The Bill (series 4)

The Bill (series 4)
Series 4 (Australian DVD Cover)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	48
Release
Original network	ITV
Original release	19 July – 29 December 1988
Series chronology

The fourth series of The Bill, a British television drama, consisted of forty-eight episodes, broadcast between 19 July – 29 December 1988. This series was the first to adopt a half-hour format, and the theme tune had its first of several updates. The series was first released on DVD on 4 December 2006 in Australia, incorrectly packaged as Seasons 4 & 5, when in fact the set only contained the entire series four. The series was later issued in four separate volumes in the United Kingdom, available on 30 June 2008, 2 March 2009, 11 May 2009 and 15 March 2010. It was later reissued in Australia on 31 August 2011. The above DVD artwork is taken from the most recent Australian release. It features an image of DS Ted Roach. The British volume artwork features a variety of collage images featuring characters from across the season. The original Australian box set features a sole image of DI Frank Burnside.

Cast changes

Arrivals

• Insp. Christine Frazer
• DI Frank Burnside
• PC Malcolm Haynes
• Ch Insp Derek Conway
• PC Pete Ramsey
• PC Claire Brind
• PC Suzanne Ford
• DC Tosh Lines

Departures

None

Episodes

#	Title	Directed by	Written by	Episode notes	Guest stars	Original air date
1	"Light Duties"	Derek Lister	Geoff McQueen	First appearances of Insp Christine Frazer and PC Malcolm Haynes, PC Jim Carver becomes DC, PC Tony Stamp becomes full time cast member.	Eric Francis, Andy Secombe	19 July 1988
Recently transferred to CID, Carver faces his first case when he and Roach are called to investigate the murder of an informant. Roach however is appalled when Scotland Yard suddenly take over the investigation and fearing there is more to this case than meets the eye. he manages to persuade Carver to help him conduct his own investigation. Is he leading Carver into trouble? Meanwhile, Tony Stamp who makes his debut as a regular cast member in this episode gets off to a bad start with the stations new inspector, Christine Frazer. Brownlow tries to find a replacement for DI Galloway.
2	"The Three Wise Monkeys"	Bill Brayne	Geoff McQueen	First appearance of Ch Insp Derek Conway	Nick Brimble, Tom Owen	21 July 1988
Sun Hill launches a full scale search for an escaped convict who has taken a woman hostage. Brownlow puts Ted Roach in charge of the operation. A decision that could threaten the woman's life when Roach's actions could push the convict over the edge. Meanwhile, two officers from another station arrive at Sun Hill to transfer a prisoner. When the officers turn out to be the prisoners sidekicks, Yorkie and Ackland must act fast to capture them in order to save their careers. Tom Penny starts to suffer the psychological effects of his shooting in series 3, Also, Derek Conway arrives at Sun Hill and quickly befriends Carver.
3	"Good Will Visit"	Bill Brayne	Barry Appleton	First appearance of PC Pete Ramsey	Malcolm Kaye and Osaze Ehibor	26 July 1988
PC Pete Ramsey has a history of bad police work and gambling debts. He has been transferred to Sun Hill for cheating at cards. So when he is transferred to Sun Hill. Brownlow knows there will be trouble. Ramsey manages to upset most of the station especially Inspector Conway who believes Ramsey to be a bent copper. He is proved right as Ramsey looks set to ruin his own career. Sgt. Peters and Constable Haynes arrest a bunch of navy officers for trashing a pub but are told they can't do so as they were on important exercise the next day. Conway receives a call from the Ministry of Defence telling him that half of the navy officers had been arrested. So Conway orders Peters to bail the officers. Meanwhile, Carver is convinced that a bunch of Chinese businessmen are involved in the world of drugs, but ends up turning out to be a rare spice called Saffron which was nicked from a previous burglary in Suffolk.
4	"Home Sweet Home"	Gareth Davies	Nicholas McInerny	TBA	Christian Rodska and John Bowe	28 July 1988
Sun Hill evict squatters from a number of houses leading to a lot of people becoming homeless. Yorkie befriends Marie Tucker. A single mother who is struggling to make ends meet. Marie discovers Councillor Thomas is to blame for her becoming homeless and vows revenge. Yorkie tries to save her and her children but a mother's desperation to protect her children soon ends in tragedy.
5	"All In Good Faith"	Gareth Davies	Barry Appleton	TBA	Leslie Schofield	2 August 1988
The discovery of a gun that was used in an armed robbery five years previously re-opens the investigation into local gangster Pat Duffy. Roach has been trying to nail Duffy for years and jumps at the chance to lead the investigation however Conway intervenes when Roach and Duffy's feud turns personal.
6	"Just Call Me Guvnor"	Brian Parker	Geoff McQueen	First appearance of Frank Burnside as a DI	Chris Chering and Russell Lewis	4 August 1988
Burnside arrives to take over Sun Hill CID, he takes charge of an undercover operation to nail a gang of ruthless football supporters. Meanwhile, Cryer isn't happy that Burnside is at Sun Hill because he believes him to be a corrupt officer and decides to get information about Burnside from his Inspector Christine Frazer.
7	"Caught Red Handed"	Derek Lister	Barry Appleton	TBA	Chrissie Cotterill	9 August 1988
When Carver spots Yorkie having a secret meeting with a drug dealer in a pub, he and Burnside are convinced he's got himself involved in drugs however Yorkie admits that they were for his upcoming rugby match, but when CID raid the drug dealers flat, Yorkie is landed in deep trouble.
8	"Homes and Gardens"	Derek Lister	Christopher Russell	TBA	Mark Monero, Brian Peck and Desmond Cullum-Jones	11 August 1988
Yorkie befriends Mickey Cozen, a man with the mental age of 7 however when he offers help and support for Mickey and his father. After taking them home, they get into an argument and Mickey knocks Yorkie out. The father then bundles Yorkie and his son into the car and abducts Yorkie. The CID discover this and set about trying to find Yorkie.
9	"Country Cousin"	Sharon Miller	Barry Appleton	TBA	Richard Henry	16 August 1988
DS Jarvis, a country copper, Arrives in Sun Hill and is forced to work with Burnside in an investigation to capture a wanted man who has moved to Sun Hill to escape the country police however Burnside has his work cut out as Jarvis bullies his way through both the streets and the station. Can they work together to capture a known criminal.
10	"Alarms and Embarrassments"	Sharon Miller	Christopher Russell	TBA	Jeff Rawle	18 August 1988
Following the traumatic experience of his kidnapping, Yorkie returns to work on the streets and is forced to investigate an armed robbery at an off license. Meanwhile, Roach threatens to take the law into his own hands when one of his cases is thrown out of court
11	"Stealing Cars and Nursery Rhymes"	Paul Harrison	Julian Jones	TBA	Tom Cotcher and Patsy Smart	23 August 1988
Yorkie volunteers to do some work at a youth club, a decision he will later regret when he is forced to deal with a gang of vicious teenagers who go joyriding in a flash car; things turn nasty at the youth club when a joyriding stunt turns into a murder investigation
12	"Hold Fire"	Paul Harrison	Barry Appleton	TBA	Walter Sparrow	25 August 1988
A traffic accident leaves many people dead and Yorkie in hospital, CID discover a big time gangster, who got caught up in the accident has explosives in his car and he is charged with murder. However, when he is rushed to hospital, he takes this opportunity to escape.
13	"Bad Faith"	Frank Smith	Julian Jones	TBA	Alexis Denisof	30 August 1988
When a known burglar escapes from custody, CID are convinced he will return to his old estate and begin a stake out, But Carver and Ramsey remain unconvinced of the burglars motives. Meanwhile, Cryer tries to help a homeless child.
14	"Requiem"	Sharon Miller	Peter J. Hammond	TBA	Richard Beale and Ronald Leigh-Hunt	1 September 1988
When human remains are discovered in a sub-divided Victorian townhouse, CID launch a hunt for the former occupants of the flat where it was discovered, however, the team discover there may also be another skeleton in the flat, the remains of a dead baby.
15	"Trespasses"	Brian Parker	Christopher Russell	First appearance of PC Claire Brind	Alex McAvoy, Terence Beesley and Christopher Whittingham	6 September 1988
When Ramsey discovers a newborn baby dumped in a skip, he rushes her to hospital and tries to find her parent and discover why she was dumped in a skip in the first place. Meanwhile, CID investigate a spate of thefts at a church.
16	"Save the Last Dance For Me"	Brian Farnham	Barry Appleton	TBA	Amanda Mealing	8 September 1988
CID are alerted when an escaped convict arrives in Sun Hill to settle an old score with his ex-girlfriend, Carver sets up an operation and tries desperately to protect the convicts ex-girlfriend. However the jealous husband of DC Dashwood's dance partner threatens to ruin the whole operation when he turns violent towards Dashwood.
17	"Runaround"	Derek Lister	Al Hunter	First appearance of PC Suzanne Ford	John Challis, Linda Robson and Eve Karpf	13 September 1988
An agoraphobic old lady thinks her neighbours are being burgled, Yorkie, Ackland and Haynes successfully capture the culprits but to their horror, they discover one of the gang has vanished. Meanwhile, CID investigate when a dead body is found in a cafe.
18	"The Trap"	Brian Farnham	Jonathan Rich	TBA	Amanda Tapping, Ben Browder and Michelle Gomez	15 September 1988
CID attempt to bring down known villains by leaving an open van packed with video recorders on the streets of Sun Hill, Carver and Roach arrest a man who removes one of the machines and discover he is Julian Pembridge, a corrupt solicitor and an old adversary of Burnside's.
19	"Community Relations"	Frank Smith	Christopher Russell	TBA	Jim Findley, Shirley Dixon and Paul Anil	20 September 1988
Brownlow is on leave and Conway attends a council meeting where his attempts to make some changes on the Jasmine Allen results in a riot between the police and the residents, Yorkie arrests one of the rioters and locks him up in the cells, ignoring the fact that he is high on drugs. Things get worse when the man is later found dead of an overdose putting the station's reputation and Yorkie's career on the line.
20	"A Dog's Life"	Brian Parker	Graeme Curry	TBA	Shirley Dixon	22 September 1988
When Ramsey investigates a theft at a library, CID discover the man rumoured to be behind the theft is Archie, a big-time gangster from Manchester. Is there more to Archie than just a library book?
21	"Trouble and Strife"	Brian Parker	Julian Jones	This is the first episode to not feature the Sun Hill Police Station within the episode.	Brian Capron	27 September 1988
Ramsey befriends Joanna Mancini, a pregnant women suffering from domestic abuse. However, Joanna rejects Ramsey's help and tries to deal with her abusive husband herself which leads to a confrontation that leaves her and her unborn baby fighting for their lives.
22	"Running Late"	Sharon Miller	John Milne	TBA	Gillian Anderson	29 September 1988
Brind makes an enemy of Burnside when she gets in the way of a CID operation; she arrests a teenage tearaway on the local estate, she is suspicious about the girl and her family so she decides to investigate, leading to more trouble for Burnside.
23	"They Say We're Rough"	Frank W. Smith	Douglas Watkinson	TBA	Anthony Head and Peter Capaldi	4 October 1988
Cryer and Martella investigate an army surplus shop that appears to be stocked with stolen goods. However, when two Redcaps (military police) arrive in Sun Hill to take over the investigation, Cryer discovers that there may be more to this case than meets the eye.
24	"Blue For A Boy"	Paul Harrison	John Foster	TBA	Gerry Cowper and Robert Glenister	6 October 1988
When a young baby is kidnapped by a mystery man, CID turn their attentions to the baby's mother Brenda, who appears to have something to hide. Burnside pushes Brenda to the truth and the man's identity is revealed, Sam Rice, a surrogate father.
25	"Chasing the Dragon"	Frank W. Smith	Brendan J. Cassin	TBA	Terry Sue-Patt	11 October 1988
D.S. Roach spots a drug deal taking place on the Rochester Estate, but he, Carver and Dashwood fail to catch the dealers. P.C. Haynes and P.C. Ramsey spot the escaping car in their panda and give chase, but the dealers' car hits a little girl before crashing into a skip. Haynes loses one of the suspects when obstructed by some punks, but the driver of the car, Mickey Squire, is arrested. With Burnside on leave, Chief Insp. Conway allows Ramsey and Haynes to continue with the case. Ramsey is pleased as he thinks it may get him back into C.I.D. He and Haynes play good-cop/bad-cop to get a confession, and Haynes goes undercover at a party to find the escaped passenger and the main drug supplier. C.I.D. raid the supplier's luxurious apartment and discover a huge amount of drugs and stolen goods in his garage. P.C. Melvin and W.P.C. Brind attend a fracas at a laundrette. Melvin slips on some soap, leaving Brind to take charge.
26	"The Coop"	Graham Theakston	Garry Lyons	TBA	John Rees	13 October 1988
P.C. Edwards and W.P.C. Ackland are on their lunch break, and they warn a man for flying a model helicopter too close to the road. They then investigate a terrible smell coming from a nearby property, and discover a shed full of the carcasses of battery hens. The smell is making Edwards sick, and he wants to get out and report it to the RSPCA. As he and Ackland are leaving, they are taken hostage by the deranged shed-owner armed with a shotgun. Sgt. Peters goes to look for them after dealing with the model helicopter crashing into a house. Peters, along with P.C. Stamp and P.C. Melvin dive for cover as the man starts firing his gun, but he is overpowered and arrested.
27	"The Quick and the Dead"	Philip Casson	Christopher Russell	TBA	John Rolfe and George Ballantine	18 October 1988
Sgt. Peters attends a physical fitness evaluation, but does not do too well. P.C. Ramsey and P.C. Frank give chase when they witness a robbery. The robbers escape, but they manage to nick the driver, who insists his car was hijacked. Ramsey interrogates the boy, but Ch. Insp. Conway intervenes when Ramsey's heavy-handed approach becomes apparent. Conway releases the boy when he admits he was on his way to a job interview – as a male stripper. W.P.C. Ackland investigates the theft of a cat's gravestone, and finds it in the elderly cat-owner's rest home. A corpse goes missing when an undertaker's van is stolen by yobs, but P.C. Melvin tracks it down. Ramsey is giving everyone else a hard time about their fitness tests as he thinks he's the fittest guy at the station, but when it comes to his test, he cannot sit it due to high blood pressure.
28	"Witness"	Graham Theakston	Christopher Russell	TBA	Bill Moody	20 October 1988
P.C. Ramsey and P.C. Smith are looking after a witness in a court case. Ramsey is amused that the witness, Andrew Pike, has a high opinion of the police and is applying to become a special constable. Ramsey gets bored at the flat, and convinces Pike to have a day out at the dog races. At the track, Ramsey throws a drunk out of the toilets, and Pike takes offence to his handling of the situation and threatens to report him. Smith goes to get a cuppa and Ramsey is watching the race. Pike disappears, and they manage to rescue him just in time. P.C. Edwards is in court, testifying in the case of an assault on a woman. His notes end up in the toilet and the case is dismissed as not proven.
29	"Here We Go Loopy Lou"	Brian Farnham	Julian Jones	TBA	TBA	25 October 1988
Bob, Claire and Taffy investigate the report of a man carrying a cross which is found hanging from a crane. They come across a lady driving a car with a small white dog on her knee which is knocked down by a truck after escaping from the car. Taffy swims across a canal after a religious nutter who tries to strangle Bob while thinking he is Christ.
30	"Stop And Search"	Terry Marcel	Geoff McQueen	First appearance of DC Tosh Lines	TBA	27 October 1988
Sgt. Cryer introduces two special constables who will be joining the relief: Mary Kilnair and Brian Defoe. While on patrol with P.C. Edwards, Kilnair is pricked by a junkie's needle, there is grave concern she may have been infected. A man arrives at the station to confess to the murder of his wife - thirty years previously. D.C. Carver and new D.C. Tosh Lines investigate. A lawyer meets with the station top brass (Brownlow, Conway and Frazer) to discuss her client's claim of being stopped and searched thirteen times in two weeks. Lines recognises the M.O. from his last nick - several black men giving the same name and address whenever they are stopped by police. D.S. Roach asks Insp. Frazer out on a date, but Burnside finds out and makes fun of him.
31	"Spook Stuff"	Terry Marcel	Geoff McQueen	TBA	Andrew McCulloch and Daniel Peacock	1 November 1988
W.P.C. Martella and P.C. Stamp take an American woman who has been caught shoplifting into custody. She is very insistent that the police contact her husband who is staying in a hotel. The husband, meanwhile, is reporting the theft of his briefcase from their hotel room. D.I. Burnside is warned off the case by a Special Branch officer and a C.I.A. agent, who are waiting for the man to sell top-secret papers. D.S. Roach is having money troubles, but when one of his snouts offers to sell him the secret documents, Roach and Burnside use the situation to clear up Roach's debt problem. Roach is furious when Burnside double-crosses his snout and the papers are returned to the Americans.
32	"Evacuation"	Terry Green	Edwin Peace	TBA	Matthew Scurfield, Eddie Tagoe and Jim McManus	2 November 1988
It's a busy day on the station front desk, and P.C. Smith fails to notice that someone has left a hold-all next to the desk. When it is discovered, Insp. Frazer orders the station evacuated as a safety measure while the bomb squad is called in. Sgt. Cryer and W.P.C. Martella have trouble getting a violent female prisoner into and out of her cell. D.C. Dashwood winds Smith up about not noticing the bag, and he conducts an interview with a suspect in a car. P.C. Edwards is acting oddly, arguing with W.P.C. Ackland and he keeps returning to the station looking for something. SO13 find an incendiary device in the bag, but it explodes, blinding an SO13 officer.
33	"Personal Imports"	Brian Farnham	Kevin Clarke	TBA	Paul O'Grady and Stevan Rimkus	8 November 1988
P.C. Melvin sees a chemist being robbed, but he has powder thrown in his face and the thieves escape. D.C. Carver is conducting an obbo in the house of a lonely, amorous woman. He spots what looks like a drug exchange and pursues the car, but is told to relinquish the pursuit to the drugs squad from the Yard. W.P.C. Martella investigates a truancy case, where 14-year-old Turkish boy Omir is being looked after by his cousin "Auntie". D.S. Roach is pushed over in a public toilet by a man picked up by another bloke. He gets a tip-off from his transvestite snout, Roxanne, about a local barmaid running rent-boys in the area. Martella recognises the address as that of her missing Turkish boy, and she and Roach raid the flat and arrest Auntie.
34	"Paper Chase"	Niall Leonard	Barry Appleton	TBA	Christine Kavanagh and Sally Faulkner	10 November 1988
A schoolgirl has been abducted, and D.I. Burnside is determined to find her. The girl's father is reluctant to have the police involved, as the kidnappers have threatened to kill his daughter if the police are called. He gets 250,000 out of his company account to pay the ransom. A technical officer from the Yard is called in to bug the briefcase. C.I.D. wait and watch with binoculars, and after a decoy run, the father makes the drop. Immediately, Burnside and his team raid the premises, but there is no one there and the briefcase is empty. The little girl turns up at home safe. Burnside smells a rat, and the technical officer finds the bugged briefcase and money in the father's car.
35	"Intruder"	Graham Theakston	Roger Parkes	TBA	Iain Rattray, Terence Wilton, Martin Matthews and James Pertwee	15 November 1988
While Melvin and Haynes are on the beat, they are nearly decoyed away from a robbery. Giving chase Haynes is diverted to an armed robbery while Melvin has to let his prisoner go so he can help Haynes. The armed robber is paranoid and thinks everyone is poisoning him.
36	"Conflict"	Graham Theakston	Al Hunter	TBA	Alex Kingston and Russell Lewis	17 November 1988
D.C.s Tosh Lines and Jim Carver are carrying out an obbo on a man who might lead them to an arms dump. W.P.C. June Ackland and P.C. Pete Ramsey arrest him because he beat his girlfriend who didn't want him to go out. The doctor at the hospital is going to make a complaint against Ramsey because of the way he interrogates the girlfriend.
37	"Duplicates"	Niall Leonard	Simon Moss	TBA	Leon Eagles	22 November 1988
Due to her slight resemblance to a missing woman, W.P.C. Brind reluctantly agrees to perform a reconstruction of her disappearance for television. D.S. Roach and D.C. Carver go to serve an arrest warrant for video piracy, but instead find the aftermath of a bare-knuckle boxing match and a critically injured fighter. The organiser tries to bribe Roach. Carver and Roach manage to locate their video pirate, but Dashwood shows up late to the raid as he is speaking to camera for the reconstruction. The missing girl's parents thank Brind for her help.
38	"Snout"	Paul Harrison	Arthur McKenzie	TBA	Desmond McNamara	24 November 1988
D.I. Burnside visits D.C. Carver's prisoner, and interrogates him alone, against regulations, leaving Carver outside wincing at his methods as he hears Burnside bellowing at the prisoner and linking his name with sex offences against children.
39	"Old Habits"	Barry Davis	Nicholas McInerny	TBA	Geoffrey Beevers, Hilary Mason, Ralph Nossek, Dennis Edwards and Aimée Delamain	29 November 1988
W.P.C. Brind is called to the house of an elderly lady, Mrs Lomax, who has just been robbed. The old lady is in such a state of shock, she attacks Brind and then suffers a heart attack and dies. It appears there's been a spate of burglaries against several old people from the Salisbury Day Centre, and Brind attends with Insp. Frazer to give a talk on crime prevention. D.C. Dashwood talks to the previous victims and comes up with a possible suspect: Terry Newton, a young lad doing community service at the centre. Terry's probation officer is obstructive to the investigation, and Dashwood is convinced they have their man. Terry admits to Brind that he thinks he knows who it was: Danny Harvey, the junkie nephew of one of the day centre members. D.S. Roach and Dashwood go to Maurice Harvey's flat – he's an old villain from the time of the Krays – and find that Danny has overdosed in the next room, but his uncle doesn't care.
40	"The Silent Gun"	Terry Marcel	Christopher Russell	TBA	James Gaddas, Peter Caffrey, Damaris Hayman, Milo Sperber and Richard Bonehill	1 December 1988
P.C. Haynes arrives at a house to investigate what seems like a routine disturbance. Instead he finds a bailiff who has been shot in the hand while trying to evict the lodger in the upstairs room. Ch. Supt. Brownlow cancels his weekend away and takes charge of the siege, Ch. Insp. Conway and several armed police from Sun Hill and the TSG move in to try and negotiate the gunman's surrender with no response. A Polish interpreter is brought in when it is realised that the man is Polish, not Irish as reported by the landlady. There is still no response, and a local shopkeeper tells P.C. Smith that the man, Lublin, is also deaf. With no chance of him hearing them approach, armed police and a police dog storm the room and arrest the man. The local residents are getting antsy about being denied access to their homes. P.C. Edwards is sent to turn a woman's oven off, but he breaks into the wrong house.
41	"An Old Fashioned Term"	Philip Casson	Geoff McQueen	TBA	TBA	6 December 1988
P.C. Edwards and W.P.C. Martella find the naked body of a young woman who appears to have gassed herself to death, but they notice the neighbour who reported the death wiping something from the dead girl's mouth. D.C. Carver can't believe D.C. Lines has been a D.C. for twelve years. Lines isn't convinced the girl's death was a suicide, and impresses Carver with his detective skills when he solves the case - the neighbour, Kelly, has knocked her out with chloroform, raped her, and then turned on the gas. Kelly finally admits it, but Tosh is upset when he won't admit why. D.C. Dashwood is furious when D.S. Roach stands him up on an obbo to have dinner with Insp. Christine Frazer.
42	"Getting Stressed"	Philip Casson	Christopher Russell	TBA	Tim Preece	8 December 1988
Frazer is driving to work when she sees an accident. On informing the man she has rescued she is a police officer he hits her. Ramsey deals with a lady who was raped. An old lady helps Dashwood with info about motorbike muggers. After June brings in a lady drunk in charge of a baby, she goes to help CID as a decoy. After a chase Dashwood lets them get away. Ted is told to stop the relationship he has with Frazer.
43	"Tigers"	Terry Marcel	Edwin Pearce	TBA	Bhasker Patel, Michael Goldie and Patsy Palmer	13 December 1988
D.I. Burnside receives a phone call from an Asian boy who is frightened that a gang from the White Swan pub are planning to attack his father's restaurant. D.C.s Carver and Lines check it out but their car gets turned over, and the boy ends up in a canal. An old girlfriend of Carver's turns up looking for him with a baby whom she leaves behind.
44	"Guessing Game"	Jan Sargent	P. J. Hammond	TBA	TBA	15 December 1988
Neighbours report an elderly man hasn't been seen for a couple of days, and P.C. Ramsey breaks into the house to find the man dead on the floor. A doctor confirms he died of natural causes. As W.P.C. Ackland checks the house, she is suspicious of the pictures on the wall and some woman's belongings in a shoe box. It appears the man had a fetish for restraining women against their will, and a CRO check reveals that he had form for such crimes dating back for decades. The belongings found in the house are quite recent, so D.S. Roach suspects that he had captured another victim before he died. Roach, Dashwood and Carver investigate every possibility and finally find another flat owned by him, but no victim. They realise that the neighbour who reported him missing was his intended target, but Roach decides not to tell her about how close she came to danger.
45	"The Assassins"	Terry Daw	Douglas Watkinson	TBA	Daniel Flynn, John Judd, Frank Mills, Martyn Whitby, Seymour Green and Owen Brenman	20 December 1988
Burnside and Tosh are in a cafe waiting to catch a group of people who take apart restaurants. They turn out to be upper-class twits. One of them winds the magistrate up so much he is sentenced to 28 days in jail and the diplomat father of another waives his immunity. Yorkie and Haynes investigate a removal van. The elderly driver doesn't think the company is to be trusted and he is proven right after visiting the station three times. Tosh's wife turns up looking for housekeeping money from him, and she mentions it is their 15th wedding anniversary.
46	"Outmoded"	Terry Green	Barry Appleton	TBA	Michael Fenton Stevens and Brian Miller	22 December 1988
Sun Hill police are being called out to a series of bogus shouts which the Yard pins down to a computer hacker breaking into the police computer network. Sgt. Cryer investigates, and finds a former university student who has acquired an ex-MOD computer which still had access codes to government and police networks on the hard drive. W.P.C. Ackland checks in with a woman who is too scared to leave her flat as she has been repeatedly mugged. Ackland convinces her to go out to get some cigarettes, but when they return, her flat has been trashed. June arranges for her to be moved off the estate. Roach, Dashwood and Carver watch as a car is pulled out of the river with the body of a young woman inside. They question the car owner who had reported it stolen, but he is clearly hiding something. D.S. Roach must inform Sgt. Cryer that it was his son, Patrick, who was driving the car when it went into the river, and that he'd left the scene.
47	"Digging Up the Past"	Barry Davis	Barry Appleton	TBA	Dicken Ashworth and Gawn Grainger	27 December 1988
An excavator on a building site has uncovered some human remains, and Sgt. Cryer calls in C.I.D. Cryer is avoiding returning to the station, as his son Patrick is being charged with causing death by dangerous driving. Ch. Insp. Conway, Burnside and Roach have a word with Cryer, who is avoiding his family. On the building site, D.C. Dashwood and the S.O.C.O. wind up the site manager by saying it may have been a murder, although the bones are very old. A riot ensues as the men want to return to work. Burnside arrives and nicks the whole lot of them. The bones turn out to be from the Great Plague of 1665. P.C. Edwards is angry after being sold forged theatre tickets by Ramsey. Ramsey claims innocence, and the pair manage to locate the forgers. Unable to interest C.I.D. in the case, they investigate on their own and blow a joint Fraud Squad Treasury operation to catch counterfeiters printing fake American dollars.
48	"Taken Into Consideration"	Christopher Hodson	Lawrence Gray	TBA	TBA	29 December 1988
D.C. Dashwood and D.C. Carver are on an obbo in a street where a spate of burglaries has taken place. They see a young man, Kevin Boswell, climbing over a wall with a bag full of 50p pieces, and they arrest him for theft. They also take Kevin's girlfriend, Daphne, into the station as there is what looks like stolen goods in her house. Dashwood is positive Boswell is their man, and W.P.C. Ackland makes a complaint against him when he applies too much pressure to Boswell during interview. Boswell is either really smart and devious or not too bright and living an elaborate fantasy about being a criminal. Dashwood and Carver return to Boswell's flat and find out which.