Undercover

Written by Maxwell Young, produced by Pippa Brill and 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!

The opening scene has PC Tony Stamp and Detective Inspector Alex Cullen meeting in a carpark for an exchange of information. Tony wants to know if they've found the body he helpeed tip in the river the previous episode. Alex replies, with a resigned but unhappy look,

They haven't got the manpower to look.

He then adds, after further discussion of the matter,

Well, this new one'll have to go on file. We'll deal with it when we've rounded them all up. Can't act on it now. [Pause and look away from Tony then back] No-one said it was going to be pretty, Tony.

In terms of the ep in general Mickey and Duncan watch the bedroom camera hopefully, Dave and Polly squabble (someone should have slapped him good and hard), Tony delivers to a brothel, Petrit tells more of us about his sister

Alex next appears in a car in a shopping centre carpark. Tony is there with him and Polly shortly joins them. Alex shows Tony the picture of Petrit's sister to see if she is the body in the river. Thankfully she isn't. As Alex says,

That's one awful conversation I don't have to have.

May I just say that while I think Berisha is total scum I really can't see the significance of 'Polly must know about the dead body before she decides whether she can entice him into making admissions'. The girl suffocated in a fridge - he didn't strangle her with his bare hands! As long as Polly stays out of any whitegoods it about as relevant as his shiny pate!

Petrit and Reg (against Reg's better judgement) visit the brothel in search of Petrit's sister. She is there but reluctant to leave and the resulting shemozzle eventually gets to a point where Reg has to call in back-up. He gets them to come in like a real raid and arrest everyone, which by that point is the best thing he could have done. Understandably, however, given that none of us should have been anywhere near the brothel Alex is a wee bit cross.

What the bloody hell was that?

It was a reccie.

No, Reg - that was a full blown raid on a place that's part of my operation!

After an attempted explanation from Reg he hasn't exactly cooled off -

I don't care! It's a Grade A balls-up, Reg, and it should never have happened!

He's very cute when he's cross. Possibly Reg does get it a bit more in the neck than he deserved but Burnside would have had him sliced, diced and deep-fried so maybe he should be thankful it was the quiet reasonable DI he annoyed ;-)

Alex is next seen interviewing one of the prostitutes. He is back in his cool and calm mode. He is quiet and gentle. When she asks,

Is enough? I stay?

Alex sighs.

It's not up to me. [Sympathetic look]

It is up to Nicholson, however, and he makes it patently clear there's no mercy to be found there.

Redmond tells Tony he's been rumbled - that Berisha will assume that he has blown out the brothel. Tony tells him to go to Cullen.

Cullen visits Petrit's sister in the cells to see if she will talk to Petrit - she says no way, this is all his fault. I find this scene a little difficult to follow in terms of motivation. Cullen refuses to let Petrit see his sister, as she doesn't want to see him. When Petrit says that I&D wouldn't send her back after all he has done Alex tells him to take it up with Nicholson, in the manner of a man who smells something nasty - perhaps he has already sussed Nicholson. Petrit then says that this is all Berisha's fault and Alex hisses,

You leave him to us.

Later that night Alex is in his office staring out the window (Starlight, star bright, first star I see tonight?) when Debbie comes in to say that an IC1 is at St Hugh's, beaten up, and they think it is Redmond - Alex does a great double take. He bolts to the hospital where he, fairly desperately, asks Redmond if he gave up Tony. There is tremendous relief in his 'Good man' when Redmond answers in the negative. Alex isn't nasty or callous enough to be a natural at running an undercover op. No sooner is that crisis dealt with than Dave rings to say that Berisha and Polly have gone off and he has followed them. Cullen arrives to find Dave making a huge scene outside the club they have gone into. Clearly, he has to do something but I have to say that we'd better be assuming that the doorman is deaf because Cullen would be blowing Quinnan's cover otherwise. On the other hand, this is pretty standard behaviour for TB. I must say I do like Cullen's snarled,

Let the woman do her job.

It makes such a refreshing change from the recent TB attitude of women being totally vulnerable.

Time for a quick fashion note:
Cullen was wearing the jacaranda blue tie and shirt combo I'm unconvinced by but this time teamed with a black/very dark suit, which I think, was new.

And a quick quibble:
We're talking a big, big bucks operation with lots of personnel involved, lots of risk and lots of kudos available if it works - a lowly divisional DI is running the whole shebang? Yeah, right... Alex may be wonderful, but he's not actually superman.

Tie rating