Gently Between the Lines Inspector George Gently

GUNSHOT

I was...always on your side.

I know.

I'm sorry.

INTENSE SHOUTING

MEGAPHONE: This area has been condemned and ordered to be cleared.

-Get lost!

-Back off!

-Back away!

You're a disgrace!

MEGAPHONE: Leave your houses. Clear the area now!

These houses are being demolished.

Leave the area for your own safety.

MUSIC DROWNS SOUND

Back off!

Hadaway with ya, you stupid knackers!

Stupid pig!

Come here!

Robbie, what are you doing?

-Protecting my street.

-Why aye, so am I.

-I'm going to tell your mum.

-Get lost, ya knacker!

Wait! Robbie! Come back here!

-I'm not having this!

-Get back!

Robbie! Robbie!

Robbie, come back!

Go! Go!

Help... Help!

Help! Neil, I need help.

Hang on, Ash. Hang on.

Don't! Argh!

'We have the right to protest!'

We have the right to assemble!

You're trying to take away our right to democracy!

THEY SHOUT IN AGREEMENT

-Archie.

-Bernard.

-Name?

-T Dan has you lot all paid for, doesn't he?

Tearing down our homes with a promise he's never going to keep.

We see what's happening to others - being moved on with nowhere to go.

-We're not blind.

-Address?

Now there's a problem...

as some of us don't have an address any more!

Please! Please! Please!

-Calm down!

-Hey, Sarge!

-Help! Help! You're hurting me!

Please! No!

Mum, Mum, Mum!

Please! You have to help me!

Mum! Mum!

Mum! Please!

Mum! Mum, please help me!

Help me, please. Mum! Mum! Mum!

Mum!

He's in the day room.

The day room. How is he?

I'm not a doctor.

-Thank you very much.

-He's only gone and done it.

Or has he? Game, set and match.

Look at his face.

I just can't stop winning, me.

I must have a lucky streak. I can't believe it.

Two shilling to buy a seat.

Five card draw.

Has everyone met? This is Mr Gently.

-All right?

-Mr Gently, this is Roy - car crash.

Jimmy here's from Hexham - fell off a roof.

I was chasing a suspect.

We heard he was chasing you, didn't we?

St Stephen, here - burned himself trying to be a hero.

-And Robert Mitchum walked into a knife.

-Argh, just there!

And, John Bacchus, syphilis.

Which I caught off your mother.

He has...twice.

And you, Mr Gently?

-He's just visiting.

-Here we go.

'Enjoy that?'

Cracking bunch of lads, them, you know.

Pretty friendly and they don't judge.

And they're shite at poker.

Handy.

Keeps me in tabs, you know.

-What's this?

-You got it.

Yeah, I got it.

You couldn't tell me to my face?

Resignation has to be in writing, doesn't it?

-Yeah, it does.

-Well, it's in writing. Can we go back?

No, fresh air's good for you.

Helps you think.

What are you doing, John, eh?

Well, at the end of the week, I'm...

I'm leaving here and then I've got some decisions to make.

-You've been here too long.

-Got some decisions to make about my future.

Why couldn't you speak to me about it?

Well, what's the point?

I don't think I can be a policeman any more.

Don't think you can or don't want to be?

What difference does it make? I'm done.

I'm done. I'm done. I'm not...

What else will you do?

There's lots of things. There's lots of things. Lots and lots.

Lots? Great, lovely.

There's only one thing that you want to do.

There's only one thing that you've ever wanted to do.

It helped me - getting back to work after, you know...

Yeah, well, that's...that's great, isn't it? That's you.

-That's who you are.

-Well, it might help you too, John.

-No!

No, it won't! No! I'm...I'm not coming back.

All right? I'm not you, George. Do you understand that?

I'm not you.

One month.

You're obliged to give one month's notice.

I'll expect you to work it out.

You ready for your medicine?

MACHINE BREATHES

Morning, you all right?

-Morning.

-Morning.

Morning.

Morning.

-Morning.

-All right, pet?

Sergeant?

Sergeant?!

I think he's dead.

-Morning, Sir.

-Morning.

-Morning, Sir.

-Morning.

Assistant Chief Constable Hale would like to speak to you right away.

-Why?

-Do you think he's going to tell me?

Taylor, could you tidy this lot up for me?

Tidy desk, tidy mind.

Hello. Can I speak to Assistant Chief Constable Hale, please?

Is he coming back, Sir?

Sergeant Bacchus! Nice to see you.

How are you feeling?

-Yeah, I'm all right.

-We missed you.

Not having you here was like having your arm cut off.

Maybes not that extreme, but you get the idea, like.

Yeah. Detective Chief Inspector Gently returning your call.

How can I help you, Sir?

What are we doing?

Where are we going?

Newcastle.

Death in custody.

Do you know his name?

Apparently we don't know.

Maybe it's better for everyone if we leave it that way.

We need to get the body out of here.

Can't afford to stay out of business much longer.

Why was he arrested?

Apparently he was arrested under the Ways And Means Act.

Ah, I see.

And why were you looking for a way or means of charging him later?

A section of the hill was scheduled for clearance yesterday.

It's been delayed twice because of squatters and protestors.

The council wasn't having any more delays.

We were asked to secure the area, so the bulldozers could do their work.

Was he a squatter? Protestor?

The station sergeant should be able to answer your questions.

Sergeant Archie Dawson.

-Sergeant.

-I'm here to help any way I can.

Thank you. Who found the body?

Rachel? Could you come over, pet?

WPC Coles doing her rotation with me this month.

-Hello.

-Just finished her probation.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

I was doing my morning checks, when I...I saw he was...

Dead.

..dead. I informed Sergeant Dawson immediately.

-Have you got the pink charge sheet?

-Uh-huh.

No name on it, of course, because, erm...I don't know.

Didn't have it... No ID on him.

Wouldn't tell us who he was. On drugs, I figure.

Mum! Mum!

Mum! Please!

'Didn't want to hurt him.

'Put him in a cell to calm down.

'That didn't happen.

'No. What happened was a great tragedy.'

Mum!

If there's anything more we can do,

any other questions you might have,

I'll fill in my report and get it over to you.

Personal effects?

Pet, could you bring them for us?

Sorry, excuse me.

Mug shot? Fingerprints?

Never got a chance to take a photo or prints. Pathologist'll do it.

Much easier to handle now, I reckon.

Did he scream all night?

No, no, no, no. They never do, drug addicts.

Well, shouldn't say "never". Rarely.

-Here we are, Sir.

-Oh, thank you.

-So he calmed down?

-Uh-huh.

Well...if he calmed down,

how come you didn't book him? Why no mug shot?

He wasn't on top of my list, to be brutally honest.

Mmm.

Organised, it was. That's what I think.

Set out to hurt somebody.

Not had any trouble with the other clearances.

Outsider. Didn't belong here, did he?

People from around here... knew each other.

They don't like outsiders meddling.

-You all right?

-Aye.

I think it was agitators like him from elsewhere

just looking for trouble.

You think he was an agitator?

How would I ken to that?

But no-one knows who he is, and anyone of us

could tell you the name of every family

living in every house on Rye Hill.

Can we move the body then?

Yeah, we're done here.

I'll walk you out, shall I?

First, Dawson says he's a drug addict,

and then he says he's an agitator. Can you be both?

If you organise your time well.

They've already decided it's not worth bothering about.

They can't even be bothered to find out who the victim is.

Is he a victim?

Well, he went into the cell alive and he came out dead.

That makes him a victim to me.

Sounds like he brought it on himself to me.

But, you know, we'll find a way to make it the fault of the police,

-though, won't we?

-We'll find a way to find out what happened.

-What kind of a job is this?

-One that's got to be done, John.

-Whatever we do, it's not going to be good enough, though.

-Oh, here we go.

They're going to hate us.

The public, they hate us, they resent us.

-Well, that must make it easier for you.

-Easier to do what?

To justify your decision to resign.

No, no, no, I'm...I'm not struggling with my decision.

-MOCKING VOICE:

-It's all pointless, isn't it?

Much easier if you don't care.

I don't care. I don't.

I spent six months lying in a hospital bed.

-What, just you?

-No.

Six months lying in a hospital bed, teaching myself not to care.

And I can say it. I can say it out loud, I...

I do not care!

I'm going to find out who this victim is,

and give him his name back.

It's significantly overdue.

Here it is.

Nine shillings, thrupence.

You don't happen to have an address, do you?

Has it got a name on it?

"Simon Thomas".

If you do speak with him,

can you ask him to return the other books, please?

He has 11 unreturned books. It's irresponsible.

The youth of today.

Who's going to pay the fine?

He will.

You sure we've got the right place?

Can I help you?

You've come about Simon.

I decided last year that...

I'd not intervene next time he found himself in trouble.

I don't think I'm doing him any favours.

Drugs are a terrible thing.

But he's bright and one can only hope that eventually

he'll figure out how to live his life.

Mrs Thomas...

..your son...is dead.

He slipped away from me.

You hold on to them for so long,

and then you've just got to let them go,

and you hope that they make good choices.

You hope that they chase dreams, but with Simon...

..I let him go and he fell...

..fell down.

Down...into nothingness... into meaninglessness.

He slipped through my hands, and there was nothing I could do.

I tried everything. I did.

He was paranoid, disorganised,

manic energy and then dark moods.

Where was he when you found him?

Please tell me he wasn't alone in some alleyway.

Thrown out like rubbish. Please tell me he wasn't abandoned.

He died in Rye Hill Police Station.

He was in your custody?

In police custody.

Aren't police meant to keep us safe?

Isn't that what they do?

He was abandoned.

His family abandoned him and that's the reality his mother can't face.

Your family's meant to keep you safe, not the police.

Look, Guv, we've got a name. I think that's the best we can do.

She has a right to expect us to protect him.

No, no, if they can't take care of their own,

why should they expect the police to do better?

WAILING

I don't think it's possible to tell someone their son has died,

and not care.

I'm not going to abandon him, John. Are you?

I'm not changing my mind.

I extracted fragments of stone from an area of his scalp,

and residue of what I believe to be red brick

where the skin's broken, here on his shoulder.

May I?

Looks as though he was trying to protect his head with his arms.

-During the riot?

-Reasonable to presume.

Some of these other marks are historic. He lived rough?

Cause of death?

Well, we won't have anything definitive

-until I've completed the full postmortem.

-John!

But we've had the bloods back.

Analysis of the vitreous fluid shows

that there were high levels of adrenaline.

Understandable if he was under stress.

But he tests negative for the presence of THC.

In fact, he tests negative for all narcotics, not even cough medicine.

-Nothing.

-The station sergeant said he thought he was on drugs.

Are you sure there's no mistake?

No. No mistake. He was not intoxicated - no drugs or alcohol.

It used to be a lovely place.

It was a real community.

I don't know why they're fussed. They were getting shiny, new homes.

We were called in for safety, really.

I mean, nobody expected any trouble.

But... Well, as the morning wore on, we had to bring more shifts in.

Their reports say people were occupying a building

just a bit further along.

-Where was that?

-I'll show you.

Not much of a community left, is there?

It wasn't a community, Sir. It was a slum.

They're intending on putting blocks of flats up just over there.

It was the vision that T Dan Smith had when he ran the council.

It's amazing, really.

Me mam used to say that he made her proud to come from round here.

He made us modern.

20 floors soaring into the sky.

Imagine the views.

-All right, pet?

-Hiya, are you all right?

-I'm fine.

There are some people who can't imagine

they'll ever see those views.

-We're starting to lose our faith in things, aren't we?

-Yeah.

You can see it all around.

And, erm, this is where the trouble was.

We never had any trouble before. Never.

We grew up respecting the police.

Because we knew that they'd taken an oath to serve us and protect us.

That's why I wanted to join.

I wanted to be that sort of person.

Someone that you could trust. Someone that people looked up to.

These are our homes, man! It's a community.

-What are you doing that for?

-You haven't the right to take that down.

We're taking them down, because they're inciting trouble.

It's you who are inciting trouble, not a sheet with some words on it.

-Come on, leave it.

-Kill the pigs!

Leave it!

Why do they call us pigs?

They're coming down. The lot of them.

-You won't be doing that, lad.

-Shut up.

I'm warning you, and I won't be warning you twice.

What was that about, Chris? What were you thinking?

He doesn't listen. You don't listen, do you?

And you don't learn, lad.

Oi! Keep away from there. It's not safe!

Piss off!

Move on. Move. Away with yous.

Rachel?

This is DCI Gently and DS Bacchus.

PC Baird. Chris? Neil?

Detectives. Sergeant said we might be seeing you.

This is PC Stockdale, PC Sidwell. These are the detectives.

We're trying to find witnesses,

anyone that might've seen what happened to Ash.

-PC Ashton.

-Yeah. Any progress?

-Nowt.

-No-one's talking.

Well, it's not surprising, is it, when you're baisting them like that?

We asked them politely.

Ah, right. Before or after you hit them?

Bastards are trying to kill us. They need to know we're not afraid.

-Is that how you do it?

-Aye, it is.

Is there anything we can help you with, Sir?

We're investigating Simon Thomas.

You took him into custody.

You know, the long haired fella?

Oh, aye. We think he's the one that did Ash in,

put him in hospital.

Just need a witness.

We're looking into his death.

What? We're wasting time and brass on that?

Why? It's not going to make any difference to anybody.

Maybe it's why it should make a difference to us.

Don't judge them.

Remember what it was like when you were in uniform with your shift?

Well, you're like brothers, aren't you?

People here tried to kill Ash.

People he grew up with, he went to school with,

he knew all the families.

They'd kill me, and they'd kill you, because of what we do,

-not cos of who we are.

-Bairdo? Come on.

-You arrest Simon Thomas?

-Aye. I did.

Where was he when you arrested him?

Erm, he was hiding...over here, near where I found Ash.

Look, if I hadn't arrested him, he'd have stayed hiding there.

The bulldozer's would have come in and knocked it down and killed him.

Ah, right, you saved him, did you? Saved his life?

I did my job.

You cannot be talking about things like that

in front of inspectors.

Clear off! Oi, clear off!

No!

Robbie?

Robbie, where are you?

Have you seen my wee lad?

What's he look like?

Well, he looks like the one that just threw a rock at you,

and called you a name. You from the council?

-Police.

-Oh, makes a change(!)

Here to pick up your bombs from the builders?

Nah, those are dropped off at the office.

Well, they wouldn't want to get their shoes dirty.

It's a nice area. They say it's on the way up.

Be too good for us lot soon, won't it?

They'll need a better class of person to live here,

so they'll fit in.

-Do you know this man?

-Yeah.

Aye. It's Crazy Man.

It's what the kids call him. Why are you so interested in him?

-We're investigating his death.

-He's dead, is he?

-Yeah.

Was he an agitator? You know, a squatter? Protestor?

We had plenty of protestors who would turn up here during the day

and go back to their warm homes at night.

We had students squatting here.

Aye, the council pushed everyone out,

then just left the buildings. Whose idea was that?

-And there was them lot with the drugs.

-We sorted them.

We used to know every soul here, the people that lived here

and worked here, they were good, kind people.

We didn't need the council to tell us what to do, where to live,

and then they just tear it all down and say they'll give us a new place.

Right. Some are going to lose out. That's for sure.

And then they let the squatters move in, like Crazy Man.

-Aye. Folks didn't like him.

-Why? Why didn't they like him?

Thought he might be a kiddie fiddler.

No, he never did nothing, Ronny.

Used to take care of things like that ourselves.

These streets, they ran straight down to the Tyne.

They're changing them.

Look what they've done - they've ripped the heart out of us.

-Come on, they're slums. Not fit to live in.

-Slums?

What are you? 29, 30? You weren't in the war.

When you go away, thinking it's to die,

changes how you feel about where you're from.

You don't know what it's like to suffer, maybe we shouldn't...

Calm down now.

You boys work for the council and their cronies now -

not for us, not for the people.

Used to be, the police protected everyone.

You're meant to work for us! You're not for us any more, are you?

Help!

Help!

-Come back!

-John!

-Hello?

-I can't get down.

HE BREATHES HEAVILY

Come on. Give me your hand.

-You all right, pet?

-I'm fine.

-You all right?

-You all right, John?

-Don't...

-John, what is it?

Don't you feel anything? Don't you feel anything?

-Aaw, John.

-Don't you suffer? We were both shot man! We both bled.

You don't feel anything, I do. Maybes you don't feel anything.

That's...that's...that's what's wrong with you. You don't feel anything!

Nothing affects you!

You cops?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we don't mean you any harm.

I didn't see nothing. Or hear it.

-Robbie?

-John?

Don't. Just don't.

Robbie Seddon!

-He's all right, love.

-What were you doing in there?

I was looking for something.

-Yeah? What were you looking for?

-Yeah, all right, all right.

Do you like playing in the old houses, Robbie?

Why aye, I like going there, aye.

-Where'd you get the book from?

-I didn't steal it.

Now why would I think you stole it?

Crazy Man give it me. Has poems in by Roger McGough.

Scouser, but he writes good poems.

Crazy Man, he used to sit in there reading books, poems -

talking to himself, I thought he was a genius or a hippie or something.

-Do you like poetry, Robbie?

-Aye.

What's your favourite? You got a favourite?

Lots of them, but he liked Roger McGough.

All right. Roger McGough.

"Let me die a young man's death..."

"Not a clean and in-between The sheets holy water death

"Not a famous-last-words Peaceful out of breath death."

Crazy Man taught me it.

He had lots of books. He had lots of them.

And the other books are gone. Now he's gone, too.

And I don't think he's coming back.

Come on, son.

'We know he had some trauma to the organ.'

Let me show you.

Here a large haematoma just above the liver.

Now when I examined the liver during the postmortem,

it had suffered serious injury.

I am confident in declaring liver failure as the cause of death.

How long would he take to die?

Can't be sure. Not long if he didn't get medical attention.

What caused it?

Well, it's obviously a blunt-force trauma - fists, brick, stone.

I mean, the skin isn't broken

so it's difficult to say with any certainty.

A truncheon?

Someone beat him to death.

In a cell? Impossible. Somebody would have heard.

Somebody would have heard, yeah.

Duty officer would have reported it, Sir.

Unless he was part of it.

-Here we go.

-No, no, no.

Sidwell thought Simon Thomas assaulted Ashton.

And they beat him to death in his cell and nobody said a word.

They covered it up.

All of them?

Was Mr Thomas checked hourly in his cell?

-Why aye, of course.

-And he was agitated?

-Aye.

-And you thought he was on drugs?

Why are we wasting so much time and effort on this?

I don't understand it.

It's not going to make any difference to anyone.

What time did you call the police surgeon?

I didn't call him.

Well, if you thought he was on drugs,

shouldn't you have called the police surgeon?

I just wanted to get him into a cell to calm down.

Aren't you meant to make sure they're safe? Isn't that your responsibility?

-Son, when someone's arrested...

-Did you call me son? Did you call me son?

Don't you patronise me! That is your duty!

Don't you talk to me about duty.

You're one of us, aren't you, lad?

No.

He's one of us.

I like you when you're a bastard.

You're quite good at it.

I had a good teacher.

Gentlemen.

We'd like to see the pocket books of arresting officer Baird

and the rest of his shift, please.

And I'd be grateful if you could make them available for interview.

Your investigation is about the suspect's death,

-not his arrest, isn't it, Detective Chief Inspector?

-Yes.

Thank you.

KNOCKING ON DOOR

Yeah?

Sit down, Constable.

The day of the clearance.

Seems like a very tough day.

Yes, Sir.

How long had there been tension?

Ages. It weren't new.

Most people went gladly, but there were some that weren't having it.

We knew about the squatters.

We'd been sent down to clear them out before.

We didn't expect this.

We didn't have the gear for it.

Were you angry?

Of course, we were angry. I'm still angry.

Look what they did to Ash.

Help! Neil, I need help!

That could have been any one of us.

That could have been me.

Of all the people, for it to happen to him.

Mike actually cared for them.

-He wasn't just doing his job - he actually cared.

-You liked Mike?

He's a top man. I'm proud to serve with him.

You thought that Simon Thomas had assaulted him?

So you wanted to pay him back for what he'd done.

Is that what you think?

You think I would give up my entire career

to give a drug addict a good kicking?

You don't know anything about me.

You don't know anything about any of us.

Well, the truth is if people just did what they were told,

there wouldn't be any trouble.

Simon Thomas should have left the building when he was told.

I mean, you're investigating us, but the way he was...

-What he did.

-What did he do?

Well, you've got all of Newcastle moving this way, all together,

all in the same direction, and him...going that way.

He resisted, that's what he did.

Aye, but you'd told him before, hadn't you?

-You told him before to leave the building.

-Told everybody.

They can't knock it down with people still inside, can they?

It's an expensive business -

keeping all them men and that equipment waiting.

-So you'd seen him before?

-No.

Well, I mean, we'd caught glimpses of him...

..heard he was in there.

We had complaints from local people who were frightened of him.

We looked for him, but we never found him.

According to your notebook,

you visited that street 17 times in the last six weeks.

That's just your shift.

Did we?

Your call outs always seemed to happen at the end of your shift.

-It was Ash's idea.

-What was Ash's idea?

To go down the street and look for Simon?

Look, I know what you're trying to do,

but I don't know why you're trying to do it.

We had nothing to do with him dying.

You saw what he was like -

he spent his life trying to kill himself.

Now, don't try and put this on us. Not on us.

We were just trying to do our job.

Did you meet with any resistance?

They were angry, but why at us?

Do they think that we have power? We don't have any power.

We just do what we're told to do.

They're the same as us! Do they not see that?

Were you frightened?

Yeah.

Mike wasn't frightened.

He should have been, but he was more...amazed.

None of us were worried about being injured.

Who do you think assaulted Constable Ashton?

-Simon Thomas.

-Why'd he do it?

I can't explain it. It makes no sense.

Why do you think that?

Well, mainly, because he was acting crazy.

Look, we were asked to move people on, because it wasn't safe.

Maybe Mr Thomas didn't want to be moved.

-Well..

-How did you do it?

You know, move people on?

We spoke to them.

"Spoke to them"?

Did you threaten them? Hit them?

We did what we had to do.

You didn't mind a little bit of violence?

This is Newcastle.

All of you?

Yeah, we give back what we were given.

No-one shied away from the rough stuff

but if we had to...to defend ourselves.

Do you always "defend yourself" at the end of your shift?

Sorry?

Bit of sport at the end of your shift?

You go up the hill and knock a few heads together.

17 times in the last six weeks? Was that Ash's idea?

-We were meant to keep the area safe.

-Yeah...

But Ash loves to mix it with the vagrants and the squatters,

only a bit of fun.

And the rest of you got a taste for it.

You didn't mind a bit of rough stuff at the end of your shift

and you didn't mind a bit of rough stuff

when you got Simon Thomas alone in his cell, did you?

I don't know what you're on about.

You got him alone and you set about him to pay him

back for what he did to your friend.

And when was it I was doing this "pay back"?

The night Simon Thomas died.

I was at the hospital...

..praying that Ash made it through the night.

And yous two, if you had anything about you,

you'd know that already because you'd have done the same thing.

But you wouldn't know much about what it's like

to see your colleague, your friend,

in a hospital bed hooked up to machines keeping him alive.

You seem to care more about that drug addict squatter

than you do about one of your own.

Does Ash need to die before you going to care about him?

Is that what needs to happen?

You beat him to death in his cell!

-You were all part of it.

-Go to hell! I don't need to hear this.

Arrest me and prove it, or let me go back to work!

They work all hours, they put themselves in danger

and their...

..their friend, their "brother" is in hospital

and we treat them like this?

Without favour or affection.

That's who we are. That's what we do.

There is no other way to be.

I can't be the things that you want me to be!

I never could!

Take them.

DOOR SLAMS

John?!

Taylor?

Sir?

I didn't want you.

Not many people do, sir.

But those that do, are satisfied.

PC Ashton's note book?

If there was history between him and Simon Thomas

it would be in his note book.

I thought I had them all. Where is it?

Surely, if the constable was taken straight to the hospital

his notebook would be in with his personal effects there, Sir?

I'm wasted here.

John!

HORN TOOTS

-NURSE:

-Sally, wait for me.

-Can I help you?

-Yes, please.

We're here to recover Constable Ashton's notebook

from his personal belongings.

-Is this what you're after?

-Looks like it.

Yes, thank you.

MACHINE BLEEPS

It affected me as well, you know, John.

-You're not the only one. It still affects me.

-Right.

But I won't let it change me. Will you?

How much more luck do I have?

-Oh...

-Huh?

You saved my life, John...

I never told you I was grateful.

HE SIGHS

Well, I am grateful.

But if you let it change who you are,

they might just as well have killed you in the Cathedral.

You're more like me than you ever wanted to be, son.

Stockdale says they visited the slums 17 times in six weeks

and that it was Ash's idea.

Ash doesn't even mention it.

There's nothing.

There were other people in the police station that night.

Sergeant Dawson said that the cells were all full up.

Witnesses.

But you don't think they did it?

And the witnesses will prove that?

Frank Connor, breach of the peace. He has a Jericho address.

Jericho?

What's he doing all the way down here?

Agitating?

Erm, Terry Hanson, breach of the peace.

-He has a Rye Hill address.

-What cell number?

Erm, seven.

What are you doing constable?

We're trying to categorise suspects.

Those that were in the cells.

Those that were cautioned.

We're trying to isolate who was in the custody suite, all right?

Scientific.

Carry on, then.

It seems important.

I'll take the duty roster for that night, Sergeant?

Of course.

Right.

Who was in the cell next to Simon Thomas?

Mum!

What is it Charlie?

Hello.

Have you come back for the rest of the books?

I found them. I found them all.

-Hiya.

-Hiya. What happened to you, son?

-I fell down.

-I told him not to play in the rubble. It's dangerous.

You can give them back to Crazy Man for us.

Crazy Man's real name was Simon Thomas.

-He's dead, Robbie.

-Dead?

Yeah. We're trying to find out how he died.

-Mr Hanratty?

-Aye?

I wonder if you could help us in our enquiries...

I don't respect ye, so I cannae help ye.

Thank you...

DOOR SLAMS

..very much.

Right, next one.

TYPEWRITER CLICKS

All right, mate, see you later.

Good luck. Ta-ra.

Bairdo?

Can I have a word?

Not when you start weighing in, beating people

because they disagree with the government.

Why, man, you're not fit to be trusted.

Eh, eh, eh, listen...

A man died, all right. We're trying to solve it.

-In the cells?

-Yeah. Did you hear anything?

Aye.

I heard him crying.

Worst thing I've ever heard in my life,

hearing a grown man cry like that.

No-one came to see what was wrong.

They just left him.

-No-one came to help him.

-Well we're trying to help him now.

You're too late.

What's there to solve?

He's dead.

No-one beat him.

No-one helped him.

This is where we are.

This is what we've become.

We're the enemy.

How did this happen?

Mmm?

Maybe you're right to quit.

Right, what do we know, Guv?

HE COUGHS

We don't know where he was beaten and we don't know why.

We know that he wasn't beaten in the cell.

Right, listen, Guv.

And the people we've spoken to, right,

we know they don't trust us, we know that.

But, they'd be quick to shout, wouldn't they?

Then where was he beaten?

Why didn't the custody sergeant realise that he was in jeopardy?

-We'll start again tomorrow, all right?

-Yeah.

Hiya.

-Are you all right?

-Mm-hm.

What is it?

Sergeant has asked us to have a word with you...

About what?

You put Simon Thomas in a cell and that's the last time you saw him?

Aye, that's correct.

I am right in thinking that you all knew who Simon Thomas was?

Aye, by sight, not by name.

-You had history with him?

-Aye, I guess...

-So did Michael Ashton?

-Aye.

-He doesn't mention it in his pocket book.

-Does he not?

Constable Stockdale seems to remember going down there 17 times.

Ashton doesn't mention it at all.

Was he bent?

You what?

Why all the visits?

You don't remember?

You don't know?

Stockdale says it was Ash's idea.

Did you shake people down? Collect money?

Sell drugs?

Ash's idea was to give people food.

Aye, always at the end of our shift.

A blanket when it was cold.

He seemed to think being a police officer

was some kind of social work.

I didn't agree with him.

I think it encouraged them to be deadbeats

and it was against the rules.

Michael Ashton gave food to Simon Thomas?

That's why it's so hard to get your head round it, isn't it?

Ash was good to him.

CLEARS THROAT

Where was Simon Thomas when you arrested him?

He was, er...

..sitting beneath a run of stairs.

He was quiet, like.

Seemed a bit dazed, to be honest.

Right, was he in one of the houses?

Aye.

Why did you go in the house?

To try and disperse the protestors.

There was a wee lad...

..that I know from the street.

A wee imp.

And he falls

and cuts his face and skins his knees and...

I help him up, try to warn him off being there.

-I'm going to tell your mum.

-Get lost ya knacker!

-Hey!

I was worried about him,

didn't want him to get hurt, so I went after him.

Because that's the thing, anyone who was in those buildings

when they were knocking 'em down, they wouldn't survive, would they?

And as I go in...

..I see someone who's trying to get away and I think it's Robbie,

but it might not be.

So I turned round to leave...

..and I saw him.

I called for help.

-Robbie, the wee...

-Yeah.

He'd led me to him.

I didn't see Mike go in. Nobody had.

I wouldn't have known otherwise.

He called me a knacker and saved his life.

That's the world.

PHONE RINGS

Section House.

I'll let her know.

Can I help you?

-I'm looking for WPC Coles.

-She's not here.

I'm just going to nip up and have a look, shall I?

I can't allow you.

-Rules.

-Aye. Where would we be without them?

Are you obstructing me in the execution of my duty?

-She's not here.

-Where is she?

-She resigned.

I think she had the reputation of the police in mind.

Thank you.

Well, we'd like to speak to her.

I don't believe the Assistant Chief Constable and I,

when we asked you to tackle this, envisaged this sort of...

-Diligence?

-Persecution.

We were looking for it to be simple and speedy.

It was a tragic death

but it's not as though Simon Thomas will be a loss to humanity.

KNOCK ON DOOR

-Sergeant.

-Sir.

As it turns out you seem to have uncovered

an unacceptable level of neglect

on our part which we will duly acknowledge

and take steps to remedy.

And I want to thank you for the work you've done

in bringing the failure of Woman Police Constable Coles

-to our attention.

-WPC Coles?

She failed to check the cells hourly as instructed.

We felt that we might let her resign, with immediate effect,

and see the end of it.

She was a good girl. It was a careless mistake.

What you've done is highlight

some of the ways we can improve our training.

Well, I think we're done here. Got your scalp.

She's not careless. He said that she's careless

and she didn't check on Simon Thomas because she's careless.

She's compulsively organised.

-She's on the duty roster.

-But that doesn't make sense.

She knew that we were investigating what happened that evening.

She never said that she was on duty.

-What you looking at?

-Oi, oi. Come here.

-Was she lying?

-Apparently.

Could you tell? Could you tell that she was lying?

The women I know don't lie.

The women I know lie all the time. And I couldn't tell.

She's not careless. She's not lying.

I'm going to get an address.

-WPC Coles?

-Not any more.

-Could we just have a word?

-I don't have anything to say to you.

Listen, if you just give me a minute...

Rachel Coles, I'm arresting you in connection

with the death of Simon Thomas. Get in.

Could you book my suspect please, Sergeant?

Suspicion of being involved in the death of Simon Thomas.

-Sir?

-Just do it, Sergeant, please.

I'd like to interview as soon as possible.

Did you try to comfort Simon Thomas after he was put in the cells?

No. Sergeant thought he was dangerous.

We put him in an isolation cell and just left him to...

Were there any indications that he was unwell?

Besides the fact he was kicking and screaming, acting like a mad thing?

When did he stop screaming?

-I don't know.

-You must have a general idea. Ten o'clock at night?

-Two in the morning?

-You did check on him hourly, didn't you?

Sergeant Dawson said that's what you did.

You checked on him hourly. Did you?

Oh, I see. The coward's way out.

Hiding behind silence.

I thought you were better than that.

-Did you check him?

-No.

-Why not?

-I wasn't there.

Are you a liar?

I have here a duty roster that indicates

that you were on duty in the custody suite

on the night that Simon Thomas died.

-Well, it's not true.

-It's here in black and white.

Well, it's still not true.

Why does the duty roster say that you were?

I don't know.

Is this another lie?

I've not lied and I'd prefer not to say.

You haven't got a choice, Constable.

I have a choice.

A Hobson's choice.

I wasn't on duty.

And I won't hurt anybody else the way that they hurt me.

I wanted to be a police officer so badly...

You don't deserve to be a police officer.

Aye. That's what they said to us.

I had to resign or else they would say it was my fault

that nobody checked on that poor, terrified man.

Resign or be blamed.

That, Sir, is when you don't have a choice.

They wanted me to prove that I deserved to be a police officer

and like you, these lying men have taken my dreams away from me.

A man died in custody. He has no more dreams.

And if I had been on duty I would have done my best to prevent it.

I wasn't.

And all you have is my word.

It's not enough.

It should be.

-I swore an oath.

-It won't be.

Ask yourself what it means to swear it, Sir.

Because it obviously means more to me than it does to you.

I gave my word, "To serve without favour or affection."

Then ask them.

Ask them what the truth is...

..cos I don't have any proof and all you have is my word.

You're always bloody right, aren't you?

-Who was Hobson?

-What?

Hobson. She said "Hobson's choice". Who's Hobson?

Ran a stable in Cambridge. You rode the horse you were given.

This just came through from Personnel.

-Termination, separation, pension...

-I'll take that.

Make sure you go through it all and then return it as soon as you can.

This just came over from Dr Anderton, Sir.

Why did they set her up with dereliction of duty and neglect?

-Because they know that's what they're guilty of.

-Mmmm. Yeah.

According to Dawson, Simon Thomas was,

"Disoriented, hallucinating and violent."

Anderton says that the liver failure could be gradual

after the trauma, coming on after, say, even six to 12 hours, yeah?

Toxins in the blood slowly make their way to the brain.

So what if he became disoriented and agitated

as the damage to his liver took effect?

The injury needn't have happened in the cell.

-Can I help you?

-I'd like to speak to PC Baird, please.

-I haven't seen him.

-Go and have a look for him.

He's not on duty.

I'll check his room.

Bairdo?

There's a gap.

Sometimes sheets fall down or get lost.

What do you want?

You saw your friend lying on the ground,

bleeding from a head wound, and you were angry.

You and your mates run amok, laying into whoever you could.

So you went back in and you found Simon Thomas hiding.

Then you dragged him out and you beat him.

And all your mates piled in, didn't they?

Trying to pay him back for Ashton. Didn't they?

You didn't hit him in a cell.

-You hit him at the scene, where nobody would know.

-I didn't hit him.

And you didn't hit him in the head or the face,

because the marks would have shown.

-Oh, no. You hit him in the back.

-I didn't hit him.

Oh, come on, son. Tell the truth.

At least have enough self-respect to tell the truth!

I am telling the truth! I didn't hit him!

Chris and Neil, they didn't hit him. None of us hit him!

-None of us hit him!

-Who else was there?

-KNOCK ON DOOR

-I don't know!

We're in the middle of an interview!

We are in an interview.

Constable Ashton has died.

I'm sorry, David.

Sorry.

Detective Chief Inspector Gently, can I speak with you?

-Let's draw a line under this.

-We need to finish our interview.

You don't have enough to pursue this matter any further, do you?

You have no idea what we have.

I've spoken to the ACC. He agrees with me.

We think your investigation should be

superseded by an investigation into the death of Constable Ashton.

We don't want to muddy things. I'm sure you'll agree.

What's this?

-A conclusion.

-There's no evidence that Simon Thomas had anything to do

-with Constable Ashton...

-Let me stop you there. There is evidence.

We have a signed statement from a member of the public

who saw Simon Thomas assault Constable Ashton.

Who?

Irene Seddon. A local woman.

You've done enough.

Go home!

They didn't really want a robust investigation, did they?

If they did they wouldn't have sent two detectives

recovering from serious injuries, would they?

We haven't really done enough, have we?

Mrs Seddon? We need to ask you some questions.

He'll hurt my children.

STONE CLATTERS

Robbie!

Over there.

Robbie!

Robbie!

Robbie!

Robbie!

Robbie?

HE GROANS

What did the little shite tell you?

-What'd he talk to you about?

-Poetry!

We couldn't speak to you at our house.

If he finds out he'll hurt Mam.

Charlie and me saw it.

They say they're making this a better place.

They're talking about buildings, not people.

And then you come along with your badges and your laws

and you wonder why we hate you.

And Ashton brings the kiddie fiddler food and blankets,

makes him comfortable, that's what Ashton did.

What did Simon Thomas do to you?

He let that squatter live here but not us.

Us lot they move on.

Pervert was dangerous. We wanted him away!

PUT IT DOWN!

MUFFLED CRIES

HE GROANS WITH EFFORT

Hold on, John.

Come on.

THEY GROAN

THEY BREATHE HEAVILY

Are you all right?

Yeah. Yeah, I'm good.

You are.

The riot gave Hanratty a chance to get even.

He wanted to kill Ashton. He wanted him alone and vulnerable.

The boys didn't know what he intended.

They had to do their part or he'd beat them.

Charlie got to Ashton first. Did as he was told.

They lured him into the building, away from anyone else.

Robbie!

Robbie!

Simon tried to shield Ashton with his body.

Can you prove Hanratty struck Simon Thomas?

We have witnesses and physical evidence.

And both the boys have made statements.

Simon Thomas' liver had ruptured.

He was dying but he didn't know it.

Crazy Man, Crazy Man! Get up!

No! No!

Mum! Mum!

The failure to check on Simon Thomas

when he was in the cells contributed to his death.

So our conclusion really doesn't change.

Do your duty.

Archie Dawson, I'm arresting you on suspicion

of being involved in the death of Simon Thomas.

You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence...

-SOUND FADES

-..if you do not mention...

MUM!

MUM!

Thank you.

Mike was my mate and you found out who was responsible so...

That's the original.

When did I become a villain?

Rachel wasn't on duty. Dawson had a drink with us.

He had more than one and he fell asleep.

And he asked us to protect him so we did. We lied.

Nobody went in to check on him. And we all lied about it except her.

She's the only one who deserves to wear the uniform.

Guv, I'll take that letter back.

Lost?

Do you remember that oath you took?

BELL TOLLS

Crazy Man.

-I gave him his name, you know.

-Did you?

-Aye. He liked it.

It weren't because he was a nutter.

Something would happen or he'd read a poem

-or somebody would say something, he'd think about it...

-Yeah.

..shake his head and say, "That's crazy, man."

Always said it. About everything.

"That's crazy, man."

Come on.

Let me die a young man's death

Not a clean and in between The sheets holy water death

Not a famous-last-words Peaceful out of breath death

Let me die a young man's death

Not a free from sin tiptoe in

Candle wax and waning death

Not a curtains drawn by angels borne

"What a nice way to go" death.