Sun Hill Uncovered

Written b :Len Collin, Produced by Pippa Brill, Directed by Ian White

The images on this page were provided by the wonderful Mike from Billfans. They are not from this particular episode but hey, any Cullen is better than none!

This, of course, still continues the hotel story.

Detective Inspector Alex Cullen is first seen meeting Tony on a patch of waste ground. Alex is wearing his leather jacket, a grey suit, a deep blue shirt and a dark blue tie with yellowish rectangles on it. Tony has all the details of the job he as given at the end of the previous ep and our Alex at least has the wit to suspect that it is all too soon. A cute bit of dialogue has Tony and Alex discussing whether they still trust him.

Tony: They think I'm a chancer.

Alex: (dryly) Maybe you are.

Somewhat reluctantly, DI Cullen decides they should go for it - I wonder if he is remembering Pennington and the NCS. I'm sure he'd rather be risking his own neck than sending someone else to risk theirs. It's a pretty meaningful look when he wishes Tony good luck.

Anya suddenly tells us, as she is being taken away by I&D, that she saw Hussein's murder so the next scene we see Alex in he is questioning her about this. Petrit is sitting in as an interpreter but he takes the opportunity to question her about his sister, to the DI's displeasure. As Alex says, after Petrit has been pulled up and made to explain what he was saying,

Any more of that and I'll be the one doing the killing! [Exasperated sigh]

Great close-up here of Cullen's big blue eyes. ;-)

Anya says that the man who killed him is working at the hotel - Petrit goes off on another private conversation while Alex barks 'Petrit!' in increasingly exasperated tones.

We then go to watch tapes from the hotel, and after some comedy with Reg picking food back up off the floor - Don't think Health and Safety would be too happy about that, mutters Alex - she does ID him.

In the next Cullen scene, it becomes apparent that Alex feels we should leave the putative murderer there for now, rather than compromise the op - and Conway wants him picked up NOW!

….anything could happen.

[genuinely puzzled] Like what?

The bloke's a psychopath!

We don't know that.

He's in a kitchen - with knives and hot oil and burners.

Sir, I think you're overreacting.

The man's a murderer!

One murder does not make him a psychopath.

Perhaps I could go in and pull him out.

No way. Petrit, you're only here because I&D are part-funding the operation.

Mikhail doesn't suspect me.

Yeah? And I don't trust you.

Alex doesn't want us to arrest him for fear of blowing the operation and losing Berisha. Later, after the ghastliness of Polly and Dave rolling around in the hay on camera, Derek and Tom discuss the case - and Alex's handling of it and decide to leave it for a couple of days.

***
Alex is running a briefing on Tony's trip to Europe to pick up this truck. There is a tracer on the truck and we are going to follow him. Alex, as always is calm cool, collected and organised.

So, we know where all the dots are - all we've got to do now is join them up.

***
Cullen and Debbie go to see Redmond in hospital. He wants to know why there isn't a copper on guard.

We don't care about you that much, John.

This really is an ill-written scene with little within the episode justification for being there. They are there, of course, so the writer can make Redmond reveal too late that he did blow out Tony - he told Berisha that Tony was an immigration officer. Tony has been sent to Holland to act as a decoy. As Alex so rightly says, he had thought it was too soon. It's hard decisions time now for the DI. Outside the hospital room, Debbie asks him if they should try and get in touch with Tony.

He thinks his cover is secure, we've no reason to believe he's in any danger… [long pause and little sigh] Let's leave it that way.

Cullen has been criticised for this decision because, needless to say, it goes pear-shaped but given he's mysterious not psychic he couldn't foresee the trouble. Tony isn't an experienced undercover officer so it wasn't unreasonable to feel that he'd do better if he believed in the role he was playing. To be honest I do think Cullen probably would have told Tony (based on my reading of the character) *but*, given that the writer, for whatever reasons, decided he wouldn't, if we look for appropriate motivations within the show itself they're there. The crucial thing about the info was that we knew that Tony's cover was blown - but they didn't know that we knew. Therefore, it made sense that they would run him as decoy, which was backed up by the information we received. If that was the case there was no good reason to suspect that they were planning on bumping him off, and we intended to provide close back-up anyway, so Tony shouldn't have been put in extra danger by not telling him. A further reason for not telling him was provided by Tony's lack of experience with this sort of work - he was in there for his HGV licence, not his experience or training. Cullen, who doesn't have our years of knowledge of Tony, may have thought that he would find it difficult to remain in character knowing he'd been made - it is far, far easier to maintain a role if you believe that your audience is believing it.

Back at the office, we quickly discover that it appears Alex was right in his guess that Tony would be acting a decoy - there is another lorry on the previous ferry. He decides to split the cover - two cars will follow that lorry while only one shadows Tony.

***
It is the following day. Alex is now wearing, I think, his palest yellow shirt and a green/khaki tie and a brown jacket. As we tail the two lorries Tony is waved through a Custom's checkpoint but the other lorry is pulled, to Cullen's justifiable annoyance as they were warned off it. However while the man in charge may well be a legend in Nicholson's estimation Cullen vaguely recognises him - he's been Berisha's guest at the hotel. Unfortunately, he doesn't remember where he knows him from until after they have left the checkpoint and the lorry has been declared clean. They turn around and go back only to discover that the checkpoint has vanished. The following discussion is well worth watching if only for the lovely broadening of Alex's accent - Bahb (Bob), sin (seen) etc ;-)

Meanwhile Tony has been snatched under Debbie and Petrit's noses and taken off by Kerns to be killed. Nicholson and Cullen meet up with Debbie and Petrit at the abandoned lorry where Cullen gets to be a little cross with Debbie and to sigh,

Where the hell is Tony?

The episode ends with Tony very obligingly turning his back on a man who has just told him that he couldn't shoot him in the face. Cue heard but not seen shot and cue disbelieving viewer. ;-)

Tie rating