New Tricks: Season 2

Like a fine wine, these cops just get better with age
Try telling this lot they're too old for the job. Lane, Standing, Halford and their bullish boss Pullman have not given up on the old cases they are involved in nor on their abilities to solve them yet. Mixing nose-to-the-ground, old school detective work with a fresh take on troublesome cases, the veterans investigate a range of unsolved crimes from the apparently racially motivated attack on a young Asian bride to the mystery of the unidentified torso found in a wood populated by wild boars. Will they succeed where others have failed? Or will the burden of all the years begin to weigh down on them? After all, they all have to grow old some time.

EPISODE 1
Written by Roy Mitchell
Director Jon East
Gerry arrives late for his grandson's christening because Strickland, the new boss in charge of UCOS, has asked the team to look into the death of David Barrie, a top barrister. Barrie's body was found, bound and gagged, in his car in 1980. The case was a rare failure for the now-retired DCI Ronnie Ross (Keith Barron - Take Me Home) and Pullman cannot understand why the detective known as the ‘Mountie' didn't get his man. While Standing and Lane interview Barrie's widow Yvonne (Jenny Agutter - An American Werewolf In London), Halford discovers that original prime suspect - Michael Pendle (Nicholas Jones), whom Barrie prosecuted in another case - has had a sex change and is working at a bookshop. But Michaela (as she is now known) claims that she was in hospital when Barrie met his death. Further digging and forensic tests on Barrie's body reveal that he had a reputation as a kerb-crawler and a penchant for being tied up, so the team pays a visit to Elaine Wanless (Anita Dobson - Angie Watts in EastEnders), a former madam specialising in ‘correction', now working in celebrity management. Standing is enthralled as Elaine reveals the details of her former "occupation", but she claims not to recognise a picture of the dead man. But when Lane goes through Ronnie's personal diary of the case, he finds holes in Michaela's story - and discovers that she was romantically involved with Elaine. Pullman still can't understand why Ronnie let Michaela go - until the truth of what really happened that night 25 years ago is finally revealed.

EPISODE 2
Written by Roy Mitchell
Director Juliet May
In 1997, Shivani Das, a beautiful, lively, young Asian newlywed, was attacked on a canal towpath in Southall and left for dead. The only thing taken was her wedding ring and she has been in a coma on a life-support machine ever since. The man jailed for the crime is now a born-again Christian and is protesting his innocence. With the help of Asian community liaison officer Sergeant Pushkar Guha (Navin Chowdhry - Teachers), UCOS re-examines the case. They are struck immediately by the clash between Shivani's Westernised family and her husband Milan's (Paul Bhattercharjee) traditional roots. He runs a family food business with his sister, Mughda (Nina Wadia - Goodness Gracious Me), and brother, Vikram (Ashvin Kumar Joshi). The team discovers that private investigator Pat Gannon went missing at around the same time as the assault on Shivani took place. The connection between Gannon's disappearance and Shivani's case grows stronger when Jack Halford receives an anonymous call claiming that Shivani knew she was being followed. Shivani's brother-in-law, Rick Mayo (Shaun Dooley), tells the team that Shivani seemed depressed before the attack because Milan was working in India. Meanwhile, Gannon's partner, Roger McHugh (Keith Allen - Jack of Hearts, Martin Chuzzlewit, Agent Cody Banks 2), an ex-detective with a bad reputation, recognises a photograph of Mughda and claims that she came to see Gannon.
Mughda stays cool under questioning - but Vikram is clearly hiding something. And Superintendent Pullman can only watch, aghast, when Gerry Standing pulls an extraordinary stunt to get the truth from him...

EPISODE 3
Written by Howard Overman
Director Martyn Friend
Eighteen-year-old Hannah Taylor (Lisa Faulkner) was kidnapped from her home in 1992. A body, previously thought to be Hannah's, has just been identified as that of another kidnap victim, Michelle Davis. A reluctant Standing has to liaise with Detective Inspector Tom Wilson (Matt Bardock), who is leading the hunt for Michelle's killer, while Lane and Pullman interview Hannah's mother Madeline (Harriet Walter), a doctor and recovering alcoholic. She is cagey and defensive. She tells them she paid a £20,000 ransom before contacting police. Halford follows Hannah's friend, Susie (Connie Walker), to a garden centre where he comes face to face with Hannah - not dead, but married with a young daughter. Hannah claims she simply ran away, leaving her mother a note, and met Paul (Ben Crompton) - who became her husband - at the Glastonbury Festival. Halford suspects Madeline faked her daughter's kidnap to get money from her ex-husband, but things become tricky when Madeline sues the police for misidentification of the body.
Inquiries reveal Madeline's drinking led to complaints from patients and she was arrested for drink-driving, although nothing was ever proven. Standing suspects the helping hand of her lover, married Detective Inspector Simon Webb (Nicholas Ball), who now runs a kitchen showroom.
Webb admits he delivered the ransom money, leaving it in a park rubbish bin. The squad are sure he is hiding something, then Lane breaks the rules to get hold of documents proving Paul knew Madeline Taylor. While Lane fears he is as bad a parent as Madeline, and Standing conducts a private war with DI Wilson, can UCOS (the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad) discover the truth behind Hannah's disappearance and the missing £20,000?

EPISODE 4
Written by Nick Fisher
Director Graham Theakston
Tabloid editor Chris McConnell (Stephen Tompkinson - Ballykissangel) asks Pullman to help him prove celebrity chef Kitty Campbell (Honor Blackman - The Avengers, Goldfinger, The Upper Hand) killed her drunken husband, Bertie, 40 years ago at the height of their Sixties TV fame, as the BBC One drama continues. Despite his death Kitty has become a household name, the toast of the restaurant world, and is set to become a dame. The post mortem reveals that Bertie died of natural causes, but McConnell has a mystery source who claims Kitty is responsible.
Meanwhile, Halford thinks McConnell is using UCOS while Standing and Lane have their own problems to deal with. Standing is unable to perform during a romantic reunion with his ex-wife Jayne (Natalie Forbes), and Esther Lane
(Susan Jameson) is badly injured after collapsing in the kitchen. A distraught Lane is put in charge of her care and decides to issue his bedridden wife with police walkie-talkies.
McConnell refuses to reveal his source until Pullman agrees to join forces, so she contacts a rival newspaper, knowing rumours will start circulating about Kitty. As she predicts, the source decides to talk.Ageing queen Binky Baxter (Victor Spinetti - An Actor's Life for Me) was Kitty and Bertie's assistant. He claims Kitty feared being ruined because Bertie was flaunting his homosexuality at a time when it was still illegal. She useda now-banned asthma drug, aetheraline, to trigger heart failure. Pullman and Halford question Kitty but she shrugs Binky's allegations off as jealousy and opportunism.Later, Lane discovers aetheraline is only dangerous to diabetics - so how could it be responsible for Bertie's death? As Halford and Standing unearth a link between the drug and Kitty's father, top barrister Sir Barnaby Fitzharris, a sharp-eyed Esther spots a vital clue while watching archive footage of Kitty and Bertie's cookery show.

EPISODE 5
Written by Karen Mclachlan
Director Martyn Friend
Attractive widow and probate assessor, Elise Allen (Rita Tushingham), asks Halford to find the rightful owner of a large, uncut red diamond, worth £15m, as the drama continues. She found the rare jewel in a flat rented by John Newman, who died in 1982. Standing and Lane suspect Halford has ulterior motives for wanting to take the case, but Pullman is forced to admit it's one for UCOS when they discover the diamond was snatched in a safety deposit box heist, along with four smaller red diamonds. In a box recovered from Newman's flat, the squad finds a set of jeweller's tools, a business card for tailor Sid Goldberg (David de Keyser), some wedding photos and a passport, showing Newman was in Antwerp on the day of the robbery. Then Halford discovers through Interpol that Newman was really Dutch Jew Josef Nieumann, a concentration-camp victim who became a diamond-cutter before losing his nerve. Synagogue records show that Sid's daughter Ruth (Miranda Pleasence) is really Josef 's daughter, although she claims to know nothing. Reformed money launderer Les Spitz (Anthony Valentine) was the original suspect in the robbery, and his son Ray (Sean Chapman) is a well-thought-of diamond dealer. Posing as a glamorous couple about to be married, Standing and Pullman decide to rattle them with the diamond. While Spitz Junior wants to cut the stone to bring out its true beauty, Spitz stays cool and gives nothing away. When Halford learns he is under investigation by the fraud squad, it looks like he is back to his old tricks. Can UCOS fit Spitz, Nieumann and his daughter into the puzzle? And can Halford tell Elise his true feelings?

EPISODE 6
Written by Danny Miller
Director Juliet May
Luck turns against Gerry Standing when he loses a poker game, owing bookie Michael Jacobs (Kieran O'Brien) £10,000. But Michael offers him a chance to clear his debt by finding out what happened to his dad, Joe, who died after being mugged outside Walthamstow stadium in 1983. Although UCOS is investigating the case of Stanley Ackerman, whose wife is mounting a noisy protest outside police HQ, Standing persuades Lane to help him dig into Joe Jacobs' death secretly. They go to the dog races and talk to Joe's brother, Peter (Philip Whitchurch). Pullman and Halford follow, feeling left out, but, when Pullman hears about the case, she agrees to pursue it quietly. Elsewhere, Lane finds a diary hidden in Joe's desk containing references to Bomber Boyo, a champion greyhound stolen in the early Eighties. The diary charts his stud record since then, showing which dogs he fathered. Also inside the diary is a hand-drawn treasure map. Meanwhile, it looks like Joe was on to a money-making deal that went wrong. Standing seeks out Emma Winters (Gillian Taylforth - EastEnders, Footballers' Wives), who worked at Bomber Boyo's kennels before becoming one of
the top breeders and trainers in the game. There's a spark between them and Standing visits her farmhouse, where a stuffed greyhound is on display among dozens of photographs.
Later, Lane finds the location of the map and the team meet there at dawn. They dig up a dog skull with a bullet hole in it. If it turns out to be Bomber Boyo, DNA from the dogs named in Joe's book will prove it. However, when a story about police digging up dead dogs is leaked to the papers, Strickland goes ballistic. Desperate to restore her credibility Pullman visits Michael Jacobs, only to find out about his gambling deal with Standing. With the odds stacked against them, can the squad pull together and find Joe's killer and uncover the real story of Bomber Boyo's disappearance?

EPISODE 7
Written by Nick Fisher
Director Jon East
Lane indulges his obsession with fishing when UCOS investigates the case of two boys abducted from a fishing lake in 1979, believing it could be linked to a recent spate of snatches near the M25.
The boys escaped unharmed but their kidnapper was never found and the lake has since been branded the Pit of Doom, and deserted by anglers. One of the boys, Alan (Nigel Lindsay), now a chicken factory worker, is keen to help and relive his moment of fame. Under hypnosis, he reveals his abductor had a workshop with gas bottles, a workbench - and a bath.
The team fear they could be about to expose the lair of a serial killer, but the chilling atmosphere is shattered when
a horrified Pullman bites into some salad containing maggots from Lane's fishing box.
They seek clues at a tackle shop where Kenny (Steve Emerson), the proprietor, and a customer, Big Robbie (Richard Ridings), flee at the sight of Standing. Eventually cornered after a chase, Kenny tells them that the Pit of Doom was also the place where former carp record-holder Bob Yates (David Mallinson) was beaten unconscious. Inside Yates's garage are oxygen cylinders, syringes and a bath, and Pullman believes they have their man. But Halford discovers the equipment is not as suspicious as it seems - and UCOS ends up netting a different catch altogether.

EPISODE 8
Written by Roy Mitchell
In October 1987, the partial remains of a young woman's torso were found in Woodland near Pratt's Bottom in Kent. When the original investigation failed to identify the girl or her assailant, the case stalled and the remains were placed in storage. The case has weighed heavily on the mind of Home Office pathologist Reynard Mears (Timothy West). It is the only corpse he dealt with that remains unidentified. He is hoping that UCOS might now solve the mystery. Millicent, as the eccentric professor calls the body, was found by a schoolboy at the ancient site of Giston Mount.
There are very few clues to her identity but Halford urges the others to discover what happened for the sake of her family. The squad visits the woodland where the body was found after apparently being cut up by the killer. The atmosphere is spooky. Standing confesses he has a morbid fear of forests, and Lane is visibly petrified by the experience. Back at Mears' lab, Standing's mood improves when he meets the professor's attractive assistant Vicky (Amelia Curtis). Her re-examination of the forensic evidence has found that the remains had been chewed by a large animal. Seeds on the body are from a botanical garden and Millicent also had syphilis. Halford realises that Millicent's death coincided with the great storms that rocked England in October 1987. And Lane returns to Giston Mount to confront his demons - only to find a wild boar. Vicky's PhD research into the mineral content of Millicent's bones suggests she came from the Highlands of Scotland. Halford visits Lady Deeley (Jane Asher), a four-times divorcee and hard-nosed wild-boar breeder, whose country estate is just three miles from Giston Mount.
Can the detectives break down Lady Deeley's defiant exterior to find the truth - and will they be able to help Mears lay Millicent to rest by discovering her real name and family?

Written by Nigel McCreary, Roy Mitchell
Directed by Jon East, Martyn Friend
Produced by Gina Cronk, Tom Sherry
Executive Produced by Mike Dormer, Gareth Neame
Cinematography by Lukas Strebel
Film editing by Pamela Power
Costume Design by Charlotte Holdich

Sandra Pullman - Sandra Pullman is a highly successful career woman, but her achievements have come at the expense of her personal life. Her work has always been her driving force and she's given it 110%, with little time for anything outside of the job. Until now.

Gerry Standing - Totally un-PC, Standing seems to be stuck in the seventies, not only in how he approaches the job, but also how he behaves socially.

Jack Halford - Jack Halford retired from the force when his beloved wife Mary died following a hit and run accident. And while he welcomed the opportunity to join UCOS, he is still haunted by Mary's death and the fact that no one was ever charged.

Brian Lane - Where Gerry Standing is less interested in the detail or the paperwork, Brian Lane more than makes up for - almost obsessively.

Robert Strickland - Deputy Assistant Commissioner Robert Strickland is a political animal who enjoys basking in the reflected glory of Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad's (UCOS) clean up rate.

"This terrific comedy-drama is as well-written and watchable as Minder's early era (although a damn sight funnier)
... even though the crime stories are strong, the real strengths of New Tricks are the rapport and humour shared
between its excellent ensemble cast. The scripts and sense of fun must also explain why the series attracts well-known
guest stars." London Evening Standard (Imogen Ridgway)

"The BBC struck gold ... With its fine performances, a tight script and a deft touch with humour, this drama does not
need any tricks, new or otherwise." Financial Times (Nicholas Spencer)

"...engaging drama ... you can't help but like them." Daily Mail (Nuala Giblin)

"...the same quirky mix of comedy and criminality. It's the crack cast, though ... that really makes these tales of retired coppers back on the job so watchable." Daily Telegraph

"It's the same mix of quirkiness, genteel pace and gentle comedy as last time." Guardian (The Week's Highlights)

"...it's enjoyable in an undemanding way, and there's a good supporting cast..." Sunday Telegraph

"...this whimsical blend of crime thriller and comedy cleverly plays on our suspicions that they don't make coppers like they used to ... The joy of New Tricks is watching accomplished old hands having tremendous fun. An utterly preposterous plot was enlivened by some sparkling dialogue." Daily Express (Charlie Catchpole)

"Copper-bottomed caper." Daily Mail (Peter Paterson)

"Must-see TV." Mail On Sunday

"...still engaging..." People

"...breezily entertaining ... must see." Daily Express (Mike Ward)