Season One, Episode Three
Called to the scene of a stabbing, Sam is amazed to find that the factory that stands where he is now will one day be the flat he lives in. Or lived in. Or will live in. In fact, the victim is sprawled, he can see with certainty, under his very own kitchen table. The victim, one Jimmy Saunders, has been marked for something like this, as he has been defying the factory's union, which wants to slow the process of replacing men with machines as new looms are brought online. Hunt believes his maxim that “whoever speaks first, did it” will serve him, as it has in so many other enquiries, but Sam not surprisingly wants to take a more considered, forensic approach. A bet is made. Hunt hates “Commies”, which is how he sees these union workers, so is naturally biased, whereas Sam is of course more open-minded.
While Hunt is engaged in busting open lockers at the factory in search of the murder weapon, believed to be a long-bladed knife, Tyler finds a footprint near one of the machines and they take an impression, sending it back to the station to confirm the size. Sam is however disappointed to find that a witness identified a man seen leaving the factory around the time of the murder, and the police sketch conforms almost exactly to that of Hunt's suspect, Ted Bannister. Evidence is mounting up against him, and then he breaks and confesses. But Tyler is not convinced. Ted says he threw away the knife he used to kill Saunders, but neglected to dump the bloodied shirt he wore, which has been recovered by CID. In that situation, what would you make sure you got rid of? The knife, which could be anyone's and without DNA testing here in the seventies impossible to prove was the weapon, or the shirt with the victim's blood on it?
Hunt of course is happy: he has his man, the mill can open again and more importantly, he has won his bet and shown Tyler once again that he is the guvnor. Tyler has a chance to bolster his reputation though when he stops rival DCI Litton from the RCS (Regional Crime Squad) making off with Dodds, the fence they arrested, by telling him the guns they found on him are in fact fake, made of wood. He points out, in a speech shown below in the “Quotes” section, how embarrassing it will be for RCS if they arrest the fence on this flimsy, and incorrect, premise. Litton has no choice but to hand Dodds back over to Hunt's people. Score one for them! He is of course lying about the guns. They're real enough. So real that Tyler gets Dodds to make the drop, as the CID swoop and find that ... the buyers have scarpered out a broken back window! Hunt is not happy!
Meanwhile, that's one problem but there's a greater one Tyler has to solve, and a man's freedom hangs on it. He knows Ted Bannister is not guilty, but if he isn't then why did he confess to the murder? Surely to protect someone? He decides to bring in Ted's son Derek, and his fiancee, who is pregnant with his child. The father and son talk to each other but Ted maintains his guilt, while Derek seems to want advice --- “Tell me what to do!” he cries. Just then forensics come back and confirm Sam's worst fears: that the blood on Tim Bannister's shirt is that of Saunders. It looks as if they
do, after all, have their man.
That night, a troubled Sam has another dream wherein he sees the girl from the BBC TV testcard, and she advises him to give up, lie down and sleep, forever. As she says this, we can hear the sound of a heart monitor slowing, slowing, going towards flatline. Suddenly though he wakes up shouting “NO!” At the station the next morning, the time-of-death report on Saunders confirms that Bannister could not have killed him: both he and his son were in the pub at the moment the crime was committed, and were seen by witnesses. So we're back to square one. But if Bannister is not protecting his son, who is he protecting? Why did he confess?
Back at the factory, Sam notices that the belts on Saunders' machine have been replaced: they are brand new. He suddenly forms a theory. Saunders was not murdered at all. He was the victim of a terrible accident when the well-worn belts of the loom he was working on gave up the ghost, snapped and flew back at him like a whip, killing him instantly. Under pressure of this new information, Ted Bannister admits that he had gone to the factory to see Saunders and have it out with him, but that by the time he got there the loom had done its deadly work and the man was already dead. Panicking, lest the accident be the cause of the mill closing down and losing all their jobs, he changed the belt and cleaned up as best he could but took so long that he ended up being caught in the frame for the supposed murder. He is of course now let go. But there's a twist.
As Tyler disconsolately runs through the interview with Tina, Derek's fiancee, he hears her talk about picking up a bag, and realises to his horror that she was involved in the heist of the guns Dodds was fencing. They realise Derek and some of the other factory workers plan a wages hit, to take place at the factory tonight, and they tool up and head over there. They manage to stop it, but not before Derek has Hunt and Tyler at his mercy, at the end of a shotgun. Fired up, he refuses to put down his weapon and is shot by Hunt while Sam tries to reason with him.
QUOTES
Tyler: “Chris, I want you to record the shape of this blood.”
Chris: “Wot?”
Tyler: “
Blood spatter analysis, by D.H. Crombie?”
Hunt: “I'll wait for the film, thanks.”
Tyler: “Oh, you'd like the book: it has pictures!”
Tyler: “I agree that departmental protocol suggests we hand the case over to RCS, inasmuch as the evidence thus far obtained, however diluted from its original perceived significance would indeed benefit from investment by a police body more experienced and equipped to process it through to court.”
Hunt: “Is my name Coco?”
Tyler: “What?”
Hunt: “Why are you trying to make me look like a clown?”
(Is this a very, very clever pointer to the followup series “Ashes to ashes”, which featured a clown as its central character? Or indeed, the BBC girl with the clown that Sam keeps seeing in his dreams?)
Hunt (as Tyler practice aims his revolver): “Yeah, but can you hit anything or not?”
Tyler: “You should see my Playstation scores!”
Hunt: “Drop your weapons! You are surrounded by armed bastards!”
MUSIC
“Ballroom blitz” (The Sweet)
Opening music, kind of sets the tone for the episode. It really comes into its own when Hunt reverses the Granada at speed down the road (it being a one-way street) with a burger crammed into his mouth, and just for good measure, hits a pile of boxes (why are there always piles of boxes?) and sends them flying, totally seventies cop-show style!
“Wishing well” (Free)
Plays out of the tape recorder Tyler has been using to interview Bannister, as Ray remarks how useful these things are.
“Gypsy” (Uriah Heep)
Plays during the stakeout as the guns are paid for and Dodds returns with the money
PCRs
Jeering Tyler's blood spatter pattern picture, Ray sneers “Oh that's nice! You should send that to the gallery at
Vision on!”
(Vision On was a kid's programme, run by Tony Hart, where children would send in their artwork and if it were deemed good enough it could be kept in the gallery and shown on TV during that segment of the show)
Learning from the master
As he walks along the road and a kid on a bike nearly bumps into him, Tyler yells “Oi! Keep it on the road or I'll come round to your house and smash up all your toys!”
This he of course heard Hunt say in the first episode, and despite his initial dislike of the man and his methods, it seems Sam is realising that some of those ideas do work. In fairness, the “kid” is about fourteen or more, and doesn't look like the type to play with toys, but I guess that could be said to refer to anything he uses for entertainment, like his record player, TV set or even his bike.
Tinfoil hat time?
As Sam returns to the squad car, his radio crackles with a message: but not a message from the station. This is like an instruction from somewhere else; a medical sort of voice, a nurse perhaps, who advises “We know you're in there but your levels of response have decreased. Don't give up!”