor at his police station. Madeline was an abusive alcoholic, but she tells Sandra and Brian that she's been sober since Hannah disappeared. Looking through photo albums at home, Brian worries about the effects of his own alcoholism and frequent absences during his son Mark's childhood. But he is distracted by the horror of seeing a picture of Mark in an Arsenal shirt. Jack talks to Hannah's friend Suzie about Hannah's worsening problems with her mother. He follows Suzie to a garden centre where he finds Hannah, who is alive and well with a husband Paul and a daughter Alice. Hannah claims she left a note for her mother and ran away to travel on the festival circuit, where she met Paul at Glastonbury. Hannah doesn't want any contact with her mother, though Brian tells her Madeline is no longer drinking. The question arises of who demanded the £20,000 ransom and what became of it. Brian becomes suspicious of Paul's hazy memory of meeting Hannah at Glastonbury; he himself clearly remembers meeting Esther in a library when she tried to steal a copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover. Medical records illegally obtained by Brian from Madeline's office reveal a hidden motive, but when an unsatisfactory conviction seems imminent, Madeline steps in to protect her daughter's newfound happiness. Brian's determination to be a good father leads, for some reason, to an exercise regime to make his body "a rippling mass of toned muscle." He also takes Mark to an AFC Wimbledon match and even goes so far as to buy him a new Arsenal shirt. Mark tells Brian that he loves him despite what happened in the past.
Notes	Sharp-eyed viewers may notice some Armstrong family photos in the album Brian is looking at.
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Something to share with the rest of us?	Even mention your feet I'll chop 'em off	Clean and sober
I've been some father haven't I?	He is still breathing isn't he?	It's here somewhere
Doesn't feel like much of a breakthrough	The mighty AFC Wimbledon	Arsenal shirt
Episode 4
Airdate	30 May 2005
After ignoring Esther's announcement that dinner is ready, Brian goes into the kitchen to complain that his food has gone cold and finds Esther lying on the floor. She cut her hand on a broken glass and requires surgery to reattach a ligament. The doctor prescribes total bed rest with her arm immobilised, putting a distraught Brian in charge. Brian gives Esther a two-way radio and helpfully brings her knitting to keep her occupied, while Jack and Gerry take turns making sure she's fed properly. Meanwhile, tabloid editor Chris McConnel tells Sandra he has proof that celebrity chef Kitty Campbell murdered Bertie, her husband and television cooking show partner, in the 1960s. McConnel refuses to reveal his source until Sandra threatens to spread his exclusive story around. He then introduces Sandra to Kitty's former personal assistant Binky Baxter, who claims that Kitty killed her husband with asthma medication after she caught Bertie and Binky in flagrante delicto. Brian and Jack go over the case files - ignoring Esther's calls on the radio - and learn that Kitty made Bertie switch doctors shortly before his death. Though Bertie had never been diagnosed with asthma before, the new doctor prescribed aetheraline - a drug that was banned two years later following wrongful death lawsuits involving diabetics. The question remains how the drug killed Bertie - who was not a diabetic - and how Kitty knew it was dangerous two years before it was banned. Kitty also has an alibi - a dinner for law students arranged by her father, who was a QC. But Esther notices how nervous Kitty appeared while preparing paella on the final show the day of Bertie's death - a clue which leads to Kitty's downfall, though not at the hands of the police.
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Dinner's on the table	Esther!	You'll be in charge Mr Lane
Brian, I'm alright	Brought your knitting	Home Cooking 101
Never mean to hurt or neglect you	Could she have murdered her husband?	What about the saffron?
Episode 5
Airdate	6 June 2005
Jack's friend Elise - who wants to be more than friends - gives him a red diamond that she found in a flat she cleared out in 1982 in her capacity as a social worker. The tenant John Newman died with no known next of kin, though he had a photo of a woman and a young girl. Elise thought it was a crystal and kept it as a memento of a forgotten man's life, but after she took a jewelry course she realised that Newman had jeweler's tools and that the stone was valuable. The diamond turns out to have been stolen in the Poultry Vaults robbery. It now belongs to an insurance company that paid off the owner and it is valued at £15 million. Four smaller red diamonds are still missing. Visiting Newman's old flat, Brian recognises a Jewish mezuzah on the doorpost. The new tenant previously lived in the flat below. She heard Newman arguing with someone the night he died of a heart attack. About an hour later, after she watched Dallas, his sink overflowed and the water came through her ceiling. The person Newman argued with left the diamond behind, but later after Elise cleared out his belongings, someone ransacked the flat. Brian discovers that John Newman's real name was Josef Nieumann and that he was a diamond cutter from Amsterdam who came in contact with the criminal underworld while in a concentration camp. Six suits owned by Newman are traced to Savile Row tailor Sid Goldberg who runs a business with his daughter Ruth. He claims not to remember Newman, but a search of a synagogue's archives reveal that Newman was best man at Goldberg's wedding and also that Ruth is in fact Newman's daughter. Sid admits that he and his wife looked after Ruth while her mother was dying of a motor neurone disease. Newman was planning to take Ruth to Holland but he died before he was able to. Goldberg didn't come forward because he was afraid Ruth would be taken away. The team learn that Newman had an apprentice Ray Spitz who is the son of Les Spitz, the prime suspect in the Poultry Vaults robbery. Sandra and Gerry go undercover as an engaged couple and take the red diamond to Ray for evaluation. Ray brings in Les, who suggests making it into a pendant surrounded by four small red diamonds - which each side thinks the other has. After Les's goons beat Gerry up, Gerry finds a way to get at him. The small diamonds are found and the big diamond is ready to be returned to the insurance company - once Brian remembers the safe combination.
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Dropped diamond	Fight reenactment	Mind map
All work and no play ...	Synagogue archives	Incubating
Gooseberry	Esther's engagement ring	Can't remember the number
Episode 6
Airdate	13 June 2005
The team are meant to be reevaluating the arson case against Stanley Ackerman, whose wife is protesting outside the station for his release from prison. Stanley appears to have intentionally failed his parole hearing and may not want to be reunited with his wife. But their investigation takes a back seat when Gerry brings in a new murder case. Unknown to the team, Gerry lost £10,000 in a poker game to Michael Jacobs who wants him to solve the murder of his father Joe in exchange for his IOU. Joe Jacobs was a bookie who was killed in an apparent mugging outside the Walthamstow dog racing track in 1983. Autopsy reports show he had "eggshell skull syndrome" and died of a single blow to the head. His brother Peter was with him but had gone into the loo. Michael thinks the attack was arranged by another bookie, George Morton, because his father owed him £10,000. But Brian finds a hidden compartment in Joe's old Chippendale desk containing a stud record purportedly for Bomber Boyo - a legendary greyhound who was kidnapped not long before Joe's death. There is also a map with a spot marked X, where Brian says they are compelled to dig. Gerry goes to see Emma Winters, who worked as a trainer in Bomber Boyo's kennel and now has championship dogs of her own. She had her first dog, Ebbmoor Boy, stuffed for display. Gerry is distracted by his attraction to Emma and reveals more about the case than he should. The next morning the team dig up the skeleton of a dog who had been shot in the head. DNA tests on the skeleton do not match the descendants of the dogs listed in the stud book. Brian realises that anagrams of the 1966 World Cup team led by Bobby Moore hold the key to Bomber Boyo's fate. He uses his winnings from the dog track to pay for further DNA tests to confirm his theory. But although the stud books are not what they seem to be, they prove to be the motive behind Joe's death. Meanwhile Gerry clears Stanley Ackerman of arson, but the question remains whether it would be kinder to leave him in prison rather than make him return to his wife.
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Passing notes in class	Won again	Hidden compartment
Sandra Pullman ... dog killer	Ebbmoor Boy	Gone to the dogs
Episode 7
Airdate	20 June 2005
While a task force assembles to hunt a child abductor who prowls the M25, Brian wants to reopen a case from 1979 that he thinks may be related. Two boys, Alan and Daryl, were abducted while fishing. They were held in a van for two nights and then managed to escape while parked in a lay-by. Brian and Jack visit Alan and find that instead of being traumatised, he says it was the best thing that ever happened to him because of all the attention afterwards. Alan agrees to by hypnotised. He recalls seeing syringes and a sack of nuts in the van, as in his previous statement, but this time he also remembers looking through a crack in the door and seeing a bath and gas cylinders and hearing their abductor returning. He becomes agitated and the hypnotist wakes him up before he can describe the man, to Brian and Gerry's annoyance. Brian takes up his old hobby of fishing again, causing Esther to worry he'll get obsessed. She calls Sandra for a chat and is reassured. Sandra is less understanding when she finds her salad full of maggots that Brian put in the fridge - though she blames Gerry first. The team's focus turns to the place where the boys were fishing, which is now called the Pit of Doom. Although it is stocked with fish, no one goes there while the nearby Thorne Valley Lakes are very popular. Five years ago, Bob Yates - the former carp record holder - was beaten up during a night fishing session at the Pit of Doom. Bob becomes a suspect when they find a bath, gas cylinders and syringes in his workshop, but he says they're common tools of fish farming. The current record carp was supposedly caught at Thorne Valley, but tests show it came from the Pit of Doom. It appears that someone is trying to keep people away from the Pit, but it is not until Brian is attacked while fishing that the person responsible is found. Three crimes are solved, but the M25 abductor remains at large.
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Alan's story	Fishing's not a hobby it's a way of life	Hypnosis
Big fish	Pit of Doom	I really wanted to get him
Episode 8
Airdate	27 June 2005
Retiring pathologist Reynard Mears pulls some strings to get UCOS to reopen the case of the only victim he's never identified in over 5,700 autopsies. "Millicent," as he calls her, was 18 to 25 years old and had red hair and syphilis. She was killed in 1987 and was partially dissected, and a large animal chewed on her remains. Only a few body parts with no head were found in the woods by a boy who remains traumatised by the experience years later. Brian is also disturbed by the scene and wonders if a place can retain the residue of a gruesome crime and be revisited by the victim's spectral essence. Brian admires the binary reference code Reynard uses to organise his data, and they bond to the point where they finish each other's sentences. Reynard's assistant Vicky identifies the stomach contents and Gerry realises it was salami. Vicky is also able to deduce that the victim came from the western Highlands of Scotland based on the minerals from the water she drank growing up. Brian and Gerry use subterfuge to get records from a syphilis clinic. From this information, the body is tentatively identified as Fay McCloud, and DNA samples from her parents confirm it. Fay was a heroin addict, and her parents cut off contact with her after repeated attempts to help her. Brian returns to the woods and discovers that the presence he sensed was a wild boar. Jack realises that a number of livestock including wild boar escaped from farms when fences were destroyed in the Great Storm of 1987. He locates nearby Tuckford House run by Lady Deeley where wild boar are raised. She admits some of hers escaped but she was out of the country at the time of the murder. The team's theory is that someone killed and dismembered Fay and tried to feed her to the boar, and that parts of her were carried away when they escaped. A photo of a school play provided by Fay's parents shows a link between Fay's past and Tuckford House, leading to her killer.
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Like minds	Spectral essence	Uneasy feeling
Create a diversion	Wild boar	Wisecracking

 

2006:

New Tricks - Series 3
Role	Brian Lane Co-starring role
Also Starring	James Bolam as Jack Halford; Amanda Redman as Sandra Pullman; Dennis Waterman as Gerry Standing; Susan Jameson as Esther Lane; Anthony Calf as Strickland
Availability	Region 1 (US) DVD available on Amazon. Also available to watch on Amazon Instant Video. Region 2 (UK) DVD available on Amazon UK.
Episode 1	"Lady's Pleasure"
Airdate	17 April 2006
Sandra reopens one of her old cases involving the death of Nancy Murray in a car crash. She becomes obsessed with proving that the car was tampered with by Nancy's husband, who is petitioning to get the car back. But Nancy also received blackmail photos of her in bed with another man. Brian closely examines the photos and discovers a tattoo on the man's backside. He determines that the numbers in the tattoo may refer to a rugby team and drags Jack along to the showers of various clubs until they find someone who recognises who it belongs to. The man, Larry Bevan, turns out to be a gigolo who slept with Nancy and a variety of other women for money. Brian discovers one of Nancy's friends among Larry's clients and then cracks Larry's computer password to find another key piece of information that leads to the resolution of the case. Meanwhile, Brian has become concerned by Esther's comments about the tattoo and the accompanying backside so he decides to get a tattoo of a penguin to commemorate their first meeting when Esther stole a Penguin paperback of Lady Chatterley's Lover from a library. He reveals the tattoo, and its location, to Esther that night.
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I have to look, it's evidence!	Nice bum	A man among men
Lying down on the job	Twisty pasta	I have a system!
Cracked it	You old romantic	Where do you think?
Episode 2	"Dockers"
Airdate	24 April 2006
The team investigate the death of 1970s union leader Joe Walsh, previously ruled a suicide after irregularities were found in the union accounts. Jack thinks that government security services might have been involved in trying to silence Walsh. Brian is meant to analyse the accounts, but he has stopped taking his psychiatric drugs in favour of natural remedies and his mental condition deteriorates. He becomes obsessed with forming a union at work and launches into a strange tirade against Lord McCready, the union's former treasurer who has risen to a position of importance. Eventually Gerry gets Brian to start taking his pills again by telling him he's letting the team down. Back on track, Brian untangles a teaming and lading scheme in the accounts leading back to Lord McCready. But the solution to the murder turns out to be closer to home.
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Bad medicine	Open	Swallow
Rant	I had a point, didn't I?	Cause for concern
Paranoia	Take your medicine	A pattern emerging
Episode 3	"Old Dogs"
Airdate	1 May 2006
A series of dog killings on Hampstead Heath similar to ones 30 years earlier fall to the team because no one else wants the case. The killer targets older dogs and uses meat laced with mandrake to kill them before removing their organs. The prime suspect is an anti-animal rights activist who works in an abattoir. Jack becomes friendly with an animal protection officer from the original case whose wife is ill. Brian's participation in the investigation is cut short by the unrelated death of his dog Scruffy. Sandra arranges leave for him but when he wants to return early, she can't let him. Continuing on his own, Brian ends up detained by the park staff on Hampstead Heath. Recalling a story he read about an Antarctic explorer who died after eating the liver of a sled dog, Brian deduces that the killer's goal is to obtain old dog livers to use as a poison. Meanwhile, Jack has come down with a mysterious malady. The team put two and two together, and the killer is unmasked and Jack recovers. Brian has been unable to get a new dog because of strict requirements, but Gerry presents him with one he names Scampi.
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Scruffy	Not a dog lover	Compassionate leave
R.I.P. Scruffy	Old dogs' livers	Think like a dog
Jack's mystery illness	Home of the Blizzard	Scampi
Episode 4	"Diamond Geezers"
Airdate	8 May 2006
Jack receives an anonymous invitation to a funeral and realises too late that the deceased is an old criminal whose son, Chopper Hadley, is not pleased to see him. Chopper Hadley is a drug dealer who moved to Spain and is briefly in the country for the funeral and to wrap up his business affairs. The team decide to take the opportunity to investigate him for the murder of one of Jack's old informants, Micky Springer. Jack continues to receive threats from the anonymous source, while Gerry is sidelined doing surveillance work. The team find Micky's head under the floor of a building Hadley owned. An undercover operation is deemed necessary, but Strickland decides to use DI Tina Murray instead of Sandra. Tina chooses Brian as her partner, much to everyone's surprise. Brian reassures Esther that he will remain faithful while on assignment with a young female, much to Esther's amusement. Brian and Tina approach Hadley on the pretense of buying a house from him. Hadley becomes suspicious and sends his henchman Tommy to tail them, but Brian convinces him they're on the same side with a fake gun. While closing the deal for the house, Hadley offers them a bigger prize and they follow him to his father's grave where all is revealed.
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Gerry's surveillance skills	In need of a warrant	Micky's head
The right man for the job	Faithful husband	Undercover
Of course we're bloody villains	In or out?	It's called Lethal for Men
Episode 5	"Wicca Work"
Airdate	15 May 2006
The team's peace is disturbed when asbestos is found in their office and they are relocated to cramped quarters. Sandra's former therapist introduces them to a patient, Grace, who remembers being part of a coven of witches with a man whose body was found years ago beneath a tree in Richmond Park. At the time of his death there was no indication that the victim, Craig Rossiter, was involved in witchcraft. Brian and Jack visit the library where Rossiter worked. Brian wants to know who checked out books on the occult at the time of Rossiter's death but the librarian tells him the information is protected. Brian and Gerry seek out Rhoda Wishaw, another member of the coven who lives in a tent in the woods. She is evasive with her answers and gives them a restorative tea that makes them amorous. Brian hurries home to Esther. The next day, they return but this time Rhoda gives them a bitter tea that knocks them out. Brian has a hallucination of the man who died in his custody before he left the police force. Brian gets himself locked in the library after hours and learns that Rossiter had ordered books on black magic. The team worry that the coven may be planning a human sacrifice on the anniversary of Rossiter's death - the 6th day of the 6th month of 2006. Meanwhile, Jack has become intrigued by the image of the Green Man and starts experiencing visions. He goes on his own to the house of one of the coven members on the edge of Richmond Park. At the same time, the coven and the team converge on the park, and the circumstances surrounding Rossiter's death are revealed.
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Tree hugger	Close quarters	The Data Protection Act
Restorative tea	Like a man possessed	Bitter tea
Episode 6	"Bank Robbery"
Airdate	22 May 2006
Gerry's old informant Pete Mackintyre - on the run from a prison sentence he skipped out on - returns to England after 17 years for his son's 18th birthday. He leads Gerry to a shotgun and cassette that he says are evidence in the Finsbury Park bank job of 1987. The prime suspect is Ray Cook, now retired from his life of crime and writing books and appearing on talk shows. His alibi - that he was at his mother's deathbed - seems shaky when Brian compares an autographed book to a signature on a hospital form, and Sandra presses him for the truth. Sandra orders the cassette to be sent to audio forensics, but the team can't resist listening to it first. Jack's cassette player eats the tape but Brian manages to salvage it and makes a copy before submitting it to the lab, which has a backlog of 8 weeks. Using his new laptop, Brian analyses the recording, made during the robbery. Initially it seems that the cashier who was killed identifies Ray, but further analysis shows that the bank job may have been a set-up to frame Ray.
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New laptop	Flagrant disregard for procedure	Sign here
Graphic equaliser	Stopping traffic	I love doing that
Episode 7	"Ice Cream Wars"
Airdate	29 May 2006
The team witness a fight between two rival ice cream vendors - the Gennaros and the Bentons - which leads to the reopening of the Ice Cream Bandit case from the summer of 1996. The bandit, wearing a motorcycle helmet, robbed ice cream vans belonging to both families, and Andy Benton was shot. Each family accused the other. Jack is called upon to mediate between the two families but it does not go well. Gerry suspects the Bentons of selling drugs from their vans, and he brings his daughter along to try to buy some. Brian thinks Andy Benton's ice cream flavour experiments are a cover for making the drugs. Having already tried his hand at cooking, Brian now experiments with making methamphetamines using ingredients found at the Bentons - with disastrous results to the kitchen. The drug ring is exposed, and a connection between two paintings at the Gennaros and the Bentons leads to the identity of the Ice Cream Bandit.
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What's in this stuff?	Peanut butter fudge choc swirl	Cereal?
101 ways to cook eggs	Esther love?	Setting a trap
Episode 8	"Congratulations"
Airdate	5 June 2006
Jack is sought out by Luke Hanson, who was wrongly convicted of burning down his old school and wants the team to find out who did it. Luke is the son of Jack's nemesis Ricky Hanson, who got away with murdering his own brother. The school's headmaster tells them that a group of wargamers were at the school on the day of the fire for a convention of miniature battle reenactments. A feud between gamers seems a possible motive. Brian gets excited because wargaming was an old hobby of his, but Esther is concerned because he was drinking heavily at the time. When Sandra announces she's leaving to take a promotion, Brian immerses himself in battle reenactments. Gerry is also distracted with the news that he may have a long-lost daughter. Sandra regains focus and solves the case and decides to stay with the team after all. Jack's focus is on Ricky Hanson, and though he is innocent of the arson, he is guilty of a far worse crime - the hit-and-run death of Jack's wife Mary.
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Old hobbies	Sandra's leaving	Mr Tabletop Miniature Battle Reenactment
Fire!	Old habits	Sandra's staying

 

2007:

New Tricks - Series 4
Role	Brian Lane Co-starring role
Also Starring	James Bolam as Jack Halford; Amanda Redman as Sandra Pullman; Dennis Waterman as Gerry Standing; Susan Jameson as Esther Lane; Anthony Calf as Strickland
Availability	Region 1 (US) DVD available on Amazon. Also available to watch on Amazon Instant Video. Region 2 (UK) DVD available on Amazon UK.
Episode 1	"Casualty"
Airdate	9 April 2007
After learning that Ricky Hanson killed his wife Mary in a hit-and-run, Jack tries to run him down with his car. Sandra arrives on the scene with Gerry and Brian and rams Jack's car to stop him. All four end up in hospital. Sandra is quickly discharged, while the boys find themselves in a ward where three men died on the same night ten years ago. They decide to investigate to prove their worthiness to Strickland, who has brought in DCI Karen Hardwick to help Sandra while they're away. Sandra thinks Hardwick is a plant assigned to learn the truth about the accident. Autopsies revealed that two of the men died of natural causes while the other, Alan White, was given an overdose of diamorphine. A nurse was fired after the incident but she maintains her innocence. Jack creates a diversion while Brian accesses the computer files of Dr Freedman, who was on duty that night. They learn that Dr Freedman is an advocate of euthanasia and also that he was having affairs with the nurse and with the wife of a fellow doctor. Sandra interviews Ray Monkton, a veterinarian whose father died the same night. The team also looks into Alan White's family and discover a dark secret that reveals the motive for the murder. Ricky Hanson comes to the hospital and tries to smother Jack with a pillow. Brian whacks him from behind with his cane, but Hanson overpowers him. Jack knocks Hanson out with an oxygen cylinder. Karen Hardwick overhears the team discussing the accident but does not expose them as they feared she would.
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Injuries that would've broken lesser men	Visiting hours	On the case
Mission accomplished	Ricky Hanson	Stranglehold
Episode 2	"God's Waiting Room"
Airdate	16 April 2007
Sandra wants the team to investigate a suspicious death at a residential home for seniors that her mother may move into. Maggie Newley died of an overdose of the painkiller Tramadol but DS Dougie Taylor, the original investigator, reached no conclusion whether it was accident, suicide or murder. DS Taylor complains to Strickland who pulls the team from the case. Brian suggests they go undercover, and it falls to Jack to play an old age pensioner while Gerry acts as his son and Brian poses as a Reiki practitioner. Maggie's son Daniel is convinced his mother was murdered. His wife Kim reports that he had a breakdown after his mother's death and was unable to work. Maggie was engaged to Leonard, a fellow resident, and her engagement ring went missing after her death. The team learn that another woman was also in love with Leonard. Brian is visited by the son of DI Martin Hall, who stole Brian's bicycle and had him kicked off the Metropolitan Police Sprint Relay team. Martin Hall is now dying of throat cancer, and he asked his son to return Brian's bicycle, named Matilda. In addition to the ring, a number of other items had been stolen at the home. The manager claims Maggie was a kleptomaniac, but Gerry and Brian trace some of the stolen goods and discover that the manager's daughter Kelly was selling them. Brian sets off in pursuit of Kelly on his bicycle. He catches her, but Matilda is destroyed. Kelly is a prostitute and a drug addict, and the manager admits he gave Maggie's Tramadol to her and that she commented on how powerful it was. Brian - in hospital again - concludes that Maggie's pills were a stronger dose than they should have been. Sandra reconsiders who had access to Tramadol and unmasks the killer. Brian stops by Martin Hall's room and realises he shouldn't have let his ill feelings fester all this time.
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Alright granddad!	Matilda?	Reiki practitioner
We are the champions	Lance Armstrong	Caught in the act
A stronger dose	Visiting Martin Hall	I let it fester
Episode 3	"Ducking and Diving"
Airdate	23 April 2007
A security van found at the bottom of Whinfield Lake turns out to be part of an old murder inquiry. The van and its driver, Michael Dudley, disappeared after the woman he was having an affair with was killed. The woman's husband, Andrew Sinclair, was suspected of murdering both of them and hiding Dudley's body and the van. Sinclair's security firm was taken over by Steve Palmer. Brian and Gerry go to look at the old records, and Gerry ends up moonlighting for the security firm. The records reveal that the van was carrying a shipment of jewelry from a mysterious company. Brian finds information on diving blogs that leads to a club that dove in the deepest part of the lake where the van was found. The head divers, Martin Viner and Trisha, deny finding the van. They take Sandra diving and she finds the murder weapon which belonged to Sinclair.  Brian thinks there's no way Sinclair could have made it to the lake and back in the time between two confirmed sightings of him. Gerry disagrees and tests his theory but ends up stopped by traffic cops while Brian is proved right. Sandra goes diving again and finds Dudley's skeleton, but Martin Viner dies after someone tampered with his oxygen tank. Trisha admits they took the jewelry from the van and that Martin started getting threatening phone calls after the team's investigation began. The identity of the owner of the jewelry - and the murderer - is discovered in time to prevent Trisha from being killed too. Brian buys wetsuits for himself and Esther so they can take up diving, but Esther dashes his hopes when she points out that he doesn't meet the medical fitness requirements.
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Learn the secrets of the deep	In the blogosphere, information sleeps like beautiful princess	Beached Brian
Traffic jam	Clutching at straws, Gerry	Pulled over for speeding
Episode 4	"Nine Lives"
Airdate	30 April 2007
The death of a woman who left all her money to her numerous cats is brought to the team's attention when the last cat dies and various human claimants to the estate come forward. Dorothy's nephew Harry claims to work in high finance but is hiding reduced circumstances. Her niece Caroline and husband Peter run a pet shop, while Peter has a sideline in exotic pets. The catsitter, Dale Hewson, is charming to old ladies but cons them out of their valuable possessions. Brian interviews Dorothy's neighbor, who hated the cats and claims his dog was killed by them. Brian is having trouble with his own dog Scampi. Esther threatens to get rid of Scampi if Brian can't get him to behave. Brian buys some doggie ritalin from Peter - which makes matters worse - and also buys a gecko from him. Esther is surprised in the shower by the gecko but Scampi saves the day and is no longer in her dog house. Brian discovers deep scratches on the inside of the door of Dorothy's garden shed. He concludes that what killed the neighbor's dog was no ordinary house cat, and an examination of the feces collected as evidence by the neighbor confirms it. This piece of information leads to the discovery of the circumstances of Dorothy's death.
Notes:	Scampi is played by Sam Armstrong, Alun's son Dan's dog.
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Quite a party	It's poo	Stay
Know thine enemy	Scampi's been framed	Doggie ritalin
A nose for evidence	Evidence of the UK Big Cat?	Escape of the giant Madagascar day gecko
Episode 5	"Powerhouse"
Airdate	7 May 2007
Builders renovating a house discover a crawlspace containing a briefcase full of old currency - specifically white fivers. A former resident, Fred Tully, was murdered in 1953, and a man named Richard Dunne was hanged for the crime, but Dunne's granddaughter insists he was framed. Sir Edward Chambers, who at the time said he saw Dunne getting off a bus where the murder weapon was stashed, now says his identification may have been influenced by the police. Tully worked at the Battersea power station. Brian gets excited about learning all there is to know about the power station, but soon realises he is boring his coworkers with too much detail. He resolves to become sensitive to the feedback of others but things don't go as he hoped. Tully's coworker, Douglas Murray, admits that they took fivers from the power station furnace, where they had been brought to be destroyed. A partial document in the briefcase that was also taken from the furnace proves to be from the American embassy. The document refers to killings of unarmed civilians in Kenya by the British during the Mau Mau Rebellion, but the name of the officer responsible is cut off. Once the missing piece of evidence surfaces, the identity of the killer is revealed.
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Crawlspace	Am I boring you?	Sensitivity training
Mr Sensitive	Secular cathedral, temple of power	Gotcha
Episode 6	"Buried Treasure"
Airdate	14 May 2007
Esther goes away for a few days, leaving Brian alone with colour-coded meals. Out walking on the common, Scampi finds a skeleton beneath an uprooted tree, and Brian meets Alice Sandwell, a biologist studying plant growth. When a newspaper names Brian as the detective in charge, he receives two strange calls: one from an anonymous man asking about the gender of the body, and another from Jackie Small, the widow of a gangster. It turns out that the skeleton is 600 years old, but the team decide to investigate the suspicious callers rather than work on their departmental audit. Jackie Small confesses to hiring a hitman to kill her husband's girlfriend, Tina Murphy, but the team can't find a missing persons report on her. They track down the small-time crook Jackie hired and he inadvertently leads them to discover what happened to Tina. On the common, Brian notices a man taking an interest in the burial site. He turns out to be Andrew Bartlett, the anonymous caller, and also the neighbour of Neil Williams - a crooked property developer who disappeared. Williams' business partner was convicted of murder but he maintains his innocence. Brian calls on his new friend Alice to look for disturbances in the foliage on the common, which leads to the discovery of the body and the identity of the killer. Brian meanwhile has spent the nights at the office, which allowed him to finish the audit - but not to bathe.
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Home alone	A common interest	Second-in-command
Esther needs a break from me	Stealth Brian	You stink
Episode 7	"Father's Pride"
Airdate	21 May 2007
Builders find a camera bag and film in the vents of a Soho pub. The items were stolen from a photo developing lab where Stuart Sharpe was killed in 1987, on the night of the Soho vice raids. Strangely, the items turn out to be covered in semen. Most of the rolls of film are innocuous, but one has paparazzi photos of a famous footballer with a Page 3 girl, and another has a picture of a man injecting heroin with a child in the background. The man turns out to be a model at the Reflect agency and Sandra gets romantically involved with him. Brian has been working on a computer photo montage for his son's engagement and becomes depressed when he realises he wasn't a part of his son's childhood because of his job and drinking problem. Jack and Brian return the ordinary photos of weddings and christenings to their owners but many have suffered losses since they were taken and are not happy to get them back. Brian goes into a funk and stops coming to work. The team learns that the photo lab was used as a drop-off for drug dealers and also by the Reflect modeling agency. The woman who ran errands for Reflect has mental health issues, and Gerry convinces Brian to come talk to her. Brian gets her to open up and she reveals that Patrick Martin, the owner of Reflect, was running a sperm bank through the agency. Gerry's daughter Emily goes undercover pretending to need a donor and discovers the truth about the operation and Stuart's killer.
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Out of the picture	In a funk	Bonding over meds
Episode 8	"Big Topped"
Airdate	28 May 2007
Strickland asks the team to investigate the death of a circus performer called the Great Miracula aka Bert Dignam whose body was burned in his locked caravan, leaving nothing but his feet. Strickland was approached by a woman named Christy Berlin who was adopted and learned that Dignam was her biological father. Sandra later discovers that Christy slept with Strickland to get the case reopened. Marginal notes in the case file suggest spontaneous combustion, but Brian scoffs at the idea. He sets out to disprove it by setting a pig carcass on fire with a cigarette in a closed caravan. The pig burns slowly until all but its trotters are consumed, similar to what happened to Dignam. The DNA in Dignam's feet doesn't match Christy's, meaning either the body wasn't his or he wasn't Christy's father. The other circus performers are tested, including the ringmaster, the Amazing Antonio, and Joey the Clown. Christy's birthmother Oona is reluctant to talk about her out-of-wedlock pregnancy but eventually gives the team the information they need to solve the crime. Brian has a driving lesson at Esther's insistence, and when the instructor has a heart attack in the car he has to drive him to hospital. He finds Sandra passed out drunk in her car in the hospital parking lot and tries to drive her home but is stopped by a cop. Sandra was upset because she found out her father's death was a suicide. When she learns that Jack was investigating her father for corruption at the time and that Brian also knew but never told her, she blows up at the team.
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It's a pig	Got a light?	Nervous driver
Car CPR	Hello officer	Sandra's dad

 

2008:

New Tricks - Series 5
Series Overview	Throughout series 5, Brian struggles increasingly with his alcoholism and finally starts drinking again.
Role	Brian Lane Co-starring role
Also Starring	James Bolam as Jack Halford; Amanda Redman as Sandra Pullman; Dennis Waterman as Gerry Standing; Susan Jameson as Esther Lane; Anthony Calf as Strickland
Availability	Region 1 (US) DVD available on Amazon. Region 2 (UK) DVD available on Amazon UK.
Episode 1	"Spare Parts"
Airdate	7 July 2008
Ricky Hanson finally goes on trial for attempting to murder Jack. (Series 4, "Casualty") While at the courthouse, an old friend of Jack's asks him to reopen the case of Ralph Wheeler, who was killed shortly after changing his will to leave £3 million to an escort. The escort reveals that Wheeler sought her out because she received transplanted corneas from his daughter Naomi, who died in a car crash while he was driving. During the interview, Brian is distracted by an array of liquor bottles and turns one away so its label faces the wall. The team realise that Wheeler also tracked down the other female recipients of his daughter' organs, but not the man who got her liver. The woman who received a kidney ran off with her dialysis technician, and the woman who got her heart is in prison. Naomi's former boyfriend claims he heard the surgeon, Mr Capshaw, promise Naomi's heart to someone else. Also under suspicion is Stephen Davis, a criminal whose mother died as a result of the car crash. Capshaw's friend James Blake represented Davis in an insurance claim, which was unsuccessful; nevertheless Davis is now in possession of a £350,000 boat. The boat's original owner is the necessary clue for cracking the case. Brian is nervous about testifying at Hanson's trial. In the past, he would steel his nerves with a drink, but Esther tells him he'll be able to take pride in the fact that he testified sober. He confidently answers the prosecutor's questions, but Hanson's lawyer trips him up by grilling him about his psychiatric medications and his mental status. Brian breaks down and shouts, "I am not mad ... He's the madman!" Hanson's lawyer lays similar traps for Gerry, Sandra and Jack, and Hanson is found not guilty. Jack puts his affairs in order and disappears, but Esther points out that he left Mary's remains buried in his backyard and must intend to return.
Notes	Strangely, there is no mention of the nurse who was knocked out by Ricky Hanson on his way to Jack's ward in "Casualty," which would have disproven the defence theory that Hanson visited Jack with innocent intentions.
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Tempted by the bottle	Dressing gown rehearsal	Called to testify
Cross-examined	Badgered witness	I am not mad!
I let Jack down	Verdict	Jack's gone
Episode 2	"Final Curtain"
Airdate	14 July 2008
The team - minus Jack - investigate the death of Michael Austin, an actor who was shot dead on stage when a prop gun malfunctioned. The gun was fired by Austin's real-life wife, Helen Brownlow, an actress who was also in the play. The stage manager Derek Bennett was accused of negligence and served two years in prison. Now Austin's daughter Catherine has written a memoir including a newly discovered note reading "bang you're dead" with the initials B.M. - apparently Billy Morley, Austin's co-star and rival who has since died of Parkinson's. Strickland brings in his nephew James to assist the team. James becomes smitten with Sandra, who is feeling neglected because Brian and Gerry forgot her birthday, and she agrees to go out with him on an unsuccessful date. Brian is initially displeased to be working on a case about the theatre. In school, he had a teacher who encouraged the class to read Shakespeare in their own accents, but when they went to see a play, young Brian was disappointed to see "a bunch of middle-class twats putting on plummy accents." While at the theatre to interview Derek Bennett, Brian prompts an auditioning actor with the lines of Marc Antony's funeral oration and ends up delivering the whole speech himself. The director is impressed, and Brian considers a career as a professional actor. Gerry meanwhile is hiding his youthful stint with a theatre company. Analysis of the note suggests that it was written at the time of Austin's death but that the initials B.M. were added later. The age of the fingerprints shows that both Derek Bennett and Catherine's agent Mel Simons handled the rediscovered note earlier than they claimed. But it is a set of missing fingerprints that gives Brian an epiphany about Austin's death, and he finds the impression of another note to Helen Brownlow on the same pad. The team race to the theatre where Helen is reprising her role in the play and Brian takes to the stage to prevent another tragedy.
Notes	Brian's description of his inspirational teacher is similar to Alun Armstrong's own experience at Consett Grammar School.
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Sandra's admirer	Lend me your ears	An actor's life for me
Missing Jack	The butler did it	Command performance
Episode 3	"A Face for Radio"
Airdate	21 July 2008
Jeremy Kirk, the president and only member of the Johnny Deacon fan club, pesters the police commissioner into having the team reexamine Johnny's death in a suspicious fire at the radio station where he was a DJ. One theory was that the arsonist was seeking revenge on the station's owner, Sir Max Wyatt, who cheated his employees out of their pensions and then killed himself. The team also discover that an assistant at the station was fired after complaining that Johnny sexually harassed her. Sandra and Gerry talk to Johnny's producer Graham Madeley, who had a codependent relationship with Johnny that angered Graham's wife Sarah. Graham falls under suspicion when they learn he knew about timed fuses from his fireworks training. Brian listens to Johnny's controversial talk show programmes, which his fan Jeremy recorded. Brian tries to encourage Jeremy to go out and make friends, and Jeremy's response is to show up at Brian's house for tea. At an '80s theme party for Graham's new radio station, Brian goes undercover in Miami Vice garb. He realises that a persistent caller to Johnny's show who called herself Tarzan Girl is Sharon Revie, a cleaner who was blinded in the fire. Sharon's revelations about her first meeting with Johnny and Graham at age 14 leads to the unmasking of the arsonist. Strickland has been after Sandra to hire a new team member, and he is angry when he learns that Brian and Gerry have used department resources in an attempt to locate Jack. Gerry and Sandra announce their resignations, leaving Brian out in the cold. He nearly starts drinking again but resolves to find Jack instead.
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Unauthorised credit check	A nod is as good as a wink ...	Goon
Tubbs & Crockett	We quit	On the edge
Episode 4	"Loyalties and Royalties"
Airdate	28 July 2008
Brian finally finds Jack and convinces him to return to work and not let Ricky Hanson ruin the rest of his life. Gerry's daughter, who is a nurse, calls him to talk to a dying woman with information about the alleged suicide of guitarist Andy Fletcher in 1975. The woman claims she and a friend named Sam were around Andy's house the night he died and that she heard two men arguing and then a gunshot. The team track down the other members of Bad Faith and their manager Clive Evans. The singer Dave Dalston had some solo hits and then faded into obscurity. The drummer Charlie Webber runs a spiritual retreat. And the bassist Danny Jones had a serious drug problem and now bears an eerie resemblance to Brian. Jack visits Andy Fletcher's mother and finds a book of song lyrics that weren't recorded by Bad Faith. He also learns that Andy's mother has received no royalties, that Andy cleared out his bank account of £12,000 just before he died, and that Andy was in an earlier band with a troublemaker named Billy Carter. Jack traces the royalties to Charlie Webber's retreat, while Gerry realises that Dave Dalston's solo hits were written by Andy. Brian unearths a membership list for the Bad Faith Fan Club in order to find Sam. She was hiding under Andy's bed when he was killed and remembers seeing a distinctive pair of cowboy boots belonging to the killer.
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Come back Jack	Bad Faith Fan Club	Doppelganger
Episode 5	"Couldn't Organise One"
Airdate	4 August 2008
When DCI Mcadam is found guilty of corruption, the team have to reopen one of his old unsolved cases. Assistant brewer Graham Thompson was found dead in a vat of beer at Felspar Brewery in 1998. He may have been overcome by CO2 fumes and fallen in, but his girlfriend insists he was murdered.  The brewery was run by Sir Freddie Felspar, who has since handed over the reins to his son Julian. Sir Freddie's alibi is that he was with his dying wife that night, while Julian was with his sister Jacinta who was in a clinic specialising in abortions. Malcolm Hagley, the chief brewer who found the body, was let go because of a drinking problem. He claims he saw a ghost at the brewery that night and admits he was worried that Thompson wanted his job. Thompson was a genius who created Felspar's Far Reaching Bitter, which won the South of England Best Beer award five years in a row. But in 1998, around the time of his death, the beer lost to Pole Star run by Tony Jopling, who went to university with Thompson and Julian. The poor taste may have been the result of genetically modified barley, so the team sneak samples of different vintage beers from the brewery. Brian gets locked in the room with the beer vats and has hallucinations from the CO2. Jack and Gerry drink most of the evidence but enough remains to confirm that GM barley was used in 1998. Tampering with Thompson's recipe was a factor in his death, but the true motive turns out to be a family affair. During the investigation, Sandra interviews Mcadam several times and he taunts her about her father's involvement with a prostitute named Deirdre. Deidre's pimp killed her and tried to kill her 4-year-old son Carl, but Sandra's father shot the pimp to save the boy. Carl was left in the care of another prostitute who abandoned him in a church.
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Felspar's Far Reaching Bitter	Mmm beer	Woozy
Episode 6	"Magic Majestic"
Airdate	11 August 2008
Brian is contacted by Katie Briers, a woman who killed her husband Ray after undergoing hypnosis for magician Billy Carse's television show, Magic Majestic. She was acquitted, but she wants to know the truth about what happened. The others are sceptical, especially Jack. Billy Carse is now dead, but his wheelchair-bound brother Ray tells them he donated Billy's things to the Magic Circle. They find the script used to hypnotise Katie containing trigger words such as "kill" and "ray." Katie has received emails from someone calling himself Merlin who claims that the person responsible is Brandon Skye, a former rival of Billy's who studied neurolinguistic programming to influence people. Brandon has a relationship with Billy's former producer, Lulu Questor, who may have been a mole for Skye at the time of the incident. Brian and Sandra go undercover at a corporate retreat where Brandon Skye is scheduled to appear, but he disguises himself and pretends to be shot in a wargame before revealing his identity. Brian becomes obsessed with catching Skye, not realising that Skye has used his neurolinguistic skills to influence him. Things turn dangerous when he convinces Brian that he's drunk alcohol. Brian takes Sandra's car and crashes it, but his breathlyser test comes back clean. Lulu agrees to cooperate and Skye is brought in for questioning. Brian finds marginal notes in books from the Magic Circle that seem to prove Skye's guilt, but in the end he discovers that there's always someone cleverer.
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Katie Briers	Hypnosis script	Retreat
Eavesdropping	Past saving	Born yesterday
Under the influence	Taken for a ride	Disappearing act
Episode 7	"Communal Living"
Airdate	18 August 2008
Brian struggles to control his alcoholism, exacerbated by recent events, and he starts AA again. Meanwhile, the team's attention is called to one of their cold cases when Diane King, the mother of the victim Justin King, finds a girl who knew her son. Justin had been missing for two months before he turned up dead. The team learn that during that time he was on a commune where the girl, Heidi, lives with her father Ash, a woman named Beatrice, and a number of other people. The members of the commune are about to be evicted by the new owner of their land. Jack visits Justin's college roommates and learns that he argued with his mother about going to a music festival in Amsterdam. Diane reveals that she was angry that Justin asked her husband Melvin for permission as usual, and she told Justin that Melvin was not his real father. On a subsequent visit to the roommates, Jack learns that Justin made an enemy of a Russian pimp who kept his prostitutes in the flat downstairs. At lunch, Brian refuses a glass of homemade wine, saying there's no such thing as just one glass for him. Ash tells him he used to have the same problem, but now he can trust himself to have a drink. Brian decides to stay overnight at the commune hoping to find out what they're hiding, and at dinner he succumbs and has a glass of wine. He wakes up from a stupor and stumbles into an open grave. Back at the station, three people confess to the same murder but insist that Justin left the commune alive intending to go to India. Realisation that he would have needed to retrieve his passport leads to the discovery of what befell Justin after he left. Brian learns that his glass of wine was drugged, but the damage is done and he continues to crave another drink.
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Face the day	Wine and dine	Just one glass
Potent stuff	Weren't you surprised you got drunk so fast?	Struggling
Episode 8	"Mad Dogs"
Airdate	25 August 2008
Brian has started drinking again. He disguises the fact by sucking on oranges injected with vodka. In a pub after a loss by AFC Wimbledon, Brian and his son Mark encounter one of Mark's old schoolmates, Andy Merrill, who was discharged from the army with mental health problems and requires medication when he drinks. Andy claims that his Army buddy Eric Trimble was murdered while they were taking part in a flu trial before shipping out to Iraq in 1991. When Brian tries to access Trimble's Army records, a man from MI5 shows up to issue a warning. But Strickland - who has a personal issue with the Army - tells the team to go ahead with the investigation. Trimble and Andy Merrill were in the Influenza Research Unit with two others - Keith Sharratt, who is still in the Army, and Ronnie Glazebrook. They broke out one night to go to a pub and they have no memory of what happened to Eric, who was found beaten to death in the woods in the opposite direction from the IRU. Sandra notes that race was a possible motive, since Trimble was black. She and Brian visit Trimble's mother, who is a Jehovah's Witness, and learn that her husband wasted away four months after his son's death. Trimble's colonel reveals that that the four men were sent to the IRU because Trimble and Sharratt had a fight and the other two got involved. Brian and Gerry visit Ronnie Glazebrook and find that he is delusional, playing wargames in a house full of junk. They also track down the pub owner who is now running a gay pub and learn that Trimble was gay. The team have difficulty finding out the truth about the IRU. The building site is torn down by men in protective suits right after the team start their investigation, and the doctor who was in charge is not allowed to tell them anything. The investigation is called to a halt until Strickland leaks a story to the press saying that the MOD shut down an enquiry into a black soldier's death. The case is reopened and the doctor tells them that the tests were for a drug that removed inhibitions and heightened aggression, but that the men's minds were damaged to varying degrees by the combination of the drug and the alcohol they drank at the pub. Trimble brought them to that particular pub because with his inhibitions removed he felt free to come out as gay. Brian realises that something is missing from the murder site and that Glazebrook provided a clue in his ramblings when he said, "ET phone home." Brian consumes several vodka-filled oranges during the investigation and stays behind with Gerry's untouched beer during a pub stop. After the case is closed, Brian forgets a date with Esther and instead starts drinking beer with vodka shots. He is drunk and chatting up two ladies when Esther and Mark find him.
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An orange a day ...	The MOD, are you insane?	Waste not
Here's mud in your eye	Secret stash	ET phone home
Off the wagon	Uninhibited	Found out

 

2009:

New Tricks - Series 6
Series Overview	Series 6 begins with Brian in rehab for alcoholism.
Role	Brian Lane Co-starring role
Also Starring	James Bolam as Jack Halford; Amanda Redman as Sandra Pullman; Dennis Waterman as Gerry Standing; Susan Jameson as Esther Lane; Anthony Calf as Strickland
Availability	Region 2 (UK) DVD available on Amazon UK. Region 1 (US) DVD available on Amazon.
Episode 1	"The War Against Drugs"
Airdate	16 July 2009
After Brian's relapse into alcoholism, Esther brings him to a rehab centre which, to his alarm, is run by monks. Esther tells him that if he doesn't stay, she will leave him. Brian is put off by the confrontational methods of Brother Raymond and complains to Father Bernard about driving people over the edge. Father Bernard thinks he's referring to an incident 9 years ago, which peaks Brian's curiosity. He climbs over the wall to phone Sandra who thinks he's trying to avoid treatment. She and the team decide to investigate the case to keep Brian from getting distracted, even though Esther asked them to stay away. Gerry goes into the clinic posing as a sex addict. Robert Smith, a heroin addict, was found at the bottom of the stairs with a broken neck and methadone in his system despite the fact that the clinic doesn't allow palliative drugs. Suspicion turns to Curtis McCormack, a proponent of methadone treatment who no longer works at the clinic. Gerry discovers that his sex therapist Anna Greening has an 8-year-old son who resembles Rob Smith. Esther is angry to find the team working on a case despite her wishes, but she realises that Brian needs to keep working, and she even helps out by getting a fingerprint sample from one of the suspects. Brian continues with his therapy even after the team's investigation is exposed, and he is given guidance and a book by Santayana by Brother Mark. A check into Rob's background reveals that he left home in 1992 to do something to make his mother proud, but they never saw him again. It turns out that Rob's mother was Croatian and that Rob joined a paramilitary group during the civil war in Yugoslavia. He witnessed a massacre led to him becoming a drug addict. But someone else at the clinic was also involved in the massacre and killed Rob to keep their identity secret.
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He's a monk!	Over the wall	Late night call
Sort your head out	Group therapy	Have you got a woman in here?
What a crew	It means nothing if I'm not working	I need help
Episode 2	"The Truth Is Out There"
Airdate	23 July 2009
After the death of Jack's old friend Derek Brooker, his estranged wife Cheryl contests his will on the grounds that Derek's obsession with a strange case proved he was unfit. Jack wants to reopen the case despite Sandra's objections. Peter Edelmann - a journalist specialising in evolutionary biology and gene theory - was found dead of an overdose of tranquilisers in the woods near an American Air Force base. His girlfriend is sure he didn't kill himself, and he was planning a trip to Africa the next week. He had his vaccinations the same day, yet the postmortem did not mention injection marks and the coroner is "unavailable" in the U.S. Five days before he died, Peter and a group of UFO hunters he was researching saw an aircraft crash in the woods near the airbase. He developed a rash and would not tell anyone what he saw. The UFO enthusiasts - David Beaumont and Terry Thaxted - think he saw proof of alien lifeforms. Colonel Norton, the former commander of the airbase, insists there was no crash, just a training exercise. Gerry tracks down Leonard Kuziak - the original U.S. Air Force investigator who now runs a diner - and he says there's no way any civilians got through the perimeter. Soon afterwards, Leonard's diner is burned down. Gerry becomes suspicious that Melissa, an American woman he met at the diner, is somehow involved. Brian spots a lottery ticket among Peter's possessions that turns out to have an IP address leading to his article, in which he described seeing dead bodies at the crash site. Brian gets a rash after handling a protective suit at the UFO headquarters and realises that Peter wore one to get through the perimeter. Terry admits he accompanied him and also saw the bodies. Leonard Kuziak contacts Gerry and tells him the plane was carrying British citizens suspected of terrorism who were kidnapped by the CIA and were en route to Guantanamo Bay. But the colonel sticks to his story, Terry claims the bodies were aliens, Cheryl drops her claim, and Melissa disappears. All signs point to an American government conspiracy, but there is no one for the team to charge with the crime. Brian, however, starts to wonder if there really was an alien cover-up after all.
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Memory Lane	Proof of life	Rubber suit
Terry's story	We don't have a witness	Trust no one
Episode 3	"Fresh Starts"
Airdate	30 July 2009
Gerry sees a man taking pictures around children in a park and confronts him. David Fleeting says he was looking for his wife Victoria who allegedly died in a car crash, but he claims she is still alive and that he has seen her before. He was in the U.S. at the time of the crash and never saw her body, which was identified by her sister Sarah. But the team find a discrepancy between the signature on the identification form and Sarah's real signature, and they learn Sarah was still in Australia when the body was identified. The body is exhumed and turns out to be Sefika Yilmaz - a Turkish illegal immigrant. A connection between Victoria and Sefika is found at Sanctum UK, an agency where Victoria volunteered to give free legal advice on immigration issues. Sefika's husband had already been sent back to Turkey, where he was in danger because of his union membership, and Sefika was scheduled for deportation. Since her disappearance, her daughter Kiraz has been allowed to stay in the UK as an unaccompanied minor. At a memorial service for Sefika, Neil Farris - Victoria's co-worker at Sanctum UK - brings flowers expressing eternal gratitude. Victoria's husband didn't know about her volunteer work even though he liked to control all aspects of her life. With this new information, David Fleeting discovers what became of his wife and the team sort out the details of what happened the day Victoria and Sefika disappeared. At home, Brian makes a computer model of a kitchen corner unit he plans to build, but Esther wants to hire someone to do it instead. After a lengthy vetting process, they hire Tomas who adds a personal touch to Brian's design. Brian becomes suspicious about Tomas' country of origin and starts quizzing him about Poland. Tomas admits that he hides the fact that he's Albanian because people would stereotype him as a gangster. Back at work, Brian gives a heads up to illegal workers at a sweatshop run by Sefika's sister, giving them a chance to get away before alerting the Home Office.
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DIY Brian	No biscuit for you	With eternal gratitude
Happy lady, happy house	Geography quiz	He gives us control freaks a bad name
Episode 4	"Shadow Show"
Airdate	6 August 2009
A film clip posted on the internet prompts a reexamination of the murder of film producer Max Stone and the disappearance of actress Eva Roderick. The clip appears to show Eva being abused by director Don Maddox as Max Stone rushes in to stop him. Former actress Gloria Wakefield, now Lady Gransford, brought the clip to Strickland's attention via her husband at the Home Office. Maddox was married to Gloria at the time but was having an affair with Eva. He suggests Eva may have killed herself as she had attempted to do before. Maddox claims the clip was just part of the movie he was making, but Brian hunts down the script and there's no such scene. David Snaith, the director of photography on the film, cannot be found. The team find Maddox at Snaith's house, which has been broken into. Messages from Gloria on Snaith's answerphone reveal that he was supplying her with drugs. Gloria tells them that Snaith's boyfriend Billy Radford was abusive. Snaith's body is found wrapped as a mummy at Pinewood Studios where Billy works. Brian and Jack are assigned to the squad investigating Snaith's murder. They are given tedious assignments by Gerry's daughter Emily, the Action Manager, but decide to pursue their own enquiries when they find software on Billy's computer showing what Eva would look like today. At Pinewood Studios, a hostage situation develops and Brian pretends to be a hostage negotiator to buy time for the armed response team to arrive. The situation is defused and Eva's new identity is revealed, and she tells them the truth about what happened the day of Stone's murder and her disappearance. Reminiscing about Saturday morning movies prompts Brian to practice yo-yo tricks from his youth. Esther recalls being distracted by passionate kisses during a showing of Lawrence of Arabia but Brian does not, causing him to be concerned about memory loss until he learns that Esther was kissing his friend Jimmy Greenbanks.
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We come along on Saturday mornings...	Walking the dog	Overwhelmed by passionate kisses
David Snaith, deceased	Internet geek	Jimmy Greenbanks?
We're the action men	Hostage negotiator	All clear
Episode 5	"Death of a Timeshare Salesman"
Airdate	13 August 2009
A former escort named Alice Hill - who has found religion - comes forward with new information about the apparent suicide of timeshare salesman Dean Scott. She claims she was with Dean the night of his death and saw someone forcing his way into Dean's house. Alice's fingerprints weren't at the scene but she says she was wearing gloves. Dean and his partner Mike Barnes had a timeshare resort in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. Brian attempts to communicate in Spanish with the resort's new owner and is mistaken for a plumber. Dean's wife Pamela tells them that Barnes cheated her by letting her buy his shares for next to nothing without telling her the company was £2 million in debt. Brian and Gerry go to one of Barnes' get-rich-quick seminars. Barnes turns out to be Trevor Jones - one of the Dover Street robbers who stole £7 million in gold from a bank. The timeshare resort was a front to launder the money with Dean's help. The other robbers were Frank Powell, who got caught trying to sell his share, and Johnny Tevis, who is now in witness protection. Johnny had an affair with Pamela and fought with Dean outside a pub the night before he died. Sandra and Brian track down a loan shark to whom Pamela owed money. He gets away, but they find a ledger written in Russian which Brian puts through an online translator. He discovers that another party involved in the case was also in debt, and a scheme about Dean's death is exposed.
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Uno momento, por favor	Not that Arthur Miller	A foot in the door
Episode 6	"The Last Laugh"
Airdate	20 August 2009
While the team are at a comedy club for Gerry's birthday, comedian Ray Harris is heckled by a woman who wants to know what happened to her aunt, Sarah Jones, who disappeared after leading a campaign against Ray's sexist and racist act 25 years ago. Sarah and her boyfriend Daniel - who's also missing - were members of the Anti-Fascist League, but they also had tattoos of a right-wing group called the 20/4s which they were attempting to infiltrate. Sandra and Jack talk to Peter Monroe, a construction firm owner who was the leader of the 20/4s. Brian and Gerry interview Grant Lindon, the former leader of the AFL, who claims not to know a redheaded woman who was also in the group. She turns out to be Janet Spencer, a "trustafarian" now running a human rights charity. One of Gerry's informants, who has a barber shop, reveals that Jack's nemesis Ricky Hanson was also in the 20/4s. Gerry is so excited by this news that he makes Brian leave with only half a haircut, but Brian tells him they can't get Jack's hopes up again. Gerry insists on confronting Ricky and they find themselves at a birthday party for Ricky's son Luke, who has apparently forgiven his father for framing him and stealing his girlfriend Lysette. At the former Sons of Albion pub frequented by the 20/4s, Brian and Gerry find a photo showing Ray Harris and Frank Patterson - the detective who was in charge of the original missing persons case. Patterson suspected Ricky Hanson of using the 20/4s as a front for drug dealing. Sarah was reporting to Patterson from inside the organisation. He claims he left a warning for her with Janet Spencer right before she disappeared. Patterson also reveals that Luke Hanson has first-hand knowledge of the hit-and-run that killed Jack's wife. Gerry's informant provides the information needed to persuade Luke to turn against his father, and Jack finally gets justice for Mary.
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Comedy club	A little off the side	Half a haircut
Luke Hanson	He who laughs	Listening at keyholes
Episode 7	"Blood Is Thicker Than Water"
Airdate	27 August 2009
Strickland invites the team to his yacht club, where they see Leanne Sweeting accuse Lawrence Fisher of causing a boat crash that killed five people and ruined her father Neville's life. Neville's tug collided with the yacht of Fisher's business rival, Grant Milburn. The victims were Milburn, his friend Patrick Nash, two Eastern European women who worked as croupiers in Milburn's casino, and Neville's young deckhand. Neville and Milburn's son Justin survived. Justin says he was steering his father's boat and that Neville came out of the fog too fast with a broken navigation light. Neville was blamed for the crash and lost everything Leanne claims that Fisher asked ex-soldier Dean Collier to tamper with Milburn's boat, and though Dean refused she thinks he got someone else to do it. Fisher was after Milburn's casinos, which he acquired shortly after his death along with Neville's boat yard. Jack learns that Dean and Leanne are now dating and that Dean suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Sandra discovers that Milburn's widow Carole was childhood sweethearts with his friend Patrick Nash. Brian seeks the owner of a tie bearing a Latin motto that was found among the wreckage. Translating the motto, with a little help from Strickland, reveals that the tie commemorated the twinning of Elmfield with a German city. Yacht club president Alistair Dudley was a councillor for Elmfield and was on the planning commission when Milburn was looking to build a new casino. Dudley admits he was on the boat and claims that Milburn was trying to pressure him by filming him in flagrante with the two croupiers. He also reveals that Justin, who had a crush on one of the croupiers, walked in on them. The timing of these events, along with a computer reconstruction of the accident, leads to the truth about how the crash occurred as well as a surprising revelation about one of the victims.
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Nautical Brian	In the archives	Winded
Episode 8	"Meat Is Murder"
Airdate	3 September 2009
The discovery of the dismembered body of Harry Eldridge reopens the murder case of Dr. Simon Lockhart, who was found hanging from a meat hook in Eldridge's butcher shop in 1976. Eldridge was the prime suspect in Lockhart's murder but now it seems someone else may have killed them both. Eldridge and Lockhart were last seen arguing after they gambled in a pub with Vernon Murnaghan, who worked for Eldridge and has since become rich, and David Snow, who now owns the pub. Vernon and others at Smithfield Market helped Eldridge's wife Julia keep the family business for herself and her young son. Questions are raised about where Vernon got his money. An IOU for £500 in Eldridge's pocket raises a possible connection to loan shark Danny Paye. Brian tracks down Lockhart's old girlfriend Dr. Carson at St. Bart's and learns that he performed an illegal abortion on a previous girlfriend in 1966. He also learns that Lockhart treated someone involved in the case shortly before he was killed. Gerry and Sandra both find themselves with a personal interest in the case. Many of Gerry's relatives work at Smithfield Market, and the team are amused to learn that Gerry's real name is Gerard Lestade, of Huguenot origin. Gerry's gambling led him into trouble with Danny Paye years ago, which was sorted out by his family. Sandra discovers that she has a brother - Carl, the son of her father's lover Deirdre, who was abandoned in a church as a child. (Series 5, "Couldn't Organise One) When Sandra learns what became of Carl, the pieces of the case fall together.
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Playing spoof	Ask Inspector Huguenot	Smithfield Market
Peek-a-boo	Contemplative Brian	Sandra's brother

 

2010:

New Tricks - Series 7
Role	Brian Lane Co-starring role
Also Starring	James Bolam as Jack Halford; Amanda Redman as Sandra Pullman; Dennis Waterman as Gerry Standing; Susan Jameson as Esther Lane; Anthony Calf as Strickland
Availability	Region 2 (UK) DVD available on Amazon UK.
Episode 1	"Dead Man Talking"
Airdate	10 September 2010
Sandra accompanies Vicky Anderson to see clairvoyant Sebastian Carter, who claims to have a message about a key from her late father. Douglas Anderson had a heart attack when he was roughed up during an unsolved burglary. Nothing was taken, but the house was searched and keys were scattered on the floor. Sandra is sceptical of Sebastian, but he alludes to her own dead father and her relationship with her newly discovered brother. (Series 6, "Meat Is Murder") He gets to Sandra, and she decides to take the case. Brian peruses Vicky's photographs of Heron Island, a coral cay in Australia, and Vicky tells them her family have a holiday home there. Douglas Anderson was an investment banker in Hong Kong until the handover in 1997. His friend John Plummer and a Chinese colleague named Cheung were imprisoned for defrauding the Chinese government out of a large sum of money. There was suspicion that Anderson was involved, but no proof, and the money was never recovered. Anderson adopted Plummer's daughter Penny after learning that her father died in prison. While interviewing Penny, Jack pretends that a locked box was found at the scene of Anderson's death, and shortly afterwards his home is ransacked again. Brian and Jack visit Plummer's old cellmate Simon Beswick, who now works in Chinatown. Beswick is missing several fingers and his prints don't match those from either burglary. Sandra and Gerry tussle with a man skulking around Vicky's house and discover that he is Daniel Cheung whose father was convicted with Plummer and later died. Daniel's prints match the second burglary and he has made several calls to Sebastian the clairvoyant. Brian has been practising his cold reading techniques on Esther - resulting in a night with no supper - a now he tries to turn the tables on Sebastian, deducing from various signs that he is short on cash. Jack trips Sebastian up by mentioning the fake locked box, and a plot between Penny, Sebastian and Daniel is uncovered. But the original burglar and the location of the missing money remain unknown until Sandra realises who Penny is protecting and Brian deduces that the key is really a cay.
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Clairvoyant Brian	Deductive powers	The cay
Episode 2	"It Smells of Books"
Airdate	17 September 2010
Brian gets thrown out of his local library for yelling at all the noisy people to shut up. Esther takes him to the London Library, which is full of scholarly books and is nice and quiet. Looking through old cases that Strickland wants cleared, he finds one where the victim had checked out books from the London Library and convinces the team to work on it. Brian relishes the opportunity to go undercover at the library, though he doesn't want to jeopardise his reputation there. Richard Symes, the head of the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science at London Municipal University, fell from the roof of the university library. His department was being eliminated and so was the library as part of Vice Chancellor Jeremy Ventham's plan to modernise the university. Ventham claims that Symes was stealing books from the library and selling them through his wife Paula, an antiquarian book dealer. Jack theorises that Symes may have been on the roof to throw down books to an accomplice in order to evade the library's security system. Tailing Paula, Jack sees her tamper with a book at an auction to reduce the price. She then meets up with the man who bought it, who turns out to be Timothy Mortimer, Symes's former research assistant. They confess to taking part in the book theft, but they also admit to having an affair and claim they were together the night of Symes's death. Pavel, the security guard and student who found the body, was hired by Symes to expose their affair. He was also an accomplice in the theft and claims he saw Symes fighting with someone on the roof, but Pavel's visa problems were used to pressure him into keeping quiet. At the London Library, Brian meets Jasper and Sophie Urquhart, colleagues of Symes who were working in the university library the night he died. The Urquharts still have jobs at the university because they found the Vice Chancellor in flagrante with university librarian Emma, who now works at the London Library. Brian discovers that someone is disturbing his research materials and catches the Urquharts in the act, but he accidentally deletes the photos they took. The Urquharts say they showed Symes a rare book from the university library to ascertain its value but they realise Brian is fishing for information and clam up. Through a journal article jointly written by Symes and the Urquharts, Brian concludes that the book in question is A Treatise on Fruit Trees worth $4.5 million. Taking a cue from Edgar Allan Poe, Brian deduces that the rare book is hidden in plain sight among the many volumes of the London Library. But finding it proves an impossible task. After being nearly crushed to death by Symes's killer between the rolling book stacks, Brian deems libraries full of weirdos and buys and ebook reader instead.
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Silence, this is a bloody library!	A proper library	Shhh!
Orderly desk, orderly ...	Mr Lane, this is a library	Creeping Brian
Bibliophile	Rolling cases	A close shave
Episode 3	"Left Field"
Airdate	24 September 2010
After serving time in prison, convicted paedophile John Davies confesses to kidnapping and murdering 5-year-old Yasser Gorton-Blackledge 25 years ago. Sandra suspects that Davies is making it up to go back to prison because of threats he's received since his release. Yasser's activist parents, Anne Gorton and Fred Blackledge, took him to a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Westminster Bridge. Anne went home with a headache and both say they thought Yasser was with the other when he disappeared. They were vilified in the press as neglectful parents after Jamie Peters, a member of their organisation, sold a photo of them apparently ignoring Yasser. Peters turns out to be an alias for an MI5 operative who infiltrated the organisation. Brian and Gerry go to MI5 headquarters, where Brian is disappointed not to be given a retinal scan but is impressed with their filing system. From Peters' records, they learn that Anne had affairs with various foreign student lodgers. Another member of the group, Gillian Withall, recalls one lodger in particular, a Palestinian called Harry who was caught in bed with Anne by Fred. Gillian is a nurse who went to do relief work in the Sudan after the demonstration and came home two years later with a son she adopted in Africa. Upon meeting her son Will, Brian is surprised that he is white. Davies comes back with further evidence about Yasser's favourite toy known only to his parents. But after he is beaten and hospitalised, he tells the team that a man named Anthony Vernon forced him to confess to Yasser's murder. Vernon is a wife beater who lost access to his kids after his wife took out a restraining order. He was also the first reporter on the story of Yasser's disappearance years ago and became obsessed with the case. The team discover that Vernon is a student of Fred Blackledge, who is now an anti-feminist promoting men's and fathers' rights. A return trip to MI5 uncovers the key to Yasser's fate. Meanwhile, the case has caused Brian to worry that Esther's past as a political activist may have put him under suspicion at the Met. Esther finds it amusing at first, but when he accuses her of holding back his career she reminds him of his drinking problem. Jack tells him that according to the their police file, Brian was deemed "insignificant" and Esther was considered "essentially harmless." Brian's attempt to make amends with Esther doesn't go as planned when his "radical" beret provokes her into a Frank Spencer imitation.
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Esther, domesticated	MI5 HQ	Nice piles, neat piles
Turn me into a Manchurian candidate	They could still be listening	If it needs saving or banning, I'm your man
Episode 4	"Dark Chocolate"
Airdate	30 September 2010
A recent rape in a bakery shop is similar to two rapes that happened at the Pyramid Chocolate Factory back in 1999. In all cases, the lights were turned out and the victims were attacked from behind. The attacker didn't speak and smelled strongly of sweat. All the men who worked at the factory, from the director Duncan Miller to the cleaning crew run by Alex Close, were DNA tested with no result. Eileen Harrison's story about why she was at the factory the night she was raped doesn't add up, and it turns out she was supposed to be having an assignation with Mick, the husband of another factory worker, Tilly. The team also learn of another girl, Nisha Kumar, who committed suicide after the attacks, but the autopsy shows she wasn't raped. Around the same time, the Nudger bar was discontinued after a human finger was found in one. Questions arise about the thoroughness of the DNA testing when it is learned that Alex Close employed illegal immigrants. Nisha was in love with one of the Bangladeshi cleaners, but Eileen suspected him of being the rapist.  Brian has the severed finger's DNA tested, and as a result a murder is solved. Brian's recollection of the case of Colin Pitchfork - the first person convicted with DNA evidence who initially paid someone else to submit a sample for him - leads to an arrest in the three rape cases.
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Gerry kicks the habit	Too much chocolate	Nudger jingle
Episode 5	"Good Morning Lemmings"
Airdate	8 October 2010
Someone is spray painting "I Killed Flak" in high profile places around London. Flak, aka Danny Tyler, was a legendary graffiti artist who was killed with a blunt object and dumped near a train track. Danny was originally part of the Maze Crew including Kevin "Magz" Humphreys, Gail "Begga" Shaw, and Jason "Konz" Bishop. But Danny left the crew and started selling his work with the help of art dealer Sara Hamlyn. At an exhibit of Flak's art, Sandra meets collector David Bryant and his wife Catherine. Gail was originally Kevin's girlfriend but then hooked up with Danny after he left the crew. She now has an office job and says she's left her old life behind, but the team find her at Kevin's place. Gerry snoops in Kevin's mobile and sees pictures of an ATM, leading to the discovery that the Maze Crew was responsible for a number of cashpoint robberies and that Kevin is planning another one. But the team don't realise that Kevin is already under surveillance in an active investigation because Brian neglected to do the proper background checks. Instead, Brian has been obsessed with his new Twitter account, Topcop999. Gerry notes that Brian's updates to his slowly growing number of followers make him sound like Dirty Harry. Sandra is angry, but the team are allowed to take over the surveillance operation and Kevin is caught red-handed. The "I Killed Flak" tags are traced to a boy who was paid by Sara Hamlyn to promote the Flak exhibit. Sara reveals that before he died, Danny painted something outside his usual style. Danny was angry at Sara for selling painting without his consent. When the team track down the painting, the subject matter reveals a web of deceit among the Maze Crew, while evidence on the painting itself leads to the resolution of the murder case. Brian leaves Twitter after one of his followers calls his tweets dull.
Notes	Although a @TOPCOP999 Twitter account was created, it was never used.
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140 character limit	The perfect tweet	Distracted by bloody Twitter
Episode 6	"Fashion Victim"
Airdate	15 October 2010
The team reopen the case of fashion designer Ritchie Levene, who was murdered in his studio during his 40th birthday party. His young PA Melanie Higgs fled the scene leaving bloody prints behind, but she claims she found the body and panicked. Ritchie's first wife Sarah, who requested the investigation, thinks Ritchie's brother Adrian did it in order to inherit the business. Adrian is also found to be having an affair with Ritchie's second wife Alison, though both claim it didn't start until after the murder. Alison, a former model turned creative consultant, admires Brian's "retro" coat. She is vague about the cause of Ritchie's broken arm three weeks before his death. The team's focus turns to her ex-boyfriend Tyler Curtis, a heroin addict who lived for a while with Ritchie and Alison. At the time of the murder, Tyler was staying with Colin Beck, a friend of Ritchie. Colin claims they were together in his flat all night. Gerry finally tracks Tyler down to a rehab commune and finds he's clean, but he can't remember what happened that night. Brian minds - and reorganises - Melanie's stall while Sandra has a word with her. Melanie finally reveals that she took Ritchie's notebook from the crime scene hoping she'd be mentioned. The notebook contains annotations that appear to be people's initials along with monetary sums. A forensic accountant is consulted to trace the money. Brian hovers over him as he works and reckons he could have been a tycoon if Esther had allowed him to play the market. A Ponzi scheme is found to be at the centre of things, but another tragic death occurs before the killer is exposed.
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Where did you get that coat?	Don't quite have the hang of haute couture	Brian in fashion
Peddling wares	Potential tycoon	It's a Ponzi
Episode 7	"Where There's Smoke"
Airdate	22 October 2010
Dawn Abbott, imprisoned on a drugs charge, claims to have information about a fire at the Union drinking club that killed four people. The fire was originally ruled an accident, caused by faulty electrical wiring and spread by paint thinner and turpentine left by a contractor. But Dawn says the painting materials had been cleared away, and she heard that someone was after Mark Johnson, a criminal who died in the fire. Also killed were two of his men and a bartender, Hailey Wilde. Mark's brothers Danny and Carl, have since taken over his drug dealing operation. The contractor took an expensive vacation afterwards, suggesting he was paid to lie about leaving his materials. Brian and Sandra talk to George Mackie, the fire investigator in charge of the case who is now retired. He says he suspected arson, but he couldn't prove it. Rubber and wax at the scene indicate that the fire may have been set using a condom filled with petrol suspended over a candle. Brian goes through a number of condoms experimenting with this method but has no success, leading him to conclude the person who set the fire had prior experience. Mark Johnson was under police surveillance, though the investigation was dropped due to lack of evidence and high costs. Transcripts of his conversations cast suspicion on Stuart Russell, who was shot because he was trying to set up his own drug dealing operation. Russell was released from hospital a week before the fire. David Swallow, one of Johnson's crew who was scarred in the fire, first implies that Mark's brothers were involved and then tells the team that Stuart Russell wanted his help killing Mark. Dawn's story is called into question when it is learned she switched nights with Hailey and that her son now works for Danny Johnson. Jack is giving a lecture on serial killers at the University of the Third Age for retired people interested in higher education. Brian worries no one will attend and drags Gerry along, only to find a packed house. Brian disrupts the talk by pointing out that the most prolific serial killer in Britain was the arsonist Peter Dinsdale, though his intention was to set fires not kill people. The team realise they have been looking at the case the wrong way, but before they find the person responsible they are nearly killed in another arson fire.
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Smoke alarm	Embarrassing purchase	I'm getting through them I can tell you
Have you got another condom?	Arson investigation	You, in the back row
Episode 8	"Coming Out Ball"
Airdate	29 October 2010
Fintan MacEntee, a former member of the Irish Republican Front who is now running for European Parliament, comes forward to recant his old organisation's claim that they kidnapped Barbara Linden-Warner in 1983. He says they only made the claim to gain publicity and raise their profile. Barbara was a debutante attending a ball at the Mayfair the night she disappeared. Two notes in different styles were sent: one demanding that Ireland be freed and the other asking for a £10,000 ransom. The amount seems low considering Barbara's father Sir Kenneth was a wealthy arms dealer. Sir Kenneth was devastated by the loss of Barbara and died two years later. The business has been taken over by Sir Kenneth's son Michael, who made the ransom drop. That night, Barbara had a fight with her boyfriend Greg Hampton after she turned down his marriage proposal. Greg is now married to Barbara's friend Amy. From another friend, the team learn that Amy didn't like Barbara's relationship with Greg and demanded that Barbara choose whether to remain her friend or marry Greg. Gerry digs into Fintan's campaign finances and discovers a link to Michael. But it is Sir Kenneth's loyal secretary Miss Jones who knows all the family secrets, including what happened to Barbara.
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Messing about	Tea with Miss Jones	Bus stop
Episode 9	"Gloves Off"
Airdate	5 November 2010
The gun used to kill boxer Eddie Mayfair in 1999 turns up in an armed robbery committed by Nick Kellogg, now on remand. Kellogg was in prison at the time of the murder, but he won't say where he got the gun. The prime suspect in Eddie's murder was Milton Joseph, another boxer whose career Eddie had ended by seriously injuring him in a fight, but Milton claims he's innocent. The team discover that as teenagers, Eddie and Milton were in rival gangs and hated each other. Eddie's trainer Doug Palmer is an alcoholic, while his manager Harry Gallo has been very successful. Both say they were at a meeting together at the Dorchester when Eddie was killed. Eddie's mother Ronni, now a widow, works for Harry and is in a relationship with him that turns out to have started before her husband died. Eddie's fiancée Eve is now married to Eddie's best friend Danny Branston, another boxer who found the body. Danny is a wife beater who appears to be living beyond his means. The team disagree about the merits of boxing. Brian calls it nihilistic while Gerry considers it an art form. Their argument turns into a fist fight, with Brian swinging and missing and Gerry connecting with Brian's face. Esther becomes absorbed in watching the match between Eddie and Milton and notices Milton saying something to Eddie. Brian enhances the audio and discovers that Milton expected Eddie to throw the fight. One of Milton's old friends reveals that someone from Eddie's camp placed large bets against him. Several alibis are called into question. Jack steps in to protect a vulnerable witness, leading to the arrest of the murderer and the exposure of a major gun dealing operation.
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Nice? They're trying to kill each other	Boxed	Reluctant apologies
Episode 10	"The Fourth Man"
Airdate	12 November 2010
The team arrive at work and find Frank Patterson (Series 6, "The Last Laugh") closeted with Sandra and Strickland. Patterson wants help tracking down Michael Denby, believed to be the leader of the gang who stole £10 million in bearer bonds from a safety deposit box at Heathrow. Two security guards were killed during the robbery, and three of the gang were later found murdered, presumably by Denby who fled the country with the loot. The getaway car - a classic Jaguar - is up for auction. Strickland clears Sandra to buy it for £15,000, causing the team to become suspicious about why this case is so important. Frank reveals that he suspects his former sergeant John Felsham - who is now a Deputy Assistant Commissioner - of helping Denby. Strickland warns them that they must tread carefully or UCOS will be at risk. Felsham lets them know he's aware of their suspicions. A bracelet inscribed with the name José Ezquerra is found in the Jaguar. George Milligan, a security guard who was the gang's inside man, says he was aware that Denby was behind the operation but he only spoke to Ray Atkins, one of the dead gang members. Ray's widow says the gang made an earlier robbery attempt on a armoured van run by the same security firm that guarded the safety deposit boxes. George makes a connection to his boss, David Murray, who was in charge of the vans before he transferred to Heathrow. The team find David's wife Elaine working at a nursing home. She says David ran off with another woman after the robbery. Frank takes Gerry to one of Denby's old pubs. They are followed by Felsham who provokes Frank into punching him. Strickland disbands UCOS and sends the boys home, but they continue to work on the case at Jack's house. With Sandra's help, they locate David's "other woman" who tells a different story. Frank recognises an Alzheimer's patient at the nursing home registered under the name José Ezquerra. A link is made to Felsham exposing his involvement, and Strickland reveals that he never put through the paperwork to fire the team.
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Who's in Sandra's office?	Busted	Clear out your desks

 

2011:

New Tricks - Series 8
Role	Brian Lane Co-starring role
Also Starring	James Bolam as Jack Halford; Amanda Redman as Sandra Pullman; Dennis Waterman as Gerry Standing; Susan Jameson as Esther Lane; Anthony Calf as Strickland
Availability	Region 2 (UK) DVD available on Amazon UK.
Episode 1	"Old Fossils"
Airdate	4 July 2011
When pathologist Bob Ruxton is suspended for negligence, the team reinvestigate the death of palaeontologist Bernard Fletcher, which Ruxton had ruled an accident. Reexamination of the body suggests that Fletcher was hit on the head. Fletcher died at the Natural History Museum where he worked on the night of an event sponsored by Mondial Fuel. The team learn that Fletcher was opposed to the museum accepting sponsorship from the oil industry. Gerry and Brian buy a drink for Barry, the museum porter, who reveals that Fletcher was a ladies' man and that he was having an affair with a colleague, Marie Braden. Marie claims Fletcher was leaving his wife for her. Brian and Gerry visit another of Fletcher's colleagues, Mark Slater, who left the museum to become a fossil dealer. Further investigation reveals that Slater was accused of taking dinosaur eggs out of China without a licence and that Fletcher was trying to get Slater fired at the time of his death. A link is uncovered between Slater and Sarah Winslow, the wife of James Winslow, head of Mondial Fuel. Sarah went to Cambridge with Slater, where her field of study was China, and they appear to be involved both personally and professionally. Brian and Gerry stake out Slater's place and find he's also being watched by Michael Ratcliffe, chief of security for Mondial Fuel. Slater goes on the run but is found hiding in the museum basement, and Brian trips him up by using a backpack as a bowling ball. Slater's evidence leads the team to make an arrest, but a surprise confession complicates things. Meanwhile, Brian has become enthusiastic about the study of fossils while Gerry wants to find a fossil given to him by his dad in hopes of selling it. Gerry drags Brian into his ex-wife Jane's house when she's not at home, and they find themselves in a sticky situation with the police. Gerry locates his fossil but is disappointed to learn its humble origins.
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Morbid curiosity	Fossil shop	Enthusiastic Brian
B & E	Strike!	Old fossils
Episode 2	"End of the Line"
Airdate	11 July 2011
The team try to solve the murder of an unidentified vagrant on a tube train 15 years earlier after DNA testing on an unrelated case turns up the man's son, Peter Offord. Peter's late mother Iris never told him who his father was. Brian talks to a young homeless woman named Leah in hopes of finding some older vagrants who knew the victim. He tells Esther he feels sorry for these outcasts of society and wonders what it must be like to be perceived as odd. Esther is amused by this, but reminds him how important his work is to the victim's loved ones, causing Brian to reflect on how lucky he is to have Esther. Sandra and Gerry visit Iris's sister Janice who claims to have little information on Peter's father beyond the fact that Iris met him in Essex. A search of missing persons records yields the name David Allenforth. David's younger brother Charles, who inherited the family wealth, provides a DNA sample that proves to be a match to the victim. Brian saves Leah from a mugger using his trusty bicycle. He is directed to a group of homeless men and asks about Tony No Ticket, who may have known David, but ends up getting knocked unconscious and stripped of his favourite coat along with most of the rest of his clothes. Two cops mistake him for a drunk and taser him when he vehemently denies it. Tracking down the homeless men again, Brian retrieves his now stinky coat and learns that Tony No Ticket is in a hospice. Tony reveals that David was bribed by his family to give up Iris and that a private investigator came looking for David before he died. The team confront their old nemesis Roger McHugh (Series 2, Episode 2) and learn that several people involved with the case have been hiding something and that the DNA analysis has one more surprise in store. Brian's coat is incinerated by Esther, but luckily the Oxfam shop has an uncannily similar coat for sale.
Notes	Amid all the coat drama, it should also be noted that after seven years wearing the same hideous pyjamas, Brian finally got nice new ones.
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Gorgeous and fantastic	Brian to the rescue	How can you live like this?
Wakey wakey	Debagged	Nicked
Eau de Thames	End of an era?	Lucky Coat II
Episode 3	"Lost in Translation"
Airdate	18 July 2011
DNA tests on charred remains found in 1996 lead the team to fingerprint analyst Anna King, who came to the UK from Albania as a child with her older brother, David Celaj. Anna was adopted by a British couple, Rachel and Alan King, who had been to Albania with their church group. David was granted political asylum and was working as a police interpreter when he disappeared. David's last case was to translate for Maria Mullat, a witness in a murder case against notorious Albanian criminal Michael Luga. Maria changed her mind and claimed she couldn't remember what she saw, and the case against Luga was dropped. Brian notices discrepancies in the translation of her statement, raising the possibility that David was being coerced, but Maria claims that it was she who was being threatened by David. David's landlady gives them some things he left behind including an envelope from a letter he received a few days before his death. The landlady says David moved out suddenly after reading the letter. The envelope is given to another technician at the lab where Anna works for analysis. After being misdirected, the team realise that Anna tampered with the results because her father wrote the letter. Alan King admits that he and his wife made a deal with David for Anna because they were desperate to have a child, and he tells them David fled Albania because of a blood feud with another family. David asked Alan King for help before he died because "they" had found him. At home, Esther tries to entice Brian into a trip to China instead of a cycling tour of Devon. Hearing her read from a brochure about human scarecrows in rural China gets Brian thinking about the body, which had been tied in a manner they initially associated with crucifixion. He realises that displaying the body like a scarecrow was intended as an insult. With help from an unexpected source, they trace David's killer, but Anna gets there first and Jack intervenes to defuse a dangerous situation.
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Holiday plans	Goosed	What will I eat?
Episode 4	"Setting Out Your Stall"
Airdate	25 July 2011
While dealing with an unwelcome visit from her mother, Sandra is asked by a retiring pathologist to investigate an old case that may be related to a current series of drug rapes. Kathy Green was found dead with Temazepam and coffee in her system near her stall at the Cook Street Market. Temazepam is the same drug used by a rapist who spikes women's drinks from a mobile coffee van like the one where the prime suspect, Anthony Gunnell, works. Kathy's death was six months before the first rape, and Sandra speculates that the rapist may have been experimenting and gave her an overdose by mistake. Gerry's car is clamped by the market's manager Kevin Baxton, who discovered Kathy's body. Gerry learns that Baxton is a troublemaker on the payroll of a councillor and that all his previous places of employment have been shut down, but that Kathy opposed his efforts to close the market. Kathy's husband Billy is still running the market stall helped by his short-tempered son David. Before she died, Kathy was coping with the dementia and death of her own mother. Home-care nurse Helen Gilder tells them about Kathy's difficulties, and mentions that she helps her patients by obtaining drugs in Spain that they can't get at home. She also reveals that Kathy gave up a baby for adoption as a teenager. The team track down Kathy's daughter, Megan Fellows, who tried to contact Kathy but was not warmly received. From Kathy's sister Jean they learn that Kathy wanted to keep her baby but was forced to give her up by her mother. Jean also tells them that Billy was having an affair. Letters that Kathy wrote to Megan but never sent provide the clue to solving the case. Meanwhile, Brian has been poring over the evidence in the rape cases and discovers two overlooked instances of drugged women drivers that implicate Anthony Gunnell.
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Gerry's breakfast	Seek and ye shall find	Breakthrough
Episode 5	"Moving Target"
Airdate	1 August 2011
Psychologist Samantha Gerson comes to UCOS to conduct a study of older men in the workplace. Jack is annoyed that his frequent bathroom breaks are being monitored, while Gerry tries his usual charming way with the ladies. Brian wonders what she means by behaving normally, but he is pleased at the thought of being involved in a groundbreaking study. He has some difficulties with his word association test but promptly equates "love" with "Wimbledon." Samantha asks Sandra to help her brother Darren, who believes that the hit-and-run accident that left him with memory loss was intentional. Darren was working as a bicycle courier and has a vague memory of someone taking the package he was transporting while he was lying injured in the street. Darren's ex-girlfriend Nina says she didn't see a package among his belongings at the hospital. The courier dispatcher, Alan Rendall, and the sender of the package, Claudia Scott, both claim it was delivered. The recipient, Peter Collins, cannot be found. Brian and Jack visit Claudia Scott, who runs a furniture import business. Brian notices furniture from Morocco, leading the team to wonder if it's a cover for drug smuggling, but Gerry's contacts turn up nothing. None of Darren's co-workers admit to delivering the package, but the team learn that Darren was trying to start a union. One of the couriers, Psycho Chris, has the same tattoo as Darren - the letters GLS. Darren can't remember what it stands for, and Chris claims it's a girl's initials, but further investigation reveals that it stands for Gridlock Society. Darren founded the GLS to disrupt traffic in London, but before his accident he was planning to take things further and start car bombings. The revelation that Peter Collins was a diamond dealer leads to a new theory that the package contained smuggled conflict diamonds. Then a murder occurs and a DCI takes over the investigation because it's now a current case, but UCOS continue on their own to find the person behind it all. The psychological study is halted because they are deemed an abnormal sample group. Brian is concerned that he permitted unrestricted access to his mind - which the others tell him the scientific community, and the world, are not ready for.
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Act normally	Trailblazers	Brian + Wimbledon = love
Episode 6	"Objects of Desire"
Airdate	8 August 2011
Sandra is approached by her old flame DCI James Larson, now head of the Met's arts and antiques squad, about reinvestigating the 1995 death of antiques dealer Mal Baxter. Baxter was struck on the head during what appeared to be a robbery gone wrong. Larson has since discovered that Baxter was an informant for the police, who overlooked some of Baxter's dodgy deals in exchange for information. One of the people Baxter may have given information on was burglar Lionel Scott, but he died in prison six months before Baxter was killed. Baxter's daughter Vivienne was away at boarding school and his wife Helen says she was in Brighton with their chauffeur and security guard, Tony Morgan. Tony had a previous criminal record but became Baxter's protégé and is now in the antiques business himself. Baxter split up with his business partner Roger Bowman after Roger told him Tony and Vivienne were sleeping together. Roger's alibi for the night of the murder was provided by Wally Brooks - a fellow stall holder at Bermondsey Market, a market overt where stolen goods could be sold with impunity between sundown and sunrise. Wally now says he can't be certain he saw Roger that night. Wally also admits to receiving a tea chest full of dodgy goods from a dealer named Greg Hazlett around that time. In the chest was a bronzed statue of Mercury which the team suspect is the murder weapon. They also suspect that the "bronze" is really a solid gold Mercury statue stolen from Belgravia in 1995, most likely by Lionel Scott. Sandra discovers that DCI Larson knows more about the statue than he's telling after she's warned that Larson is under internal police surveillance. Wally reveals that a Nazareth, or secret auction, is scheduled that night. Brian volunteers to go undercover at the Nazareth after Sandra calls his contribution to the case "crap." He's been distracted since he walked in on Esther looking suspiciously happy with her laptop. At first he thought she was having an online romance, but then he learned she's been using auction sites to sell junk from their loft, which he considers his domain.  He angrily forbids her to sell anything else. At the Nazareth, Brian is spotted by Roger who's acting as auctioneer. Brian threatens Roger not to blow his cover or he'll do something unnatural with Roger's gavel. Tony Morgan and Greg Hazlett are both there bidding on the statue, but the winner is a mysterious phone bidder. The statue's role in Baxter's death is revealed, while Sandra's hopes for a rekindled romance are dashed. Brian and Esther kiss and make up, and Brian decides it's ok to sell some of Mark's valuable old toys.
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Puncture	What's Esther up to?	Hands off Brian's stuff
Wounded silence	You'll be brushing your teeth with it	Cash in the Attic
Episode 7	"The Gentleman Vanishes"
Airdate	15 August 2011
In 2004, Phillip Mackenna, a prominent scientist working on cold fusion, disappeared from a train en route from London to Paris. Someone pulled the emergency handle before the train reached Dover causing it to stop. CCTV footage shows Mackenna speaking to a blind man before leaving his seat for the adjacent buffet car but never arriving there. Someone used his passport to board the ferry to Calais and checked into his hotel, so he was not immediately missed. Phillip's wife Bea has recently started receiving emails from someone claiming to have knowledge of what happened to him. Brian discovers that the blind man who was interviewed gave a false identity, as did another witness in the buffet car. A third witness, a woman also using a fake name, was never found. Sandra wonders why the fake witnesses bothered to come forward and realises they were buying time to extract information about cold fusion from Mackenna. Gerry tracks down the fake blind man who reluctantly gives up his contact David Townsend, but Townsend is stabbed in front of Jack and Sandra by the second man from the train. Before he dies, Townsend says "Kitsune." A reformed computer criminal contacted by Jack traces the emails to a hacker named Nine Tails - a reference to the nine-tailed fox of Japanese folklore known as kitsune. Brian realises they've already encounted the hacker, Alice Fox, who was also the woman on the train, but she disappears again. Strickland is approached by an old friend from Whitehall who appears to warn him off the case but mentions the name Simon Crane. Brian gets Bea to admit she was having an affair, and she says her lover called himself Simon Crane. At the house where Bea and Simon had their assignations, the team discover the means used to get Mackenna to talk and what became of him. Strickland's contact alerts the team that Simon Crane will be at St Pancras station, but someone else is aware of the plan and gets there first.
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It's all up here	Do you read me?	Shots fired
Episode 8	"Only the Brave"
Airdate	22 August 2011
As part of his initiation into a motorbike gang called the Braves, Reece Chapman plans to murder a member of the rival gang 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. Stephanie claims that Eddie was killed by Marcus York, the new leader of the Braves. Marcus is now involved with Eddie's widow Karen, but Stephanie says their affair started before Eddie's death and that Eddie was upset about someone betraying him the night he was killed. Before the team get very far, the investigation is shut down at the request of Detective Superintendent Stuart Barlow from the Organised Crime squad. His team have been gathering evidence on the Braves for three years in order to expose a European drug trafficking network. Barlow is an old colleague of Sandra's from Hendon who questions what she's still doing at UCOS years after the incident that put her in the dog house. Then Stephanie is attacked for being a grass, and Sandra convinces Strickland and Barlow that the Braves would find it suspicious if they did not investigate, so the case is reopened. The death of another gang member named Spike a month before Eddie arouses the team's suspicions. Barlow admits that the gang thought Spike was an informant after a random customs search resulted in the seizure of £2 million in cocaine, but Barlow claims the real informant is the gang's vice president, Jason Knowles. The drugs were smuggled from Rotterdam through the motorcycle parts business run by Eddie and his business partner David Parr - Stephanie's father. Parr reveals what he knows, persuaded by Brian and Stephanie, but the real truth about Eddie's killer hinges on Brian's encyclopaedic memory of criminal records.
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As if I ever know	What did they threaten you with?	Missing pieces
Episode 9	"Half Life"
Airdate	29 August 2011
An unidentified body is recognised on an unsolved crimes website as Christopher Collins by Lisa Carlisle. Collins worked as a mechanic at her husband John's garage. A co-worker, Jason Hibbert, says Collins was a ladies' man who lived alone in a 3-bedroom council flat. When the team can't find anything about Collins's background, they realise he was in the witness protection programme. His real name was Thomas Barton and he had testified against drug dealer Derek Robinson, who is now in prison. A leak was suspected in witness protection and Barton's former case worker, Andrew Hughes, is now retired with a large income he says comes from his wife. Hughes tells them Barton was a criminal who took a deal in exchange for his testimony, and that Barton was romantically involved with Robinson's daughter Caroline. Anthony Walters, one of Robinson's gang who was out of prison at the time of Barton's death, tells them Barton was trying to start his own drug operation. The team think Barton may have been meeting a Dutch drug dealer who was really sent by Robinson to kill him. The waitress who found the body behind the hotel where she worked recognises the Dutchman but insists he stayed in the restaurant. She also saw a car nearby but can't remember any details. Brian thinks of taking her to the hypnotherapist who cured his insomnia after remedies suggested by the team failed. The waitress recalls the car's number plate, and while the car's owner is a dead end, the car itself provides a clue to Barton's murder. Meanwhile, the team have been worried that cuts to the police force could mean the end of UCOS. Brian claims he'll go freelance for the unsolved crimes website if that happens. But Sandra gets word from Strickland that UCOS is in no danger of being shut down.
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Sleepless Brian	Warm milk	Warm clothes
You've got something on your nose	Inhale, exhale	Onward, UCOS
Episode 10	"Tiger Tiger"
Airdate	5 September 2011
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. The tiger, Misha, died six months later and was found to have a knife blade inside that had worked its way to the heart. The zookeepers didn't realise the two incidents were related since people often throw junk into the animals' cages. Brian is appalled by this development and clashes with zoo staff over keeping wild animals in captivity. Brian tries to claim affinity with animal rights activist Anthony Bassett, who targeted the zoo, but Bassett dismisses him as a neophyte. The investigation's focus turns to a group of daredevils who went on a trip to Spain with Zac. One of the group, Ian Metcalfe, has since died in a base jumping accident. His former girlfriend Hilary Newell is uncooperative. Brian makes another unsuccessful attempt to speak Spanish (Series 6, "Death of a Timeshare Salesman") and is affronted when the English-speaking hotel staff think he's from Yorkshire.  While the team gather at an event honouring Jack for recent acts of bravery (e.g., "Lost in Translation"), Jack follows his own line of enquiry. Jack has a personal history with the zoo's ex-security chief Peter Cooper and pressures him to reveal that Bassett bribed him to get into the zoo to make a video on animal abuse. Bassett claims he saw a group with a fancy camera filming near the tiger enclosure. At the video store where Zac was last seen, Jack hopes to learn where the camera came from but realises that the store's owner Lorcan McCaffrey was the cameraman. A visit to Hilary Newell reveals that she is now married to another daredevil, Noel Kempinski. Much to Strickland's annoyance, Jack calls the rest of the team away from the award ceremony to question those present at the zoo that night. But in looking for the answer to Zac's death, an even darker secret is revealed. Jack has a revelation of his own, telling Sandra the reason he risked his life is that he didn't care if he lived or died.
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Gory details	Tiger, tiger	Black tie affair