Gently and the New Age Inspector George Gently

Isabella...

I put it to you, Detective Chief Inspector, isn't every

single detail of your testimony against these dedicated

and highly decorated officers just fabrication?

You worked with these men for five years.

You know that there was no corruption,

there was no money in brown envelopes or deals done in smoke-filled rooms.

Isn't your testimony just the last desperate croakings of a disillusioned rebel?

-No.

-Oh. No more questions.

Why?

I'm sorry, sir?

Over 30 years on the force.

You could've retired quietly in a couple of weeks.

And yet you stand here, open to public ridicule and humiliation,

risking your reputation.

-Why?

-I'm a police officer.

When my wife...

When my wife died, I was going to retire.

But Isabella, she always said,

my duty is my life.

No more questions.

-Don't scab labour!

-Unite, fight!

-Don't scab labour!

-Unite, fight!

Here they come, don't let them through!

Don't let those union scabs take your jobs!

Scab! Scab!

You can't just leave us!

We've got to get in there and get paid.

I'm in the transport union. I'm not crossing a picket line.

Come on. Just get us through.

Please.

In Newcastle, angry scenes at the Bateson-Donnelly dispute.

It's been six weeks since the management fired workers

who refused to give up their union membership

and replaced them with casual labour.

Bateson-Donnelly claim their

non-union workers are being subjected

to a campaign of intimidation,

while unions complain of heavy-handed police tactics.

Don't let them take your jobs! Solidarity!

-Dirty scabs!

-Scumbags!

SHOUTING AND INSULTS CONTINUE

HE GASPS

-Guilty.

-CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Yes, defeat at the election for my party was a bitter blow -

for the party, for the country,

and the Defence Secretary Mr Healey, wasn't it, Dennis?

-IMITATES DENIS HEALEY:

-Yes, it was very bitter.

I felt it bitterly, admittedly.

As Defence Secretary I was ensuring the safety of this country

by developing intercontinental ballistic eyebrows!

What other country in the world would let comedians make

fun of its war heroes?

Healey...made the beaches at Anzio, you know.

I do. Italy was hard graft.

You were there?

Eighth army. Taranto to Bologna.

I resent people called Harold, I can't think why.

-LAUGHTER

-And I do like Mr Heath,

there's something about him.

I think it's cos he looks like my horse.

Prime Minister, I am so sorry.

He's just a dirty old man who can't keep his mouth shut.

I'm sure you know the type.

On behalf of the special investigations unit,

the new commissioner's asked me to thank you.

He appreciates and admires what you've done.

This is a new decade, a new regime at The Yard.

The battle we won today is only the start.

I want you to know that.

What else do you want from me, Ian?

Hmm.

I'd appreciate it if you'd meet me here.

Tomorrow morning, say 9:15am?

What's wrong with Scotland Yard?

Prying eyes and ears, you know.

-Union jobs!

-For Union workers!

-Union jobs!

-For Union workers!

-Union jobs!

-For Union workers!

Why are they still here?

Bastards won't disperse and let us do our job.

They're saying we're using this as an excuse to break up their protest.

I don't have enough men for this job.

Look, I'm sorry, but it's not my department, all right?

Sir, crime scene's looking messy.

We're not hopeful of getting much.

His name's Jonny Wilson. But nobody knows much about him.

Well, it's ever since the company fired all of its union men,

him and his workers have been brought in from all over the country.

Great. There's about 200 suspects, isn't there?

-Yeah, I know.

-Has the press been here?

Every day for the last six weeks.

I'll get onto the papers. See what pictures they've got.

-Who's the chief commie here?

-Him. Owen Thompson, with the red scarf.

Him? Right.

Here they come! Here they come!

They have fit up-starts now, eh?

I don't know what you're implying.

I'm asserting you and your uniformed henchmen,

as representative instruments of the capitalist society of...

All right, all right, all right. I want these men cleared. Someone is dead.

-A scab.

-That man has a family. People who love him.

And my men have families, too. All we want is a fair deal.

You call your men off, otherwise I'll have you arrested!

Do you understand me? You and the rest of your men.

Go ahead, pig.

Let's have a riot.

You're taking this too far, Owen.

My men have an inalienable right to protest against the policy

of this company and your government.

It's not my government any more.

Labour. Tory. All the same to me and my men.

Your men?

They're not your men.

-Eh!

-You people don't belong here.

Michael Clements, MP.

Detective Inspector Bacchus. This is DS Coles.

Do you mind if I try and talk some sense into these men?

No...

All right, lads. Listen! Quiet!

Listen! I said quiet!

I am not here to dispute your right to protest

at the unethical employment policy of this company.

But please, in the name of common decency,

let the police do their jobs.

Don't allow yourselves to be painted as a mob of cold-hearted thugs.

A man is dead.

Show a bit of respect...eh, lads?

Haway then.

Hey...Adolf.

Did you see that? Now that's what I call leadership.

IMAGINES CAR TYRES SCREECHING

A single stab wound.

By the depth of the incision, some kind of stiletto knife.

Not something you'd purchase on the high street.

-More specialist, would you say?

-Yeah.

Inserted between the ribs and straight up into the heart.

-Death would have been instant.

-So either the killer got lucky, or...

..he knew exactly what he was doing?

You said it, but you're not wrong.

So you really think one of those pickets could what?

-Assassinate a scab?

-Ah-ah. Not a scab.

Non-union labour, all right.

-We're impartial, you remember that.

-I'm just saying,

I don't think we should rule out the other...forces,

who'd like to see those pickets discredited.

All right, OK, all right. So that, er...

That building company's hired a double agent, have they?

-An agent provocateur?

-I didn't say that exactly.

Yeah, you've been spending far too much time with the Guv.

Look, Jonny Wilson's death might have had nothing to do with that dispute.

And maybe someone else was out to get him for some other reason, right?

Are you going to organise a do?

For the Guv? To mark his retirement?

I don't think he'd want me there, Rachel.

-He'll come round.

-Will he?

Look, in two weeks' time, he'll be gone...

I don't want to end it on a sour note, I don't.

Excuse me.

-You made it.

-I made it.

Lesley Pierce, aged 19.

She was found dead, 27th of July, 1966.

Close to the record factory where she worked in Washington...

County Durham, not DC.

..which is why we're asking for your help.

It was a violent attack,

although there doesn't seem to have been any sexual element.

Cause of death?

Massive internal bleeding as a result of a fracture

to the back of her skull.

So what exactly is the problem?

No-one was ever charged.

It does happen.

Who was the officer in charge?

DCI Alan Kidd.

Didn't he leave the force?

Took early retirement not long after. Lives in Portugal now.

And he's not returning our calls.

Listen, George, I know this crime didn't happen in your patch,

but it's your neck of the woods

and we thought you might know some of the officers involved.

So what exactly would I be looking for?

Any irregularities in the inquiry that would be of concern to the Special Investigations Unit.

This all happened up north. Why is it in your remit?

Two days ago, we had an anonymous tip-off about this inquiry.

They told us the police buried evidence and protected someone.

Protected who?

The caller didn't say. And he wouldn't identify himself.

But...

..he sounded scared, very scared.

We traced it to a phone box in Storey's Gate.

In Whitehall?

Hardly something we can ignore, is it?

Mrs Pierce? Eileen Pierce?

Yeah.

Thank you for agreeing to meet me.

I didn't want you at the house. My husband won't talk to the police.

He thinks you let us down.

He's not wrong, is he?

There are a few officers on the force, myself included,

who are not satisfied with the inquiry into your daughter's death.

Whoever killed her...

we could be sitting on the bus with him,

or standing next to him in the pub.

What makes you think he was local? Did the police tell you that?

No. They didn't tell us much.

It's just down here.

It was over there they found her.

The morning after the party.

-And that's the factory where she worked?

-Mm-hm.

They were having a reception for the opening of the new pressing plant.

That was the last time anyone saw her.

-Big party?

-Oh, aye.

Lots of important people were there. All the local bigwigs.

People from London, as well.

London?

It's a big company. Multi-national they call themselves.

-And were you living at the same address back then?

-Uh-huh.

So this wasn't on her way home?

No.

But if she was forced or dragged here,

then somebody would have seen her.

SHE STIFLES TEARS

I'm sorry to be putting you through this. Here.

Are you all right? Here.

Could you make me a list of all Lesley's friends and acquaintances?

Anybody you can think of.

All right, thanks.

MUSIC BLARES, CHATTER

People sleeping here?

Yeah. It's a round-the-clock operation. They picket in shifts.

They've been brought in from all over the country.

Comrade Owen. A word, please.

More harassment from the state bully boys, eh?

All right, then, sweetheart, listen -

I need a list of the names and addresses

of everyone that was here on the picket line yesterday, all right?

You show me the responsible face of the trade union movement.

Responsibility? Bourgeois concept.

He's talking Swahili.

Which means I can't be held responsible

if one of my supporters takes the law into his own hands.

Your dead man was a casualty of war.

Class war.

Hey, do you know what?

Not all workers want to be in a union, you know.

My Uncle Tommy's a hod carrier, right, and him and his brickies

are the best squad in the whole north-east.

The last thing that those lads want is a limit on how many hours

they can work or how many bricks they can shift.

They just want to buy their own home, send their kids to

a decent school and you and your kind just don't get that, do you?

You poor, ignorant sap...

We will need all of your people to identify themselves to us.

We want full statements, and photos of all of you, all right?

For the process of elimination.

Right, I'll start with you, Fidel. All right?

Here we are.

Not many people can say "I made every one of these records".

Over there's where we press the vinyl.

Three number one singles already this year.

Course, I'm a Stax man myself.

Always have been, always will be.

There we are.

Thank you.

Yes, so, how can I help?

I'm looking into the killing of Lesley Pierce.

Did you know Lesley, personally?

Um, no, no. No, I didn't. Not personally.

I knew her to see - she was one of the girls in the typing pool.

-Isn't this case closed?

-Not as long as Lesley's killer

is still out there.

It was a terrible blow for this place.

-Yeah.

-For the town - the new town.

We all moved here to get away from things like that.

Did the police take statements from everybody who was at the party?

Yes. Of course.

Isn't all this in your files?

I'm going to need a list of everybody who was there.

Well, didn't they...

They went through everyone at the time - workers, management, guests.

It wasn't anyone from here.

It was some, you know, some nutter...from who-knows-where.

Have you got a guest list?

I'll give you what I gave the police four years ago.

People laugh at new towns. But I had enough of life in London.

We wanted to have a family, so we moved here.

It was the best thing we ever did.

When my wife first saw our new house -

back garden, quiet street,

no trouble on your front door...

..she burst into tears.

Who cares if all the trees are the same size?

This place was always crime-free, until what happened to...

..to Lesley.

Is that Michael Clements?

Yeah, yeah, he was our local MP - well, he still is.

-Back then, he was, uh...

-A government minister.

I'm a Liberal myself - always have been, always will be.

But Michael Clements? He's a good 'un.

Spends a lot of time here in Washington.

He helped me get this place up and running.

He cares about Washington.

Cares about his voters, you know?

The night Lesley died,

there was a big party at the place where she worked.

The guest of honour

was Michael Clements.

One moment.

There have been rumours.

About Clements' weakness...

-..for women.

-Yeah, well.

-It's not against the law, is it?

-No.

But apparently, he doesn't take well to not getting what he wants.

Bit of a short fuse - but...

Michael Clements?

The tip-off about someone being protected

came from inside Whitehall.

Michael Clements was in government at the time -

it's not something we can ignore, is it?

The landlady said Johnny Wilson moved in six weeks ago.

First floor, room 8.

See?

They can't wait to blame the unions.

Well, it's the logical conclusion.

You know what these pickets are like.

Professional trouble-makers, the lot of them.

Or just blokes with wives and kids who've lost their jobs.

I want this phone checked.

All calls in and out the last six weeks, all right?

These lefties are a violent lot, Rachel.

I mean, look what happened to Nijinsky.

Got an axe through his head in Bolivia, didn't he?

Mexico. And it was Trotsky.

What's that?

Trotsky got an axe through his head. Nijinsky was a ballet dancer.

Nijinsky is a horse, Rachel.

Just won the Triple Crown.

See that?

Well, the TV's still here, the record player.

Doesn't look like a robbery.

If it wasn't, what were they after?

Sir.

Sorry, Sir.

Removal men just dumped 'em like this.

You don't say.

I'll, er...

I'll leave you to it, Sir.

Ah! You're back, then.

Only till the end of the month.

Well, you're the hero of the beach.

It's all over the papers.

George finally slays the dragons of police corruption?

Well, I think it's great what you did, Sir.

Makes us proud to do what I do.

Tone it down.

Thank you, Rachel. I appreciate that.

Er, your picket-line murder.

I want a full briefing.

Right.

So obviously, we're focusing on all the people with motive

to wanting him dead - the pickets.

Press photos - these, taken before he was stabbed.

That's him - that's our victim, Johnny Wilson.

Which means that we're looking at his killer here,

somewhere among this lot.

All 216 of them.

Who we're tracing, interviewing and photographing.

So we check these...against these...

Process of elimination.

It's only a matter of time.

What about the ones with question marks over their faces?

Blokes with a history of violence - political or otherwise.

We've been getting them in for questioning.

Yeah. I'd also look at anybody with a professional military background.

Yeah, of course, sir.

There could be more to this than someone lashing out at a scab.

The victim's flat was ransacked and the murder seems to be professional.

No, come on, if you're going to assassinate someone,

you do it up a side street, don't you?

Or at his home or somewhere remote.

You don't do it on a picket line in front of hundreds of witnesses -

half of them coppers - with a load of press hanging around, do you?

Unless you're trying to frame the unions.

Sir? I've a woman on the line here, she sounds all upset.

She wants to speak to the officer in charge of the picket-line

murder inquiry.

It's a complicated case.

I'm not going to be here long enough to see it through.

It's all yours, DI Bacchus.

-Rachel, quick word.

-Yeah.

Yeah. DI Bacchus.

-Shut the door.

-Oh, yeah.

I've been looking into an old case.

Lesley Pierce...

..she was found dead on a pathway in Washington

four years ago.

Now, I've had a look at the postmortem report

and there's some pages missing. Now, they could've been lost or

they could have been removed.

I've also had a look at the crime scene

and it's very unlikely that she was dragged there or forced there.

And this?

You see... there's bruises to the face...

..but the cause of death

was a fracture to the back of the skull.

Looks like a blow struck in anger.

-Which would suggest she knew her killer.

-Exactly.

So...

..I need you to go through all the witness statements

and cross-reference them with this.

This is a guest list of a party that she was at the last night

she was seen alive.

And this...

is Lesley's friends and acquaintances.

Anybody on either of those lists

hasn't got a statement in this file...

you let me know.

And, er...no need to mention it to John, all right?

That was the victim's sister.

She recognised him from his photo in the paper -

underneath all that hair and beard.

Johnny Wilson is a false name. His real name is Mark Hogg.

So he's planted among the scabs.

What?

Non-union labour - to keep them crossing the picket line?

Keep up the morale?

I think you've tied your ponytail a bit too tight again.

He was a journalist.

I'm going to go and see his editor over in Manchester.

See what he was working on, you know.

Michael Clements...?

He's not a suspect, is he?

Everybody on that list is a suspect.

DEEP BOOM REVERBERATES

What's happening, Michael?

This place used to be an old naval firing range.

They're getting rid of the unexploded shells.

Come on.

Time to dazzle them!

I am a man of the north, ladies and gentlemen!

I believe in the north, I believe in its people and I believe,

passionately, that unless we equip ourselves for the future,

we will be condemned to long-term mass unemployment.

If we do not regenerate now - today -

our people will suffer.

And so I give you...

..Marwick Point!

Four years ago, when Mr Wilson ejected me from the cabinet

for daring to protest at the American war in Vietnam...

SUPPORTIVE CALLS

..I was forced back to my roots,

to the values of my parents

and grandparents - the community of decent working people in which

I was raised.

And so, along with the whole Marwick Point Working Party,

I've striven tirelessly to turn the dream into a reality...

A reality that will bring jobs and prosperity to our people.

An airport, a high-speed railway station,

trans-Pennine motorway links,

a bridge across the Humber connecting us to the south,

a super dock to accommodate the giant oil tankers of the future.

In the North Sea - facing east, not west,

because Europe is where our destiny lies.

We must break our economic, military and political

dependence on the United States and look towards Europe for the future.

And we in the north are the people with the skills, the enterprise,

the ambition, the creativity, to lead Britain and Europe forwards.

CHEERING

The working people in the vanguard of the north!

The north in the vanguard of a new Europe.

ENTHUSIASTIC CHEERING

What about the trade unions?

You didn't mention THEM in your speech.

Aren't the trade unions part of your...golden future?

Mr Clements is negotiating with trade union leaders.

But the leadership's not the problem, is it, Michael?

It's the shop stewards, the Marxists, the Maoists, agitators

like Owen Thompson, who don't give a shit about the working man...

I didn't know you cared, Gerry.

I don't.

Then you should be ashamed of yourself.

You have a question, Miss?

-Yes...

-Sorry, gentlemen, Mr Clements is on a tight schedule.

Can't you stop this for a while?

Stop what, Adele?

These young women.

My sex life is outside your remit.

Not when it affects your chances of getting elected.

You know, Adele? You're not the only ambitious, highly principled woman

to go to hell and back for me. Don't forget that.

Mr Clements.

Excuse me, I'm DCI George Gently.

I'd like to talk to you about Lesley Pierce.

She was found dead close to the record factory in Washington.

I remember.

-You've reopened that inquiry?

-I'm investigating the investigation.

If you'd like to make an appointment...

No, no, no. Let's, er...

Let's help Detective Chief Inspector Gently to get this cleared up, now.

Thank you, Sir. I appreciate that. Excuse me.

So... What's the problem?

Flaws in the original inquiry?

We don't know.

Who's "we"?

Did you know Lesley personally?

No. Why would I? Are you here on an official capacity?

Washington being in your constituency,

you go up there a lot, so maybe you came into contact with Lesley?

19 years old, extremely attractive...

So you've done your homework on me.

I like young women and young women like me.

There's a lot of sex involved,

but it's not against the law, is it?

Here's a funny thing.

Just as we're about to break ground on Marwick Point, you show up,

putting me in the crosshairs of a four-year-old murder inquiry...

You were in Washington that day,

for the opening of the plant,

and you were at the party afterwards.

Which was the last time anybody saw Lesley alive.

Hundreds of people were at that party.

Just like that picket-line murder.

Hundreds of suspects, hundreds of union men who hate scabs...

No, no, no - he wasn't a scab.

He was a journalist working undercover.

Name of Mark Hogg.

Does that mean anything to you?

You're not trying to pin that one on me, too, are you?

No, it means nothing to me.

And I had nothing to do with the death of that girl.

But before you go any further with this - whatever THIS is...

..you need to understand...

..a storm is going to hit this country.

The empire's done, the old industries are gone down the tubes

and there's going to be a day of reckoning when the government -

maybe Labour, maybe Tory - turns round and says,

"The party's over, folks, there's no more money -

"no more dole, no more NHS -

"leave it all to the free market."

Our people need to be ready for that day,

they need to be ready for the future.

And you're the man to lead them there?

Yes.

So what's a dead girl here or there

on the road to the promised land, eh?

Well, ask yourself this, George Gently -

why me?

And why now, eh?

What were you talking about?

Adele, get in the car.

Adele! Just get in the car!

I've spoken to Mark Hogg's editor.

He told me Hogg was looking for proof that when Bateson-Donnelly

fired their unionised workers, they were put up to it by the Government.

In fact, the whole dispute's been cooked up by the Government.

Trial of strength - who runs Britain?

The unions, or the Government?

Well, that would explain why his flat was turned over, wouldn't it?

Oh, come on, man. What, Ted Heath's

going around ordering the killing of...

..of reporters who step on his toes?

I mean, this country's not perfect, sir,

but it's not Nazi bloody Germany, is it?

There's a difference between the Government - elected politicians -

and the apparatus of the state.

We've got all these ministers standing up in Parliament

saying the dispute's got nothing to do with them,

but...what if they're lying?

He was killed professionally.

Look, John - you're a good enough cop to know - deep in your bones -

there's something not right about this.

I need to talk to you.

All right.

-Does your boss know you're here?

-No.

All right, Miss Watson. I'm listening.

Michael Clements is on the threshold of greatness.

Heath's government isn't going to last

and with the right leader, Labour can sweep to power.

And Michael, when he delivers Marwick Point, will be that leader.

Which would be the best thing that could happen to this country,

don't you think?

I'm just an old copper doing his job.

I'm sure you remember the Depression, Mr Gently.

I'll never forget it.

Rickets.

Michael was 14 before he could walk without leg supports.

Yeah, I'm not sure why...

Isn't it obvious?

This is a man who won't rest until he's eradicated poverty.

And what you're doing to him, persecuting him like this...

I'm not persecuting anybody.

As a matter of fact, I've got a lot of time for your boss,

as a politician.

But as a man?

If he was involved with Lesley Pierce...

He didn't do that! He had nothing to do with that girl.

You were at the party, weren't you, Miss Watson?

I go everywhere with Michael.

And you'd do anything for him?

For the greater good.

Even if the greater good cost the life of an innocent young girl?

She wasn't innocent. None of them are!

Don't you care about the future?

People are going to suffer.

Michael is a good and decent man.

Please, leave him alone.

If he's innocent, as well as good and decent...

then I will.

Two thirds of them identified and interviewed and nothing.

I mean, they've all got motive, they've all got opportunity.

Keep going until every man there is identified - and anybody who

doesn't belong there - or nobody recognises - you let me know, OK?

All right.

Sir?

An intruder got into the Bateson-Donnelly building

a week before last Friday night.

And we found some unidentified finger prints on a filing cabinet

and those finger prints have come back now

and they belong to a Mark Hogg.

So it's Friday. Payday.

Hogg goes in there to collect his wages...and then hides

until they shut up shop.

Stranger and stranger, eh, John?

Right, let's go and talk to Mr Donnelly.

There you go.

Oh, Sir, there was no statement from a girl called

Kiran Johal in the Lesley Pierce file.

I spoke Mrs Pierce to find out how close she was to Lesley.

-And...?

-Best friends since school.

Ahhhh.

-Hey.

-What?

What's going on?

You and the Guv. What's he got you doing?

And why won't he tell me?

You need to ask him that. On both counts.

Good morning! Avon lady!

Kiran Johal?

Lesley had all these big plans.

She hated it in Washington,

kept going on about how small-minded and suburban it was.

And you were her best friend?

I'm afraid your statement's gone missing,

Kiran - for which I apologise.

So...could you tell me what you told the police?

Look, I... I don't know.

What I told that cop was in confidence...

I'm glad it didn't come out because it would've hurt her mum and dad.

It still would.

Kiran, Lesley's killer is still out there.

I need you to tell me everything.

Lesley was pregnant.

And you were the only one who knew?

She'd just found out - the day before the party.

Who was the father?

She wouldn't say.

It was someone older.

Someone important.

So she hadn't told him?

No. Cos she didn't think he'd stand by her.

He was spoken for, you see.

Always had been, always will be.

Listen, I need to get on. I'm working on commission, you know.

Kiran, this officer who took your statement. Man or a woman?

-Er, a bloke.

-Can you remember his name?

Harry? I think it was Harry.

What was his second name?

It was a funny name...

I know it sounds daft, but...

it sounded like something from the Bible.

Malachi?

Harry Malachi?

Where are we going, exactly?

North, DI Malachi.

We're going north.

ANGRY SHOUTING

They're here, Mr Donnelly.

Thank you.

Mr Donnelly...

We'll outlast them, you know. Mob rule won't win here.

And your boys are doing a great job out there.

I'd like to do something for them. Christmas party fund or something?

No, no, no - that wouldn't be right.

We're impartial.

Course you are.

You had an intruder break in here last month.

I wouldn't say "break in". More like mindless vandalism.

Maybe not.

We found his finger prints on one of your filing cabinets.

Shouldn't you be out there, trying to find out who

stabbed our employee to death?

Well, that's the thing, sir - the two crimes are connected.

We have a...a fingerprint match.

The intruder was the man stabbed to death two days ago.

His real name is Mark Hogg.

He was an undercover reporter.

Well, whatever he was looking for in here, he didn't find it.

Proof of government collusion in your dispute with the unions?

He didn't find anything

because there was nothing TO find.

-Have you thought about that?

-Yes, we have.

And that'd make perfect sense, if he wasn't dead.

This company is a successful going concern.

We make a profit - that's not a dirty word -

and we provide work for people up here.

Your job is to find out which one of those morons out there

stabbed that man to death.

Clear?

Yeah, I understand, Mr Donnelly.

Thank you.

-Come on.

-But I've got another question...

-That's enough.

Sir, there's a few more questions I would've liked to ask him.

If, right - and it's a big if -

if Mark Hogg got in there

and got the proof that he was after,

then, yes, Donnelly IS lying.

But he was also very angry, wasn't he?

Which means that whatever Hogg took

still hasn't been recovered.

So it's still out there...

So it's still out there, which is what got him killed.

And the last thing that we need, right,

is for anyone to think that we're looking for it, OK?

OK.

Hello again, Harry.

What the hell is this? Let it go, Gently.

Independent panel cleared me of all your trumped-up corruption charges.

You've got nothing on me, you'll GET nothing on me.

Lesley Pierce.

You've found her killer?

Not yet.

But...here's what I HAVE found.

Lesley was pregnant when she was murdered.

Only her best friend, Kiran Johal, knew about it, until she told you,

BUT Kiran's statement seems to have disappeared,

plus there are pages missing from the postmortem report.

-Now,

-I

-think

that those pages will confirm

that Lesley was pregnant.

I don't know what happened...

It was a botched inquiry from start to finish.

The SIO was a useless old drunk - bit like yourself, George -

so the whole thing was a mess.

You're as bent as they come!

We all know that -

and we also know that YOU knew Lesley was pregnant.

And you're going to tell us what you did with that information.

Who did you protect?

I need to speak to my superior officer.

You will find this hard to understand, Harry,

but Ian here BELIEVES in what he does.

Like me, he despises bent cops.

But I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness,

whereas THIS man has got your new Commissioner behind him.

And HE is going to go through every case that you've ever

worked on since you walked out of Hendon with a fine-toothed comb.

Now, do you want that, Harry, eh?

Do you REALLY want that?

Come, on Harry - who was the father of Lesley's child?

I found what I found.

He had a thing with her and she was pregnant.

He offered me money - a lot of it...

..to make it go away.

I couldn't say no.

Who paid you off?

Michael Clements.

He's a born liar.

He didn't just take a pay-off from Michael Clements.

He was ordered - from above - to make the evidence go away.

I'm not sure I'm following you.

Are we...

Are we being played here, Ian?

By who?

Guv...?

I need a word.

-We need to talk.

-What about?

About you freezing me out.

This is not the time or the place...

No, this is exactly the time and the place.

I want to know what you know.

Because I think Michael Clements is involved in the murder of Mark Hogg.

Who is that?

It's our new friend.

Mark Hogg breaks into Bateson-Donnelly. He finds proof

of government collusion in that dispute.

A few weeks later, he's murdered - professionally.

The day before he's murdered, he makes a six-minute phone call

from a payphone at his digs...to Michael Clements.

He told me he didn't know Mark Hogg.

Because he doesn't trust the police?

Yeah, but the thing is, right,

whoever killed Mark Hogg,

how did they know it was him that broke into Bateson-Donnelly?

He told Clements what he had,

thinking Clements would go public with it.

Instead...Clements sold him out.

Why would Clements give Hogg away?

Because he was being protected over the Lesley Pierce murder.

And now he's paying the price for that protection.

He does what he's told, when he's told to do it.

It does go higher up than Harry Malachi.

Right, we need to find whatever it was that Mark Hogg

took from Bateson-Donnelly...

I've got a warrant to search his home address in Manchester.

You're off the book on this. No case notes, no diary entries.

And as soon as you get your hands on whatever it was that he took

from Bateson-Donnelly, you bring it straight to me, is that clear?

-On it.

-Yes, sir.

-And you alter your routes home at night.

And what about you, sir?

Mr Clements.

We've summoned you today because there's concern

here at The Treasury regarding your Marwick Point project.

You seem to have raised public expectations to a fever pitch,

while forgetting that after the election

and the return of a new government, public funding of your project

is now subject to the comprehensive spending review.

We don't need your money.

Marwick Point Development Corporation has secured

the backing of a consortium of European businessmen

and financial institutions.

Marwick Point happens - whether you lot like it or not.

Howay the lads.

DOOR CLOSES

The tribune of the people has spoken.

Who are we to argue?

CLAMOUR

I'm so grateful for...

-RADIO:

-If Michael Clements can make Marwick Point a reality, do you think people

will rally round him as someone who could lead the Labour Party back to power?

That's exactly what I'm picking up in the lobbies and in the Labour Party as a whole.

With Heath's government already fragile and industrial unrest spreading across the country,

Michael Clements is building the

kind of momentum that could, one day,

propel him all the way to Downing Street.

MUSIC PLAYS: Move On Up by Curtis Mayfield

# Just move on up

# Toward your destination

# Though you may find from time to time complications... #

You lied to me.

You told me you didn't know Lesley Pierce.

Oh, I lied to the police, George. Don't take it personally.

I had sex with her, maybe I was the father of her child,

but...Harry Malachi offered to make it go away.

He blackmailed me and....I paid up.

I was in the Cabinet, man!

Even a whiff of scandal would've finished me.

She was pregnant - maybe by me - and then she was dead.

But...I didn't kill her. Who put you up to this?

Oh, we're all out to get you, are we?

-It seems like it.

-Even Mark Hogg?

He phoned you last week, didn't he?

He told you he'd found something inside Bateson-Donnelly.

He told you what he'd found.

The next day he was executed.

Whoever phoned me wouldn't identify himself.

He said he had some information that he wanted me

to put in the public domain.

Something that would turn the whole thing on its head.

So I agreed to meet - at Marwick Point a couple of days ago -

-but he didn't show.

-Because he was dead.

You bribed a serving police officer.

It was blackmail!

So what? You paid up!

BOTTLE CLINKS

Hardly the conduct of a future Prime Minister, is it?

-A week.

-What?

To get Marwick Point signed and sealed.

Just give me a week - then you can come after me with all you've got.

-I can't do that.

-Why not?

"Because I'm a policeman, Your Honour,

"and my wife said that my duty is my life"?

I've been playing the filthy business of politics

and power for years now, George.

In government, in opposition, in the services.

You're forcing me back down that gutter again,

and I don't like myself for it and I don't like you for it.

But a cop gets sent to take you down, you do your homework on him.

You pull in favours from everyone in the Yard who owes you.

You get inside his life, inside his head.

And if you're me and you know how it works under the surface,

down in the sewers...

-Just one week...

-No.

Not even if I give you the name of the man who killed your wife?

Joe Webster killed my wife...

Joe Webster was just another disposable villain with

a psychotic temper.

Ford Zephyr, Eldon Street, March 17th, 1964.

I know the beginning, middle and end of it, George, and if I were you,

I'd ask myself this - who really benefited from Isabella's death, eh?

Not Joe Webster. They murdered her and you moved up North.

Who benefited, eh?

And who benefits from you taking me down?

Maybe the same people - the powers that be, the apparatus

of government, the Establishment - call 'em what you will.

Maybe you and I are in the same boat here, George.

One week!

Just think about it...then call me.

DOOR OPENS

KEYS JINGLE

HE SIGHS

RINGING TONE

PHONE RINGS

-Hello?

-Rachel.

Yeah?

You OK?

Er, yes.

Why?

You are watching your backs, you and John, you're both OK?

Yes, sir. Erm, yeah, we're fine. We're both fine.

HE SNIFFS

Is there something wrong, sir?

Isabella.

HE SNIFFS

They took her away from me and nothing's been the same.

Nothing's ever been the same.

If you was me...

..and you could look the man in the eye,

who killed her, what would you do?

I'm not going to answer that.

-And maybe you shouldn't either.

-No.

-Where are you?

-London.

Maybe you should come home.

HE SNIFFS Yeah, I will.

HE EXHALES

Goodnight, Rachel.

Goodnight.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Yeah, yeah, 'course you will. Yeah.

LINE DISCONNECTS

HE COUGHS

HE SOBS

BIRDSONG

One week. Not a minute more.

DI Lister?

I'm your source. The tip-off.

We need to talk.

About the national interest.

Mr Croxley?

Alan Croxley?

Changed your car, then.

Sorry, mate, you've lost me.

Don't you know who I am?

No idea.

And I don't care.

I'm George Gently.

You killed my wife.

Don't you feel anything?

It's just a job.

Ah.

HE GRUNTS

Did you come here thinking you were dealing with some old East End lag?

It's bigger than that.

And whatever you think you know, you'll never be able to prove it.

You are out of your league. Always have been, always will be.

HE GROWLS

So stop making a show of yourself... And. Go. Home.

This is not done! This is not done!

TYRES SCREECH

HE ROARS

"Always will be"?

ENGINE STARTS

My mum's in bits. We all are, but...

When were you last here, Tina?

Er, yesterday.

I picked up his post.

-Right.

-What are you going to do?

We are going to search Mark's stuff.

Well, what for?

I can't discuss that. I'm so sorry.

I didn't... I didn't leave that like that.

-You sure?

-Yeah.

Would you mind waiting outside, please, love?

We'll take it from here.

Someone's been here before us.

PIGEONS FLUTTER AND COO

-John?

-Huh?

They're watching the house.

-What, where?

-Out there, black car.

You see, that must mean they haven't found...

Tina?

Tina, come on inside. There you go, that's it.

Did you pick up Mark's post yesterday?

Uh...yeah.

Where is it?

-I've, uh... It's still in my bag.

-Do you mind?

Anything with a Newcastle postmark.

There you are.

Left luggage. Tynemouth Station.

Let's go.

Did you get it?

Got it. Up there.

-You all right?

-Yeah.

TANNOY: The next train to Newcastle,

arriving on platform two in five minutes.

Right...17...

John...?

John!

It's all right.

All right, let's go, go, go, go, go.

Hold it!

Keep going, get in.

TYRES SCREECH

Back to the cars!

What are these?

I dunno... It's definitely Bateson-Donnelly, though...

It's not what we thought.

All right, all right. You go back and mind the shop.

And don't say anything to anybody about any of this. OK?

What are you going to do?

I'll get in touch with the guv.

You all right, John?

Yeah. Yeah. You?

Yeah.

That's lovely. Go on, pass it over.

Can I, er, help you?

I need to talk to you, Mr Paton.

-How many kids've you got, Eddie?

-Three.

And you're a Stax man. Always have been, always will be.

And you're a Liberal. Always have been, always will be.

Are you making fun of me?

Did you tell Lesley, that you were already spoken for -

"Always have been, always will be"?

Why did you lie to me?

You told me that you didn't know Lesley personally.

What's this about?

So how did it go, Eddie?

Did Lesley corner you at the party and tell you she was pregnant?

And you were scared that your wife might find out,

so you agreed to meet Lesley later?

No, maybe you got her pregnant, maybe you didn't.

But you DID have sexual relations with her.

It was just once, Liz.

And I was a bit drunk - it was nothing.

So you met Lesley away from the party,

and you tried to talk her down.

But she wouldn't let it go.

So you got into an argument and you struck her in anger and

she fell to the ground and she cracked her head and she was dead.

-No.

-Lesley threatened all of this.

The perfect job, the perfect life and your shiny new town!

It's not funny.

Do you know where we came from? Slums!

Dirt and filth and people fighting in the streets and we came here

and the kids... Oh, my God, the kids.

CHILDREN LAUGH AND CHANT

This place is everything I ever dreamed.

It's not like back there...

London. Filthy and falling apart. This place is...

It's like America or something.

And you'd do anything to keep it all.

What?

Eddie didn't do anything wrong.

He's not like that.

He didn't...

He was with me all night.

I didn't let him out of my sight.

You were there, too. At the party.

HE SIGHS

You'd better find somebody to mind the kids.

Because I'm going to arrest the both of you for murder.

And then we're going to take you to two separate police stations

and we are going to sweat the truth out of you.

No matter how long it takes.

Or...

..you can tell me the truth, here and now,

and the kids will still keep their dad.

Eddie didn't know I knew about Lesley. Until now.

OK.

I... I offered to pay for an abortion and....

And she started laughing at me and...

SHE SOBS

I didn't mean it!

Last man standing.

So who are you?

Clements didn't kill Lesley Pierce.

I've arrested her killer. She confessed.

We have been played, Ian.

An anonymous tip-off, eh?

My advice to you is to arrest Michael Clements on suspicion

of the murder of Lesley Pierce.

They got to you.

We all look up to you, George.

HE SCOFFS

You've never compromised.

I don't want everything you've stood...

If I'm going to stay in the game and clean up the police...

..there are compromises.

They don't want Michael Clements running the show.

Even if the people vote for him?

The people? What do the people know?

Give them a vote on it and they'll bring back hanging.

Please, George, just toe the line.

In the national interest.

I believed in you, Ian.

Why is Michael Clements so dangerous to the British State?

It's not his brand of socialism or his man of the people act.

It's the reason they fired him from the Cabinet.

TYRES SCREECH

Sorry. George Gently doesn't walk away.

I'll take a lift back to London, Ian.

Were you followed?

-No.

-No.

This is what Mark Hogg took from Bateson-Donnelly.

It's his death sentence. Have a look.

He went looking for government collusion in their dispute

but he found something much, much bigger.

This letter, right, confirming the construction contract.

That traced back to commissioning agents through

offshore holding companies, all the way to Washington.

DC, not County Durham?

-Yeah. They're building an airbase at Marwick Point.

-What?

For the Americans.

So, the State uses me to torpedo Clements who, by the way,

didn't kill Lesley Pierce and it was all going like clockwork...

until Mark Hogg gets his hands on that.

That's what got Mark Hogg killed, sir. Now we've got our hands on it.

So what are you saying, John? We should bury this and walk away?

-No, sir, no.

-No, no. We've got the killer of Mark Hogg.

He's the only man at the crime scene that we can't account for.

Look, this is just some bloke, Rachel.

We can't prove that he killed Mark Hogg, we don't even know his name.

Alan Croxley.

Ex-Special Forces. And, my guess, MI5.

You know him?

It's a long story, Rachel.

So, what do we do, sir?

Well, you two just go on doing your jobs.

And you forget about this. You know nothing, you saw nothing.

And what about that, sir?

Well...a week from now, I'll be gone anyway.

-No... Come on, sir.

-Sir.

-Look. No. You've proved your point.

All right? What else can you do? Just walk away.

You can't win, sir.

They are going to build the airbase, they'll take down Clements.

Just, just leave it. Please. For once.

Just walk away, take your retirement, sir.

Retirement, eh?

Tell him, Rachel. He'll listen to you.

-Tell him.

-Sir, please, just...

I mean it, Rachel. You saw nothing, you know nothing.

And one more thing. Are you organising a do for my retirement?

-Do you want a do?

-Yeah.

Right.

I'll book the upstairs room at The Old Straw House, if you want.

Well, oh, thanks, John. I appreciate that.

Right.

Yeah.

Cheer up.

It's not the end of the world.

BELL TOLLS

Michael.

Adele said I'd find you here.

What's happening, George?

Did you kill the man who killed your wife?

No.

You didn't kill Lesley Pierce. I know that now.

I had to be sure.

And our deal?

One week's grace?

You don't have a week, Michael, you don't have anything.

They want this site as an airbase. For the Americans.

Yeah.

That's why they were using me to bring you down.

Because what the Americans want from us, they get.

And what about what the people want, George?

Working people, honest people who pay their taxes and vote?

Well, they don't really count, do they? Not really. Not to them.

You bribed a serving police officer. That's not going to go away.

Your political career is over.

But the fight needn't be.

You could expose the whole plot. People will listen to you, Michael.

Not without proof.

The proof is on its way to your office.

But it's not about proof and bits of paper, is it?

It's about principles and values and everything that we fought

the war for and tried to do when we came back.

You might not win, they'll outflank you,

they'll try to poison your name, they'll spread rumours about you,

and that's why you have to keep fighting.

Cos what else is there, Michael? What else is there?

And will you be there, George?

Watching me back?

One way or another.

I'll see you in the future...

..George Gently.

GUNSHOT

HE COUGHS

HE PANTS

HE GRUNTS

ETHEREAL MUSIC

GUNSHOT

Isabella...!

GUNSHOT BOOMS

PHONE RINGS

Yeah?

Where is he? Where is he?!

Over there, sir. There.

Move. Move.

No, no...

WIND HOWLS

Oh, God.

John!

Don't, Rachel, don't.

No, oh, no. Oh, God!

CLAMOUR

You see this? You all see it?

Evidence of Bateson-Donnelly's conspiracy with the government!

And it goes higher!

Much higher!

They are turning this country into an American aircraft carrier.

CLAMOUR CONTINUES

To the Guv.

The Guv.

HE GASPS

You know, neither of us would be here without him.

Mixed blessing that, isn't it?

I mean here. In the Force...

..doing this with... We're lucky, you know.

Yeah, yeah. We are.

They'll say it's one of his old enemies.

They'll cover it up.

What would George Gently do?

He'd say, "Don't think about anything else.

"Just get the evidence."

MUSIC: Old Friend by Lyle Lovett

# Old friend

# All the stories to tell

# Old friend

# Could you have bid me farewell?

# Old friend

# It might be easy for another man to see... #