Inspector George Gently (2007–2017): Season 7, Episode 4 - Son of a Gun - full transcript
On Christmas Eve an armed gang rob the Tyne and Wear bank with machine-guns and soon afterwards the female getaway driver is found dead. Information leads Gently to a rough club frequented by a skinhead gang led by the violent Jonjo Burden but with insufficient evidence Gently cannot charge them so Rachel goes undercover and gets close to Burden. She suspects that another robbery is being planned and she is right but the police are unable to prevent it and her cover is blown. For Gently, now forced to admit to Bacchus that he has multiple sclerosis, the involvement of a colleague's widow and her young son both complicates and helps him clear up the case.
At that moment, Santa realised
then that everybody
could see his jingle balls.
We have a letter.
From the Queen.
Now this has been sent to every
school, every hospital,
every police station in the land.
Chief Super thought it might be
better if you read this one out.
~ All right.
~ Yeah.
~ A bit of gravitas...
~ Your hat, sir.
~ Come on, sir.
Right.
"In a short time, the
1960s will be over
"but not out of our memories.
"Historians will record them
as the decade in which men first
"reached out beyond our own planet
and set foot on the moon."
Get down on the floor!
"Each one of us will have our own
special triumphs or tragedies
"to look back on."
Get down. Stay down.
"Christmas is a festival
of the spirit."
C'mon, c'mon!
C'mon.
"I hope all of you will enjoy
a very happy Christmas."
Go. Go. Go.
"God bless you all. Elizabeth R."
C'mon.
Howay, let's go.
Go. Go. Go.
Come on. Let's have your cash.
~ Sir.
~ What?
A Sten gun? In Durham?
500 rounds a minute.
Eight per second.
Seen one before, then?
Not on the streets, John.
Well, I've got all the staff
and cashiers and that
going down to the station
to make a statement.
~ Two called in sick today.
~ Oh, inside job?
Who knows? I want to talk
to the customers and all.
Yeah. They're pretty shaken up. Somebody
could have died here today.
Mmm. Yeah. But they didn't, did they?
And we've got their gun.
Early Christmas present.
I gave them a good blast
before it ran out.
~ I was top shot in my troop, National
Service made a man of me.
~ Right.
Oh, aye. I got a few rounds in,
for sure. Bloody hooligans.
So he came in right past you, the
gunman, but you didn't see his face?
I saw his boots. Work wear.
No business being in my bank.
Your bank?
Aye. Ten years' service to the
T&W. I take my work seriously.
I should be in line for
a reward, I reckon.
Did you get a number plate?
I mean, you were right here.
It was one of those
of those new Fords...
Yeah. A maroon Ford Zephyr
and a blue Vauxhall Victor.
A lot of people saw that.
I need a number plate.
I was a bit busy.
Doing your job. Defending the public.
Is that what you call it?
Cos we call it illegally discharging
a firearm in a public place.
You could have killed somebody.
I wish I had. It might make
them think twice next time.
When they're dead, you mean?
Last week we abolished
the death penalty,
this week we reap the consequences.
Violent little toe-rags
with no fear of justice.
Flats and offices on both
sides of the street.
There's a phone box there and
a pub just up there at the end.
Now given that the most action
that you've ever seen
was on the firing range at Otterburn,
you stood more chance of killing
a bystander than a bank robber.
Arrest him.
Discharging a firearm in a public
place without lawful authority.
Now, a number plate,
that would have helped.
Ah. You must be the hero.
Extend it to Sunderland
if you need to
~ and Chester-le-Street if necessary.
~ I will.
Sir, the cashier, Monica Addison,
she wasn't meant to be working today.
She said Violet Burns
asked her to fill in.
~ It's meant to go through
the assistant manager.
~ Was she sick?
~ No, pregnant.
~ No wonder she didn't call
the assistant manager.
The deputy manager, he likes
a flutter, horses, dogs,
owt with legs. He's behind
on his mortgage.
~ No.
~ What?
It doesn't take inside knowledge
to walk in through the front door
and stick up six bank
clerks, does it?
But they knew to rob the bank an
hour before the cash collection.
Most bank jobs,
it's two, maybe three men
with a pistol and a shotgun.
This is a Second World
War sub-machine gun.
It should have been decommissioned.
Somebody has drilled out the plug
and made another firing pin.
If it belongs to the British
Army, can't we trace it?
They ground off the serial number.
Did you recognise any of them?
They were all wearing gasmasks.
Anything on those getaway cars?
The Duty Inspector's got pandas out.
Uniforms are going door-to-door.
Christmas Eve, they'll
get a warm welcome.
A bloody holiday right in the
middle of my investigation.
A glass of water, please,
for this young man.
All right?
Yeah. Yeah. The lad that
took on the gunman.
Lucky not to get himself shot.
He's not saying much.
He just wants to go home
to his mum. He's only 17.
Thank you.
Let me talk to him.
If you think you can do any better...
It's not that, John. I know him.
Hello, Kit.
I'm sorry.
Why are you sorry?
It's been too long.
Mum, we've got company.
Company?
I'm not dressed for company.
Hello, Edith.
You look well.
And you were always a
very good liar, Gently.
That was taken ten years
ago, before you knew us.
1959, the dawn of a new
decade, remember that?
Oh, yeah.
He was a man you could trust, Derek.
A brave man.
How are you doing, George?
How's that posh school
treating you, then, Kit?
They made a gentleman of you yet?
~ He's got a girlfriend.
~ Oh.
~ Ask him about his girlfriend.
~ Mum!
A man needs his secrets,
Edith. Right, Kit?
Right, well, erm...
I'll leave you two
men to talk, shall I?
I'll make myself look presentable.
She won't be back down.
Thank you.
So this gunman, you couldn't
get a good look at him
because of his gasmask, right?
~ No.
~ Scary, eh?
I'm sorry.
No, no, no, no.
So you said they were young?
How young? 20, 30?
Is 30 young?
Yes. Definitely.
I suppose 20-odd.
He didn't care.
He just walked into that
bank with the gun.
Anybody could have been killed.
His accent was local, yeah?
Yeah.
~ Yokel or town?
~ City?
Newcastle?
I'm going to get them, Kit.
I'm going to lock them up.
How well did you know Dad?
We were on the operation together
where he got killed.
Was he afraid?
We were all afraid, Kit.
It's what you do next that counts.
I've got to go, John. I've
got Walter's parents down.
Just tell us.
Tell you what?
Just tell us that this'll
be our last Christmas apart.
'Wait. Wait.'
Wait, Gem. Just wait.
The pips have gone.
John?
Wait.
~ Have you got any coins?
~ No.
~ Have you got any coins?
~ No!
What?
No sign of either of them cars.
Right. Well keep looking.
It's Christmas Eve. My Sergeant's
calling us in, other duties...
~ Are you just going?
~ I am, sir.
Hey!
Merry Christmas!
This came from forensics.
What is it?
It's a bullet from the bank.
It's a Dum-Dum.
Why is it like that?
Let's hope you never find out.
Yep?
Christmas morning?
Don't start.
He was sat on his own doing nothing
and you were sat with your mum
wishing you were doing nothing.
Besides, there's no-one else.
~ Merry Christmas.
~ Merry Christmas.
~ Happy Christmas!
Well, here we are. Joseph, Mary
and the little Baby Jesus.
What have we got then?
Blue Vauxhall Victor.
I've got a witness that saw it
driving through Rowan Street.
Two flat tyres. Rowan Street's
about a mile away from the bank.
That's very good. Did
uniforms get that?
~ No, they didn't. I did.
~ All right. It was a joke.
I walked the route. All bloody night.
I found blue paint
on a traffic island.
No sign of the car, though.
It's not going to get very
far, is it, two flat tyres?
It's just us, then?
Yeah, well. We can sing
carols on the way.
All right, meet at the Arches, 4.00.
~ Merry Christmas.
~ Merry Christmas.
Anything?
~ No. You?
~ No.
I'll get them to organise
a proper search tomorrow
when we're back on duty.
It's worth a try, I suppose.
Do you want a lift home?
Oh. No. It's all right. I'm going
to go and meet some friends.
~ Retrieve what's left of my Christmas.
~ You sure?
Aye. Wey aye. See you later.
Where to?
Home, please.
On your own?
Yeah. Gemma's still in London.
She's coming down next week.
It's happening then, is it?
Yeah. Yeah.
I'm going to look after
her. Her and the kids.
So what if he won't give
her a divorce. So what.
What if something happens to you?
Well...
She'll get my pension, won't she?
Not if you don't marry
her, she won't.
~ Really?
~ Really.
That kid who took on the gunman.
His father was Derek McDonald.
He was a sergeant in the squad
when I come up here from London.
The one who got killed
in Operation Tulip, yeah?
~ Yeah. I remember.
~ Yeah, well...
We all thought that him
and Edith were married,
but it turns out they weren't.
Because Edith's first husband
wouldn't give her a divorce.
So she got nothing. Think about that.
Excuse me!
This is the police. Will
you step out of the car!
Please, will you step out of the car?
~ Are you all right?
~ Yeah... There's erm...
There's bullet holes in the
back of her shoulder, sir.
You did well.
Thank you.
I think it's been emptied, sir.
I wonder if she was trying
to stop them or summat?
And she got in the way. I don't know.
Or maybe it's her car, they held
her up, used her for the robbery.
Killed her.
It's a blue Victor, Rachel.
That's not really
a lady's car, is it?
What? The blue bit or the Victor bit?
Didn't it occur to you that she
might have been one of them?
My point being, Rachel, would
you drive a Vauxhall Victor?
No, but I'd reverse one over you.
~ She did.
~ Did what?
Drive one of these. She
was the getaway driver.
What?
There's a bloody great hole
in the back of the seat.
Why would they kill her?
They didn't.
The doorman did.
I've never seen a wound
like that, sir.
That's a Dum-Dum for you. The
bullet flattens on impact.
Where would you get them from?
Easy enough to make.
Then why would you use them?
Bigger bang, innit?
If you're going to rob a
bank, you might take a gun,
you might even take the
scariest gun you can find.
If you load it with Dum-Dums...
.. you really want to hurt somebody.
Let me out on police bail!
You should be giving me
a great big bloody reward.
That's what you should be doing.
Yeah. Oh, there he is.
I'm going to have you. I'm a hero.
I tried to stop them.
We just found the getaway
car, Mr Grayson.
Two back tyres blown out.
Oh, so it's mine then, is it? The
reward, eh? I stopped that car.
Oh!
You stopped it all right.
You killed the driver.
Good. The bastard would
have killed me.
She was a teenage girl.
Now what kind of reward would
you think was appropriate?
Put him back in the cells.
Come on, man. It's Christmas.
Locking me up for doing my job.
Do you think this is right?
A red diamond?
Maybe she liked cards.
It's not that kind of diamond, John.
Interesting haircut?
She's trying to look like a bloke.
Passersby ID'd her as a man.
A hat would do that.
She's a bootboy. She's
one of them skinheads.
What's that? A fashion statement?
No. It's one of them, isn't it? It's
a bollocks-to-you statement, that.
I've seen them at the football, sir.
They all wear these boots, right.
And they wear braces and that.
And they cut their hair short. And
they call themselves skinheads.
And they're nothing but trouble, sir.
She's a bootboy.
What do you want? Hairy...
~ Go on.
~ Get out.
~ Get out.
Excuse me.
~ What do you want, hairy?
~ Listen, I just...
I'm just looking for my sister.
I'm a bit worried about her.
We haven't seen her in weeks.
What's her name?
Her name's Virginia.
Virginia Hoar.
H-O-A-R.
That's a funny name, isn't it? Hmmm.
She's probably calling herself
something different now,
for obvious reasons.
She's about your age, maybe
a bit shorter, brown hair.
She's got a diamond
tattoo here, on her...
on her wrist. It's quite recent.
Is that a skinhead thing, that?
No.
Anyway, she's a good girl, really.
She's just gone a bit wild. And
me mam, her nerves are shot.
She's worried sick.
She calls herself Lexie. Lexie Dodds.
You do know her?
~ I worked with her a while back.
~ Here?
No. A club.
Made this place look like the Ritz.
The last I heard, Lexie was hanging
around with some scary bugger
round Raven Street flats.
I wouldn't want my sister there.
Right.
I found her. She's on
the council register.
Alexandra Dodds was taken into
care in '63. Allinson House.
~ She left last year.
~ Allinson House. That's Carlton Street?
~ Yeah. I'll meet you there.
~ No, no, no, no.
You get on down to Raven Street,
show them the photograph,
ask them about the skins.
~ I'll see you later.
~ Right.
Raven Street? Great. In these shoes.
Mr Ellison?
I'm DCI Gently. Very nice
of you to see me. Thank you.
Gentlemen.
~ This way, please.
~ Thank you.
Lexie's father died six years ago.
That's when she came
to Allinson House.
What about her mother?
Her mother, Ruby, walked out
on them when Lexie was little.
She has a tattoo of
a ruby on her wrist.
I don't know what you
think she's done,
but she's all right, that girl.
But she is a skinhead, yeah?
They're not all a bad crowd.
What's their thing?
They were born into slavery.
That's how they see it.
Working class with no work,
oppressed by the black
and the blue, the priests
and the police.
That's how come she got along
with an old squeeze-box like me.
What did you talk about?
Music mostly. She still
comes round sometimes.
I grew up on the stuff the
skins are listening to now -
soul, rock-steady, ska.
The sounds of liberation.
I'm afraid I have some bad
news for you, Mr Ellison.
I'm sorry to tell you,
but Lexie is dead.
Is...
Is that Lexie?
Yes, it is.
What happened to her? An accident?
Something like that.
Do you mind if I ask
you some questions?
~ Yes.
~ Thank you.
~ Take a seat.
Who were her friends here?
She found it hard to
trust people, I think.
There wasn't really anyone else.
She left her stuff here?
~ Yeah.
~ May I?
Yeah.
I kind of got the feeling she
wasn't really anywhere yet.
Lost, you know.
She find the skinheads
or did they find her?
She was hoping to go to college.
She wasn't finding much work.
She did some shifts
at some nightclubs.
There was one, the Long something...
The Long Shed?
You know the place?
I knew it. Jazz club.
The world turns, huh?
These skins do music
nights down there.
I went along once. I didn't like it.
~ Who's that?
~ That's Ruby, her mother.
Who's that?
Burdon.
Was he there? The Long Shed?
Yeah. He was there.
King of the place.
I had a feeling he
had his claws in her.
You didn't like him?
He didn't strike me as a lad
who cared about the liberation
of an oppressed people.
20 years I've worked in Scottswood.
And never scared of any man.
But I did not know what
to make of this one, sir.
Jonjo Burdon. 25. No fixed abode.
Did a six-month stretch
three years back.
Was there guns?
No. Drugs.
I thought that was hippies,
not skinheads.
No, it wasn't weed. Look... Dexamyl.
Some form of amphetamine.
Using or selling?
Both, I think.
Raven Street CID says that he's
behind most of the gang fights
though he never gets his hands dirty.
They say he keeps a pack around him.
Do you think he's a contender?
Hey, hang on, hang on.
Are you just going to walk
in there and ask for Burdon?
~ Yeah.
~ He might not be in there.
Do we even have a plan?
Same as always, John. Do what I do.
Look, let's just wait for
the Black Mariahs, right.
They'll be five minutes.
What's the matter, John? Don't
you think I'm up to it?
~ I think it'll be wise to wait.
~ Yeah.
'Sake!
~ I'm looking for Jonjo Burdon.
~ Huh?
~ Yeah, that's right, I'm on the guest list.
~ Oi!
Right. Leave it.
Bovver boots, slaphead,
your grandad's braces
and a choirboy shirt.
Hmm. No, I give up.
What have you come as?
So this is it, is it? Your
nearest and dearest?
How did little Lexie fit in?
There was no need for that, Officer.
We're happy to help you
with your inquiries.
All right, lads. We're
going for a little trip.
Right. Come on. Out you get.
~ Come on.
~ Get off.
Are you getting that? That's...
Stand up straight.
Right. Turn around.
We've got a comedian here, Taylor.
(Shite.)
Don't cry. It'll be all right.
You should have let him bleed.
This is exactly what he wants.
He's enjoying this. Look at him.
He's been yanking your
chain, hasn't he?
What did you get out of him?
An official complaint
for police brutality.
And that thing on his head,
that's his evidence.
Right...
Ravenhill CID, they've been
through the entire estate,
all known houses and addresses
and dosses and so on and so forth.
They've even had the
Long Shed upside down.
There's nothing - there's
no guns, there's no money,
there's no gas masks or anything.
I was hoping they'd find
some pills or drugs or summat.
But there's nothing. It's clean.
~ It's like they knew we were coming.
~ Alibis check out?
Of course they do.
~ It's toe-rags vouching for
other toe-rags, isn't it?
~ Lexie?
He claims he doesn't know her.
He says, "A lot of silly little
girls come into my club."
That's what he says.
What about the others?
They're either scared of him
or in love with him. Or both.
What is it? What have we got, huh?
A dead getaway driver,
that's about it.
~ Scarface, what's his name?
~ Milner.
Milner? He's ex-Royal
Marines, served in Aden.
The other two are borstal
graduates. Right hard bargains.
They're perfect for him.
But Sten guns and bank
robberies and that?
Are they up to that?
I honestly don't know, John.
I want to look him in the eye.
(Right.)
Oi.
Oi!
It's the guilty ones, sir,
that pretend to sleep.
It's because they know that they're
going to need their energy.
I never seem to have a
problem finding my energy.
No. That'll be because of
the Dexamyl, am I right?
Right then, come on, Sten guns?
Every thug has a gun these days.
I don't care for them myself.
You shared a cell with a
Frank Butler at Low Newton,
~ am I right?
~ Poor Frank.
Nice fella.
For an armed robber.
~ Hanged himself.
~ Maybe.
Come on. All your little
friends, all here.
They've told us everything.
The Sten guns. The getaway car.
Little Lexie.
So come on.
How do you want to play this?
Right. Stop that, you little bastard,
otherwise I'll give you
another dent in the head.
How about that?
Oi! Oi!
Oi! Oi!
Oi!
You hear that?
He's laughing at us.
He doesn't care about the money.
It's not about the money.
It's about risk, the thrill.
He's got the jump on us,
John. We've got nothing.
Sir.
One sec. What are we doing?
Release them. Follow them,
every step of the way.
Guv, no, no. We haven't got the
manpower. It's in Newcastle.
It's not our patch.
Well. We'll get Raven Street
CID on it, every available man.
That bastard's going to slip up
sooner or later. All right. What?
McDonald lad's here.
He wants to talk to you.
I heard about that girl.
The one who died.
~ If I'd got the gun off of him...
~ No, no. It's not your fault.
You didn't bring a Sten
gun into the bank.
You didn't kill her.
It is my fault.
~ I could have...
~ What could you have done against six men?
Eh?
Do you know who did it?
Yes, I think I do know who did
it, but I can't prove it. It's...
If I identified them?
No. You said you didn't see them.
~ You can't lie, even to say something good.
~ I know, but...
Are you OK?
Guv.
Oi! Oi!
You're letting them go?
Happy Christmas.
God, I wanted to nut
that smug bastard.
Why don't we put him
in a line-up, sir?
See if Kit picks him out.
He saw them here. Any lawyer
would laugh us out of court.
It's all changing, isn't it?
It's getting to the point now where
I don't even understand the crime.
People of my generation thought
you just kept your nose clean,
work hard.
Young people nowadays, they know
that's a lie. These toe-rags, John.
What if they're the future, eh?
What then?
Yeah?
Edith.
Who did this to you, Kit?
Was it the lads you saw
at the police station?
I don't know. Their
faces were covered.
Where were you?
I told you to stay out of town.
Were you meeting your girl?
What girl?
I'll get it.
I was getting my mum's
prescription, and erm...
they just came at me.
One of them pushed me down and
then they started kicking me.
George, it's for you.
Hello.
They've lost Burdon.
Raven Street followed them
as far as Neville Street,
then lost them at the train station.
They must have doubled back.
He won't go to the hospital.
I'll get the patrol car to
check every now and again.
Just keep him at home.
What's this about, George?
What's he done?
He hasn't done anything wrong.
Is it something to do with this?
They say his grades are bad.
He's been skipping classes.
Kicked him out of the Cadets.
They're taking his scholarship away?
They might just as well expel him.
I think he's being bullied,
but he won't say anything.
He just doesn't fit in.
A boy needs a dad, George.
And if he doesn't get one, he finds
his own - good ones, bad ones.
You were one of the good ones.
I want to help now, Edith.
It's not too late, is it?
I feel like everything's speeding
past me. And I can't catch up.
You should have had kids of your own.
We weren't that
fortunate. And then...
Kit is important to me. His
future is important to me.
Guv, what's the point?
What is the point? You've already
made up your mind up, haven't you?
I'm still waiting for
a rational objection.
She's a girl. And she's not
even a proper detective.
No. But she's up to it.
I don't know.
Look. Burdon's a narcissist.
He loves having his own
reflection look back at him.
So let's give him the
attention he wants.
And he might just open up.
~ A short-skirted piece of attention?
~ Yeah.
All right. All right.
All right. Well, if we're going
to have female coppers,
then we might as well use them
for what they're good for.
~ Morning.
~ Morning.
Rachel, weren't you saying the
other day that long hair is
difficult to manage and maintain?
~ No.
~ Ah.
The Chief Inspector's got something
he'd like to tell you.
Well, actually, I can tell
you both at the same time.
This isn't effective
until the New Year.
But as of January 1st, you're
not going to be a WPC any more.
Congratulations, Detective Sergeant.
Congratulations, pet.
~ Uh-uh.
~ Detective Sergeant.
Now are you going to
give her the bad news?
Hello, mate. I don't think we've met.
Shut up. Aye, funny.
Aye, you can laugh.
But it's me mum you'll
have to answer to.
Understand, Rachel...
If you start to feel threatened
in any way - any way at all -
you get out. But I
think you're ready.
You're going to have
to be now, aren't you?
When this is over, Mr Gently,
you're paying for Vidal Sassoon.
It's a deal.
Oh, my goodness.
Excuse me.
Beer, please.
There you go.
What are you drinking?
~ I'm all right, thanks.
~ You sure?
~ I've got one, thanks.
She'll be fine.
Say it, John.
She'll be fine.
Those pills?
I haven't got any.
Can I have a beer, please?
Come on and dance, will you? Come on.
I'm all right, thanks.
Beer please, mate. Cheers.
Get out me face, man.
~ One dance.
~ Get your hands off me.
~ One dance.
~ Get your hands off me.
That's right. Piss off!
Right dive, isn't it?
So you're too classy
for this place, then?
No. Why do you come here, then?
It's my dive.
What's your excuse?
I heard the music was good.
I heard wrong.
That's cos you don't know
how to listen to it.
The sound of the oppressed people.
What? You're black now, are you?
I'm oppressed. I live in a ghetto
and the police like to batter us.
May as well be living
in Kingston Town.
At least I wouldn't be
freezing my arse off.
Deep.
Dope.
Oi! Where do you think you're going?
We haven't finished our debate yet.
Where do you work?
You're a shop girl?
No.
Teacher.
You have that look.
What look?
Naive hope.
Still think you can better yourself.
Lux beauty soap and desperate dreams.
Ah well, it's better than
stale fags and the dole.
Who's on the dole?
Do you want to go somewhere?
Aye! Back to yours?
You think you're so
irresistible, don't you?
Them little tweety-birds
in there must just
swoon off their perches
whenever you whistle.
Tomorrow? Tomorrow night.
OK, you win!
Broad daylight.
Raven Street.
Be there or I'll find you.
Tomorrow. Raven Street flats.
Lunchtime. I'm meeting him tomorrow.
Good girl.
Anything looks beautiful if you're
looking down from high enough.
From space, Newcastle looks like the
Hanging Gardens of Bloody Babylon.
Buy your way out. It's the only way.
Some class warrior you are.
Class warrior?
I'm no poxy Trotskyite.
What are you, then? Skin forever?
Screw that.
Most skins are just young kids
looking for the next big thing.
I'm the end of the story.
Purple hearts?
So that's how you make your money.
Them kids were popping them
like sweeties in the club.
That's just my paper round.
Does it make the hairs stand up?
What hair?
I think you're all talk.
Show us.
Show us what you're into.
Life without a safety net.
Don't, man.
You said you wanted us to show you.
Stop it.
Slimy toad.
Who do you think you
are, my Uncle Bernie?
Why are you in such a hurry?
It's later than you think, girl.
They're like a pack of dogs, man.
My dogs.
There you go.
So your dad died in Burma?
A month before the war ended.
So you're feeling sorry for us?
Poor little Jonjo?
Spell in borstal sorted us out.
Wait here.
Lessons in loyalty.
~ Sugar?
~ No.
It's his half brother.
I've checked him out.
Stewart Murdock, 25,
occasional delivery
driver, no record.
Well, they are going to need another
getaway driver, aren't they?
They close, him and his brother?
They are fighting about something.
They're going to the football
together tomorrow.
Taylor's trying to get tickets
for that. Crime doesn't pay?
It gets you stubbies
at the Gallowgate End.
Are you all right, Rachel?
Sir, I don't know.
It's like he came out wrong.
Like a sheep with two heads.
What are we doing, guv?
I think we'll follow the brother.
Guv, why don't we just
stop him, talk to him?
No. I said we're just
going to follow him.
Well, it's been scintillating
stuff so far, hasn't it, eh?
The Rotary Club, the Empress,
linens for the Great Northern...
No gunsmiths so far.
Hold on.
~ Well now!
~ Yeah. All right.
Wait till he's gone, then do some
more digging at the bank, John.
Right.
You look a bit like Sandie Shaw.
Right then, sir.
Stewart delivers clean shirts to
the bank manager of the Derwent
every week, right.
But he also delivers to one
other bank. The Tyne & Wear.
~ The one that was robbed?
~ Yes, the one that was robbed.
Now, I got chatting to the
bank manager's secretary,
and she said that she's
called the laundry to
complain about Stewart cos he
was loitering around the bank,
supposedly chatting
up all the cashiers.
~ Casing the joint out for Jonjo.
~ That's it.
~ So Stewart's not the driver,
he's reconnaissance.
~ Yep.
They're going to hit the Derwent.
It's just when, isn't it?
Well, I can find out for you.
Well, I can't exactly go and
have tea with me mum, can I?
Not until this mess grows out.
That's true.
How's your big brother?
What? Oh, yeah, he's OK. Mostly.
When he behaves.
I'm busy.
Does it not bother
you, all the aggro?
I heard the other lot carry guns.
The hairies? No. They're too busy
smoking dope to cause aggro.
But the guns, though...
Do you carry guns?
Your problem is you ask
all the wrong questions.
What's the right questions?
Heads or tails.
So nothing matters?
Guns matter.
Stick one in someone's face and
watch them find out who they are.
Here. Get us some drinks.
Four beers. I'll be back in a minute.
Why's that?
Pretty little thing.
Go on now, piss off, will ya?
You're his latest?
I'm no-one's latest. We're
friends, that's all.
Sorry. My brother doesn't
have friends.
He always gets what he wants.
We'll see about that.
You either give him something he
wants... or something even sweeter.
It's a shame, you seem nice.
Thanks.
That's not what I meant. He'll
use you, that's what he does.
Sorry about that.
You will be.
I'll make it up to you.
You're taking us to the football?
No, I'm busy. It's
a gift. Take a friend.
Something's come up.
Tomorrow, the Derwent
Bank, then? Bloody hell.
Aye, Jonjo gave up his tickets.
Changed his plans as
soon as he met Stewart.
It's going to be busy.
We have to assume they'll be armed.
Let's just pull them
in now. The whole lot.
Him, his brother, the whole gang.
Right, just pull them in.
Before they even get a
chance. We know it's them.
We can use the drugs.
Sir, he did admit to selling
the purple hearts.
I don't care. I want
to know about guns.
Gun. One gun.
And even then it might
have been a lucky find.
Well, we've got to catch them with
their hands on the money, on a gun.
You're going to let them do it?
No, I'm not. We're going
to be there to stop them.
Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.
Close your eyes.
What are you doing?
Just close your eyes.
Don't come in yet.
Right, you can come in, but
just... keep your eyes closed.
Cos it's Christmas.
Christmas was last week.
I was in London last week.
Ow!
This is our Christmas.
Now.
This is what you wanted, isn't it?
Just you and me.
So how was work?
Ah, you know.
Do you want to talk about it?
Walter never wants
to talk about work.
Well, we're just...
We're fixing to do
something tomorrow,
and I don't think it's a good
idea. But the boss is... He's...
You trust him. You know that.
I did. But he's ill and...
I don't know.
You're an inspector now.
What does that mean?
It means it's time
you were your own man.
Is this it, Gem?
Your life down there
and away-days with me?
Now, come on, let's eat.
You get your present after.
I don't have to go until
tomorrow lunchtime.
Right.
What?
I don't want this.
Sorry, they ran out of
turkey, it's chicken.
I don't mean the food,
Gem. It's just...
This is not enough. Once a month.
Once a fortnight maybe,
if we're lucky?
Look, I'm not... I'm not a woman!
I'm not just a bit on the side!
I'm more than that.
Well, I mean...
I think this is something.
It's a lot to me.
No, it's not real life, Gem.
And that's what I want.
I want that with you, and the kids,
and maybe one day have
some of our own.
I want everything.
So it's just girls who have to
make do with being on the side?
Leave him.
You've got reason to, Gem.
I know you don't love him.
Do you?
You talk about real life. This is it.
Nobody gets it all. It's bits
and pieces if you're lucky.
That's enough for you, is it?
It's just how it is, John.
Go and find some slip of
a thing just out of school
if you're looking for hope and glory.
And watch them drain from her
when she finds out what men are.
I'm not like that.
I would never hurt
you. You know that.
Are you saying you
don't love us, Gem?
Here, now, this is what
I've got to offer you.
If anyone ever had a chance,
you know it was us.
A girl only gets one chance.
Which one are you? Butch or Sundance?
Look. I don't know about you, sir,
but I'm going to be ready
for them, all right?
What's wrong, John?
There's another magazine there, sir,
if you fancy having a pop... Pop.
John... What's wrong?
She's gone. All right? She's
gone to London. To him.
I'm really sorry, John.
~ Are you?
~ Yes.
Really? Well, you don't
have anybody, sir.
In fact, you don't even need anyone.
So don't pretend you
understand. All right?
Now, come on. Let us
see what you've got.
Come on. What are you scared
of? Is it the shakes?
Is that it?
Is it your nerves, sir? Huh?
Is this about the bank job?
Are you worried about that?
Because that's good. You should be.
No. I'm worried about you.
I don't think you're up to it.
I don't have to prove
myself to you, John.
No? I'm exactly the person
you need to prove yourself to.
Thank you.
You've all got your
cards, haven't you?
Yes. Yes. Cards, lads.
~ Check.
~ Thank you.
Serial number.
Gun magazine, full box.
Thank you very much. Webleys
for these boys, please.
Check.
Check.
Sign, please.
Ammunition.
~ Morning, John.
~ Yeah.
Make no mistake.
Today will be a success if nobody
fires a shot. All right?
~ All right.
~ Yes, sir.
~ Let's go.
Guv, all the money's been
taken to a safe place.
And all the cashiers
have been sent home.
Right. Well, all my men are
behind the cashiers' desks.
I will be in the bank at all times.
Little stiffener, lads?
All right?
Something's wrong. It should
have happened by now.
Well, there's another half
an hour yet, isn't there?
They'll be cutting it fine.
They close at 3.00.
Oi. Pull it together.
Sorry, sir.
Ignore it out there, madam. Just
a little bit of... staff training.
That's all. If you'd
like to follow me.
Your money is always
safe at the Derwent.
Shut your mouth. Get in there. Now!
Right. Everyone on the ground. Right.
Right. You... fill these bags.
And don't you be thinking about
putting in any of those
bait packs in. We've
done this before.
Where's that coming
from? Who's done that?
Turn if off now!
You! Turn it off!
I said turn it off now!
This is what happens.
Damn it.
I said turn it off!
Here!
Fill those bags now.
I think they must have called it off.
No, look. I say we sit
tight. Cos you never know.
They might even hit the bank
when it's closing, sir.
They were onto us. They must
have seen the mobile units.
You don't know that, sir.
We're wasting our time, John.
What are we thinking?
That Burdon beat up Stewart
because Stewart didn't
want to hit this place.
Because he was afraid it
would lead back to him.
~ Sir, reported gunshots at Haymarket.
~ That's on Stewart's route.
We're in the wrong bloody bank.
Come on!
Right, Northumbria Bank.
Left onto Ward Street.
It's in Haymarket. Left here, sir.
Look at this.
~ Shit, shit.
~ It's the bloody match, isn't it?
This is why they've done it today.
It's gridlocked.
Right, lads. We're on
foot. Quick. Come on.
C'mon, man.
Armed police. Stay down!
They've gone.
Help! Help! Can I have
some help here, please?!
United! United!
United!
United! United!
United! United!
United! United! United!
United! United!
United!
I'll get the police at St
James' Park to have a look.
~ Newcastle got their descriptions?
~ Yeah. Yeah. And the brother.
I've got panda cars going
out to Burdon's home
and Retford's Laundry.
How's the lad who was shot?
He'll be all right.
48,000 quid gone.
Three Sten guns.
It's a good job we didn't
come in on them.
It would've been a bloodbath.
Why did they dump them?
So he could get away,
unnoticed. I don't know.
Because he can.
He's got as many of these
guns as he wants, it seems.
Now he can tool the barrels and
make his own firing pins, he has.
A gun factory.
Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!
Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!
Have you seen Jonjo?
No. His brother phoned earlier.
Told me to buy you a drink.
Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!
Hey, man. Get out of my way.
Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!
"Hello, Rachel. It's me, Jonjo.
I got out like I said."
Mum?
"Just a bit quicker
than I'd planned."
Mum?
Is that you, pet? I'll come down.
No, no, Mum. It's all right.
I'll be up in a minute.
"I would have loved to have taken
you with us, seen your face.
"Now I know who you really are.
"Now I know where you live."
Hello. Is DCI Gently back yet?
It's Rachel Coles.
Can you get him to give us a
call as soon as he gets back?
He knows where I am.
Stewart, you in there?
Come out, Stewart.
I know you must be
frightened, I would be.
I can protect you.
Dead.
No. Nothing.
His own blood, though. That's
24-carat psychopath, isn't it?
I reckon he had a little
thing for you.
~ For me?
~ Yeah.
I think it takes a lot for
someone to deliver their
dirty laundry at your doorstep.
And in that interview...
he barely looked at me.
And then when you came in,
he just wanted to impress you.
All that shouting and
"oi-oi-oi" and all that.
Is she OK?
She'll be all right.
I've called round every nick
from Aberdeen to Truro,
there's no sign of him.
Find the guns, we'll find Burdon.
That's one relationship
he won't give up on.
And these are all of the confirmed
firearms incidents over
the last three years. No Sten gun.
What about the unconfirmed ones?
I reported this six month back.
And did the police attend?
Did they hell. Said it was poachers.
Rapid fire. That's not shotguns.
No.
Don't I know you?
I don't think so.
Rachel!
I want to search the
whole area again.
The local gun clubs, the
army base at Herrington.
He's picking up the decommissioned
weapons from somewhere.
Guv, it's New Year's Eve, man.
We are stretched to breaking.
We'll get the Territorials to help.
I'll tell you what, we'll
get the groundkeeper in.
~ That's funny.
~ How about that? He took
a bit of a shine to Rachel.
"Do I know you, pet, from
somewhere?" We can get him in.
I'm sure he'll come in.
What's going on out there?
It's a big 'un, isn't it? Think
New Year's Eve times ten.
There's a message from the Met there.
They picked up a fella in
London, just bought five
re-commissioned Sten guns.
It's not just our problem
now then, is it?
He claims he did a deal in
a pub with a Geordie lad,
told him there were plenty more
guns where these came from.
Finest Northumberland craftsmanship.
It's him. He's gone.
~ You on tonight?
~ No.
~ Shame, could've have been your lucky night.
~ Constable.
Hey. You should lose the wig.
~ A lot of the blokes love a slaphead.
~ Aye, well, I'm sure they do.
~ It's just, I don't like
those kind of blokes.
~ What's your plan?
What, for the 1970s?
No. Tonight.
You've got to plan
your celebrations out
otherwise you'll peak too
early, like that lot.
Ah, well. That lot think
it's the end of the world.
I certainly intend on reaching
oblivion tonight.
The world's just beginning for me.
I'm a detective sergeant in the
Northumberland Police Force.
Ten years ago, a girl like
me would have been making tea.
That's progress, isn't it?
Women sergeants. It'll be jetpacks
and robot dogs next.
Are you coming? Come on.
Eh?
A glass of warm Asti Spumante.
Eh? Dropping the lips
on a lass at midnight.
Sounds a bit ritzy for me.
All right.
Anyway, I've got some thinking to do.
~ Yeah. I know.
~ What?
I know, guv.
And what do you think you know?
Doesn't matter.
I just thought, for once,
maybe this decade,
we could've had a
proper conversation.
Let's have a conversation now.
What are going to talk about?
Hmm... I know. Let's talk
about your love life.
Guv, I know that you're sick.
I'm sick of this place.
You'll be, er...
You'll be thinking of
retiring. Won't you?
Not being able to
trust your judgment,
not that I understood
your judgment anyway.
Sod off, John!
Now we're having a conversation.
Here we are. Come on.
What is it? Parkinson's?
That's my guess.
Cos that's my guess in the
sweepstake that we've been having.
Steady as a rock.
Oh, it's gone, has it? Oh, good.
Well, in that case, I'll sleep well.
Oh, good.
I think you've forgotten
how to tell the truth.
In fact, I don't even think
you know what it is any more.
It's not Parkinson's. It's MS.
Multiple sclerosis.
It affects the central
nervous system.
Right.
Well, you can treat that. Can't
you? Surely? I mean, these days.
No. There's no cure.
Good news is, though, I haven't
had any symptoms for a while.
I could be symptom free for years.
On the other hand...
Am I fooling myself?
Hey, no. No.
No. You've got to stay positive.
Hey, come on. Come out with us.
Come out. Have one and then you
can go. No, sod that. Stay out.
Get bladdered, man.
I'll think about it.
All right.
Get me a radio.
'John. Pick up. Pick
up. Pick up. Pick up.'
Go ahead.
How far have you got, John?
Not far.
Guv?
What did the gamekeeper
say to Rachel again?
That she looked familiar?
He thought he knew her.
He was just flirting with
her, the randy old bugger.
What if he was confusing
her with Lexie?
What if Lexie was there when
they were testing the Sten guns?
So you think she's the
link to the source?
Go back to the gamekeeper. See
if this photo jogs his memory...
~ Guv, man. I want to be...
~ John. John. It'll only take half an hour.
And if you can't get me on the radio,
then call me at Allinson House.
~ That's where I'll be.
~ (All right.)
What are you looking for?
I don't really know,
to tell you the truth.
Hello.
Inspector.
Thank you.
Hello.
'Right, sir. I've just come back'
from the gamekeeper now.
And you were right. He recognised
Lexie from the photograph,
he reckons she was loitering round
the grounds this last summer.
'With another lad.'
Was it Burdon?
Well. That's just it, sir.
He swears blind that he's
never seen Burdon before.
Oh, my God.
Not out celebrating?
I'm sorry...
Mum never said.
Were we expecting you?
No. It's a spur of the moment thing.
Did you buy her that?
Out of your savings account?
All she does is sit in.
At least now she can do it in colour.
Come and talk to me, Kit.
You know that old tradition they've
got up here, first foot?
First one through the door on
New Year's Eve after midnight
either brings you good
fortune or bad portent.
Start of a new decade.
You want to be careful who
comes through your threshold.
Ten years of bad luck.
You don't want that, mate.
You've just got to be
better than the past.
Cheers to that.
Actually...
I only came back to check on Mum.
I'm actually going for a drink with
some friends in the village so...
Yeah. You're a good lad,
Kit. Don't let me keep you.
That girl of yours, she
was daft to let you go.
She died.
She was never really my girlfriend.
We knew each other
when we were little.
Yeah. I know.
I heard you were fostered
for a few months.
I didn't know they put you in a home.
Lexie looked after me.
She was the only one.
She kept in touch.
I thought she was...
We were...
But she was seeing another boy?
Not a boy. He was...
Jonjo Burdon. I know.
And you haven't got a savings
account at the Tyne & Wear.
Cos I checked.
I wish I'd checked earlier.
You knew they were going to
hit that bank, didn't you?
That's why you were there.
I heard Lexie talking about it.
I thought I could stop her, but...
.. then he came in.
It's my fault she's dead.
I, erm...
You know, don't you?
But I need to hear it from you.
I read about it in
the library at school.
Do those posh gits have any idea
what they're teaching you?
A little knowledge, dangerous thing.
You wait, this thing's crazy.
Have they not missed it?
They've got dozens of them.
The cadets use them to march
up and down the playground,
playing soldiers.
No idea they can make
them work again.
Posh bastards. Really?
What are you going to do with it?
Nothing. It's just a bit of fun.
You should see what it does
on the automatic setting.
Do you want to go again?
I told you, Jonjo, Kit's the best!
She did, you know.
Always going on about her little
mate with the big brain.
Always talking about Kit.
Always going on about
Kit. Even when we're...
You know.
So...
So you really did this by yourself?
It's not difficult.
I found a diagram of the firing
pins, milled it myself
and then I unplugged the barrel.
So you could do more?
You could earn yourself some money,
little big man. Girls like money.
I was at Allinson House too.
Right dosshouse, isn't it?
They treat you like
you're nowt, nobody.
But I can tell, Kit, just by looking
at you, you're not nobody.
Are you, Kit?
Yeah! Wooo! Yeah!
So how many has he got now?
All of them.
50-odd.
They broke into the school.
Nobody will notice till term starts.
I came to tell you.
That morning I heard Lexie had died.
But he was there.
He saw me.
And you were letting him go.
So you re-commissioned
50 Sten guns for him?
No, I only did the first one.
He said he had some bloke down
the docks with a machine shop,
he'd do the rest for him.
So I showed him how to do it...
He said he'd kill me mum.
He said he'd kill you.
I know where he is.
In London? You know
where he's staying?
~ He's not in London. You know
the Raven Street estate?
~ Yeah.
The towers.
All units. All units.
Armed officers to Raven Street
Estate, Churchill Tower,
please acknowledge.
'Roger that, sir.'
Sorry, Mum.
Did you get rid of him?
Food? Who was the food for?
You know, you did say you had somebody
else to do the guns once.
You said you'd leave
me and my mum alone
once I'd shown you how to do them.
You're a craftsman, Kit,
there's not many about any more.
His one jammed and yours never did.
I deserve the best, don't I?
Go on. Get on with it.
I can't do it.
What don't you understand, eh?
I said get those guns done.
No.
Do it.
'It seems that the New Year
is the time for the young.
'And that the '70s
will be their era.'
I said... do it.
Go on.
No.
Oi, leave him alone.
Why would I do that?
I'm here now.
You think I'm not serious?
Oh, I know you're serious.
So what, you've got the
place surrounded, eh?
20 pigs lurking in the hedgerow?
No, no. It's just me and you, mate.
But I'm different from them. Because
I've got nothing to lose.
Don't...
Come on. Let him go.
It's not his fault.
It's nobody's fault. Don't
you get it? It's the future.
And there's no place for
little kids. Or old men.
Come on. Come on.
I hadn't finished the barrel.
I can't see.
I cannae see.
Just an ambulance, Kit.
Edith.
George.
Time to go to bed.
I fell asleep.
Where's Kit?
I'm taking care of him.
Happy New Year.
It's your boss.
Hello.
John, I'm at the McDonald
House. I need you here now.
Guv, please tell me
that you are joking?
I wish I was. John, come alone.
All right. All right.
Are you all right?
Is Burdon going to be OK?
Well, he'll be well
enough to stand trial.
Don't think he's going to
regain his sight, though.
I hadn't finished the barrel.
I never meant to hurt anyone.
Hey, come on, eh? What
are you crying for?
I'm not crying.
I just want to put it right.
But I can't now.
No-one can.
Guv...
We need to call this in.
I know what you're thinking.
I'm not sending him to prison,
John. I'm not. I can't.
We can sort this out. He's
only linked to the one gun.
The others were tooled by
some bloke in the docks.
~ We'll go after him.
~ Guv!
He's just a silly kid
who fell in love.
Guv, you're preaching to
the converted here, but...
Right.
Do whatever it is you need to
do and then we'll call it in.
Are you sure about this, John?
Yes. Of course. Just
do it quickly, please.
Done. The kid's name's nowhere
near the charge sheet.
Thank you.
How did you know the
gun wouldn't work, sir?
I didn't.
There's talk about you taking
your pension. Had enough?
I shall need your help if I'm
going to keep on doing this job.
If?
I need to do this job.
You're not going anywhere, then?
No-one else would have you.
then that everybody
could see his jingle balls.
We have a letter.
From the Queen.
Now this has been sent to every
school, every hospital,
every police station in the land.
Chief Super thought it might be
better if you read this one out.
~ All right.
~ Yeah.
~ A bit of gravitas...
~ Your hat, sir.
~ Come on, sir.
Right.
"In a short time, the
1960s will be over
"but not out of our memories.
"Historians will record them
as the decade in which men first
"reached out beyond our own planet
and set foot on the moon."
Get down on the floor!
"Each one of us will have our own
special triumphs or tragedies
"to look back on."
Get down. Stay down.
"Christmas is a festival
of the spirit."
C'mon, c'mon!
C'mon.
"I hope all of you will enjoy
a very happy Christmas."
Go. Go. Go.
"God bless you all. Elizabeth R."
C'mon.
Howay, let's go.
Go. Go. Go.
Come on. Let's have your cash.
~ Sir.
~ What?
A Sten gun? In Durham?
500 rounds a minute.
Eight per second.
Seen one before, then?
Not on the streets, John.
Well, I've got all the staff
and cashiers and that
going down to the station
to make a statement.
~ Two called in sick today.
~ Oh, inside job?
Who knows? I want to talk
to the customers and all.
Yeah. They're pretty shaken up. Somebody
could have died here today.
Mmm. Yeah. But they didn't, did they?
And we've got their gun.
Early Christmas present.
I gave them a good blast
before it ran out.
~ I was top shot in my troop, National
Service made a man of me.
~ Right.
Oh, aye. I got a few rounds in,
for sure. Bloody hooligans.
So he came in right past you, the
gunman, but you didn't see his face?
I saw his boots. Work wear.
No business being in my bank.
Your bank?
Aye. Ten years' service to the
T&W. I take my work seriously.
I should be in line for
a reward, I reckon.
Did you get a number plate?
I mean, you were right here.
It was one of those
of those new Fords...
Yeah. A maroon Ford Zephyr
and a blue Vauxhall Victor.
A lot of people saw that.
I need a number plate.
I was a bit busy.
Doing your job. Defending the public.
Is that what you call it?
Cos we call it illegally discharging
a firearm in a public place.
You could have killed somebody.
I wish I had. It might make
them think twice next time.
When they're dead, you mean?
Last week we abolished
the death penalty,
this week we reap the consequences.
Violent little toe-rags
with no fear of justice.
Flats and offices on both
sides of the street.
There's a phone box there and
a pub just up there at the end.
Now given that the most action
that you've ever seen
was on the firing range at Otterburn,
you stood more chance of killing
a bystander than a bank robber.
Arrest him.
Discharging a firearm in a public
place without lawful authority.
Now, a number plate,
that would have helped.
Ah. You must be the hero.
Extend it to Sunderland
if you need to
~ and Chester-le-Street if necessary.
~ I will.
Sir, the cashier, Monica Addison,
she wasn't meant to be working today.
She said Violet Burns
asked her to fill in.
~ It's meant to go through
the assistant manager.
~ Was she sick?
~ No, pregnant.
~ No wonder she didn't call
the assistant manager.
The deputy manager, he likes
a flutter, horses, dogs,
owt with legs. He's behind
on his mortgage.
~ No.
~ What?
It doesn't take inside knowledge
to walk in through the front door
and stick up six bank
clerks, does it?
But they knew to rob the bank an
hour before the cash collection.
Most bank jobs,
it's two, maybe three men
with a pistol and a shotgun.
This is a Second World
War sub-machine gun.
It should have been decommissioned.
Somebody has drilled out the plug
and made another firing pin.
If it belongs to the British
Army, can't we trace it?
They ground off the serial number.
Did you recognise any of them?
They were all wearing gasmasks.
Anything on those getaway cars?
The Duty Inspector's got pandas out.
Uniforms are going door-to-door.
Christmas Eve, they'll
get a warm welcome.
A bloody holiday right in the
middle of my investigation.
A glass of water, please,
for this young man.
All right?
Yeah. Yeah. The lad that
took on the gunman.
Lucky not to get himself shot.
He's not saying much.
He just wants to go home
to his mum. He's only 17.
Thank you.
Let me talk to him.
If you think you can do any better...
It's not that, John. I know him.
Hello, Kit.
I'm sorry.
Why are you sorry?
It's been too long.
Mum, we've got company.
Company?
I'm not dressed for company.
Hello, Edith.
You look well.
And you were always a
very good liar, Gently.
That was taken ten years
ago, before you knew us.
1959, the dawn of a new
decade, remember that?
Oh, yeah.
He was a man you could trust, Derek.
A brave man.
How are you doing, George?
How's that posh school
treating you, then, Kit?
They made a gentleman of you yet?
~ He's got a girlfriend.
~ Oh.
~ Ask him about his girlfriend.
~ Mum!
A man needs his secrets,
Edith. Right, Kit?
Right, well, erm...
I'll leave you two
men to talk, shall I?
I'll make myself look presentable.
She won't be back down.
Thank you.
So this gunman, you couldn't
get a good look at him
because of his gasmask, right?
~ No.
~ Scary, eh?
I'm sorry.
No, no, no, no.
So you said they were young?
How young? 20, 30?
Is 30 young?
Yes. Definitely.
I suppose 20-odd.
He didn't care.
He just walked into that
bank with the gun.
Anybody could have been killed.
His accent was local, yeah?
Yeah.
~ Yokel or town?
~ City?
Newcastle?
I'm going to get them, Kit.
I'm going to lock them up.
How well did you know Dad?
We were on the operation together
where he got killed.
Was he afraid?
We were all afraid, Kit.
It's what you do next that counts.
I've got to go, John. I've
got Walter's parents down.
Just tell us.
Tell you what?
Just tell us that this'll
be our last Christmas apart.
'Wait. Wait.'
Wait, Gem. Just wait.
The pips have gone.
John?
Wait.
~ Have you got any coins?
~ No.
~ Have you got any coins?
~ No!
What?
No sign of either of them cars.
Right. Well keep looking.
It's Christmas Eve. My Sergeant's
calling us in, other duties...
~ Are you just going?
~ I am, sir.
Hey!
Merry Christmas!
This came from forensics.
What is it?
It's a bullet from the bank.
It's a Dum-Dum.
Why is it like that?
Let's hope you never find out.
Yep?
Christmas morning?
Don't start.
He was sat on his own doing nothing
and you were sat with your mum
wishing you were doing nothing.
Besides, there's no-one else.
~ Merry Christmas.
~ Merry Christmas.
~ Happy Christmas!
Well, here we are. Joseph, Mary
and the little Baby Jesus.
What have we got then?
Blue Vauxhall Victor.
I've got a witness that saw it
driving through Rowan Street.
Two flat tyres. Rowan Street's
about a mile away from the bank.
That's very good. Did
uniforms get that?
~ No, they didn't. I did.
~ All right. It was a joke.
I walked the route. All bloody night.
I found blue paint
on a traffic island.
No sign of the car, though.
It's not going to get very
far, is it, two flat tyres?
It's just us, then?
Yeah, well. We can sing
carols on the way.
All right, meet at the Arches, 4.00.
~ Merry Christmas.
~ Merry Christmas.
Anything?
~ No. You?
~ No.
I'll get them to organise
a proper search tomorrow
when we're back on duty.
It's worth a try, I suppose.
Do you want a lift home?
Oh. No. It's all right. I'm going
to go and meet some friends.
~ Retrieve what's left of my Christmas.
~ You sure?
Aye. Wey aye. See you later.
Where to?
Home, please.
On your own?
Yeah. Gemma's still in London.
She's coming down next week.
It's happening then, is it?
Yeah. Yeah.
I'm going to look after
her. Her and the kids.
So what if he won't give
her a divorce. So what.
What if something happens to you?
Well...
She'll get my pension, won't she?
Not if you don't marry
her, she won't.
~ Really?
~ Really.
That kid who took on the gunman.
His father was Derek McDonald.
He was a sergeant in the squad
when I come up here from London.
The one who got killed
in Operation Tulip, yeah?
~ Yeah. I remember.
~ Yeah, well...
We all thought that him
and Edith were married,
but it turns out they weren't.
Because Edith's first husband
wouldn't give her a divorce.
So she got nothing. Think about that.
Excuse me!
This is the police. Will
you step out of the car!
Please, will you step out of the car?
~ Are you all right?
~ Yeah... There's erm...
There's bullet holes in the
back of her shoulder, sir.
You did well.
Thank you.
I think it's been emptied, sir.
I wonder if she was trying
to stop them or summat?
And she got in the way. I don't know.
Or maybe it's her car, they held
her up, used her for the robbery.
Killed her.
It's a blue Victor, Rachel.
That's not really
a lady's car, is it?
What? The blue bit or the Victor bit?
Didn't it occur to you that she
might have been one of them?
My point being, Rachel, would
you drive a Vauxhall Victor?
No, but I'd reverse one over you.
~ She did.
~ Did what?
Drive one of these. She
was the getaway driver.
What?
There's a bloody great hole
in the back of the seat.
Why would they kill her?
They didn't.
The doorman did.
I've never seen a wound
like that, sir.
That's a Dum-Dum for you. The
bullet flattens on impact.
Where would you get them from?
Easy enough to make.
Then why would you use them?
Bigger bang, innit?
If you're going to rob a
bank, you might take a gun,
you might even take the
scariest gun you can find.
If you load it with Dum-Dums...
.. you really want to hurt somebody.
Let me out on police bail!
You should be giving me
a great big bloody reward.
That's what you should be doing.
Yeah. Oh, there he is.
I'm going to have you. I'm a hero.
I tried to stop them.
We just found the getaway
car, Mr Grayson.
Two back tyres blown out.
Oh, so it's mine then, is it? The
reward, eh? I stopped that car.
Oh!
You stopped it all right.
You killed the driver.
Good. The bastard would
have killed me.
She was a teenage girl.
Now what kind of reward would
you think was appropriate?
Put him back in the cells.
Come on, man. It's Christmas.
Locking me up for doing my job.
Do you think this is right?
A red diamond?
Maybe she liked cards.
It's not that kind of diamond, John.
Interesting haircut?
She's trying to look like a bloke.
Passersby ID'd her as a man.
A hat would do that.
She's a bootboy. She's
one of them skinheads.
What's that? A fashion statement?
No. It's one of them, isn't it? It's
a bollocks-to-you statement, that.
I've seen them at the football, sir.
They all wear these boots, right.
And they wear braces and that.
And they cut their hair short. And
they call themselves skinheads.
And they're nothing but trouble, sir.
She's a bootboy.
What do you want? Hairy...
~ Go on.
~ Get out.
~ Get out.
Excuse me.
~ What do you want, hairy?
~ Listen, I just...
I'm just looking for my sister.
I'm a bit worried about her.
We haven't seen her in weeks.
What's her name?
Her name's Virginia.
Virginia Hoar.
H-O-A-R.
That's a funny name, isn't it? Hmmm.
She's probably calling herself
something different now,
for obvious reasons.
She's about your age, maybe
a bit shorter, brown hair.
She's got a diamond
tattoo here, on her...
on her wrist. It's quite recent.
Is that a skinhead thing, that?
No.
Anyway, she's a good girl, really.
She's just gone a bit wild. And
me mam, her nerves are shot.
She's worried sick.
She calls herself Lexie. Lexie Dodds.
You do know her?
~ I worked with her a while back.
~ Here?
No. A club.
Made this place look like the Ritz.
The last I heard, Lexie was hanging
around with some scary bugger
round Raven Street flats.
I wouldn't want my sister there.
Right.
I found her. She's on
the council register.
Alexandra Dodds was taken into
care in '63. Allinson House.
~ She left last year.
~ Allinson House. That's Carlton Street?
~ Yeah. I'll meet you there.
~ No, no, no, no.
You get on down to Raven Street,
show them the photograph,
ask them about the skins.
~ I'll see you later.
~ Right.
Raven Street? Great. In these shoes.
Mr Ellison?
I'm DCI Gently. Very nice
of you to see me. Thank you.
Gentlemen.
~ This way, please.
~ Thank you.
Lexie's father died six years ago.
That's when she came
to Allinson House.
What about her mother?
Her mother, Ruby, walked out
on them when Lexie was little.
She has a tattoo of
a ruby on her wrist.
I don't know what you
think she's done,
but she's all right, that girl.
But she is a skinhead, yeah?
They're not all a bad crowd.
What's their thing?
They were born into slavery.
That's how they see it.
Working class with no work,
oppressed by the black
and the blue, the priests
and the police.
That's how come she got along
with an old squeeze-box like me.
What did you talk about?
Music mostly. She still
comes round sometimes.
I grew up on the stuff the
skins are listening to now -
soul, rock-steady, ska.
The sounds of liberation.
I'm afraid I have some bad
news for you, Mr Ellison.
I'm sorry to tell you,
but Lexie is dead.
Is...
Is that Lexie?
Yes, it is.
What happened to her? An accident?
Something like that.
Do you mind if I ask
you some questions?
~ Yes.
~ Thank you.
~ Take a seat.
Who were her friends here?
She found it hard to
trust people, I think.
There wasn't really anyone else.
She left her stuff here?
~ Yeah.
~ May I?
Yeah.
I kind of got the feeling she
wasn't really anywhere yet.
Lost, you know.
She find the skinheads
or did they find her?
She was hoping to go to college.
She wasn't finding much work.
She did some shifts
at some nightclubs.
There was one, the Long something...
The Long Shed?
You know the place?
I knew it. Jazz club.
The world turns, huh?
These skins do music
nights down there.
I went along once. I didn't like it.
~ Who's that?
~ That's Ruby, her mother.
Who's that?
Burdon.
Was he there? The Long Shed?
Yeah. He was there.
King of the place.
I had a feeling he
had his claws in her.
You didn't like him?
He didn't strike me as a lad
who cared about the liberation
of an oppressed people.
20 years I've worked in Scottswood.
And never scared of any man.
But I did not know what
to make of this one, sir.
Jonjo Burdon. 25. No fixed abode.
Did a six-month stretch
three years back.
Was there guns?
No. Drugs.
I thought that was hippies,
not skinheads.
No, it wasn't weed. Look... Dexamyl.
Some form of amphetamine.
Using or selling?
Both, I think.
Raven Street CID says that he's
behind most of the gang fights
though he never gets his hands dirty.
They say he keeps a pack around him.
Do you think he's a contender?
Hey, hang on, hang on.
Are you just going to walk
in there and ask for Burdon?
~ Yeah.
~ He might not be in there.
Do we even have a plan?
Same as always, John. Do what I do.
Look, let's just wait for
the Black Mariahs, right.
They'll be five minutes.
What's the matter, John? Don't
you think I'm up to it?
~ I think it'll be wise to wait.
~ Yeah.
'Sake!
~ I'm looking for Jonjo Burdon.
~ Huh?
~ Yeah, that's right, I'm on the guest list.
~ Oi!
Right. Leave it.
Bovver boots, slaphead,
your grandad's braces
and a choirboy shirt.
Hmm. No, I give up.
What have you come as?
So this is it, is it? Your
nearest and dearest?
How did little Lexie fit in?
There was no need for that, Officer.
We're happy to help you
with your inquiries.
All right, lads. We're
going for a little trip.
Right. Come on. Out you get.
~ Come on.
~ Get off.
Are you getting that? That's...
Stand up straight.
Right. Turn around.
We've got a comedian here, Taylor.
(Shite.)
Don't cry. It'll be all right.
You should have let him bleed.
This is exactly what he wants.
He's enjoying this. Look at him.
He's been yanking your
chain, hasn't he?
What did you get out of him?
An official complaint
for police brutality.
And that thing on his head,
that's his evidence.
Right...
Ravenhill CID, they've been
through the entire estate,
all known houses and addresses
and dosses and so on and so forth.
They've even had the
Long Shed upside down.
There's nothing - there's
no guns, there's no money,
there's no gas masks or anything.
I was hoping they'd find
some pills or drugs or summat.
But there's nothing. It's clean.
~ It's like they knew we were coming.
~ Alibis check out?
Of course they do.
~ It's toe-rags vouching for
other toe-rags, isn't it?
~ Lexie?
He claims he doesn't know her.
He says, "A lot of silly little
girls come into my club."
That's what he says.
What about the others?
They're either scared of him
or in love with him. Or both.
What is it? What have we got, huh?
A dead getaway driver,
that's about it.
~ Scarface, what's his name?
~ Milner.
Milner? He's ex-Royal
Marines, served in Aden.
The other two are borstal
graduates. Right hard bargains.
They're perfect for him.
But Sten guns and bank
robberies and that?
Are they up to that?
I honestly don't know, John.
I want to look him in the eye.
(Right.)
Oi.
Oi!
It's the guilty ones, sir,
that pretend to sleep.
It's because they know that they're
going to need their energy.
I never seem to have a
problem finding my energy.
No. That'll be because of
the Dexamyl, am I right?
Right then, come on, Sten guns?
Every thug has a gun these days.
I don't care for them myself.
You shared a cell with a
Frank Butler at Low Newton,
~ am I right?
~ Poor Frank.
Nice fella.
For an armed robber.
~ Hanged himself.
~ Maybe.
Come on. All your little
friends, all here.
They've told us everything.
The Sten guns. The getaway car.
Little Lexie.
So come on.
How do you want to play this?
Right. Stop that, you little bastard,
otherwise I'll give you
another dent in the head.
How about that?
Oi! Oi!
Oi! Oi!
Oi!
You hear that?
He's laughing at us.
He doesn't care about the money.
It's not about the money.
It's about risk, the thrill.
He's got the jump on us,
John. We've got nothing.
Sir.
One sec. What are we doing?
Release them. Follow them,
every step of the way.
Guv, no, no. We haven't got the
manpower. It's in Newcastle.
It's not our patch.
Well. We'll get Raven Street
CID on it, every available man.
That bastard's going to slip up
sooner or later. All right. What?
McDonald lad's here.
He wants to talk to you.
I heard about that girl.
The one who died.
~ If I'd got the gun off of him...
~ No, no. It's not your fault.
You didn't bring a Sten
gun into the bank.
You didn't kill her.
It is my fault.
~ I could have...
~ What could you have done against six men?
Eh?
Do you know who did it?
Yes, I think I do know who did
it, but I can't prove it. It's...
If I identified them?
No. You said you didn't see them.
~ You can't lie, even to say something good.
~ I know, but...
Are you OK?
Guv.
Oi! Oi!
You're letting them go?
Happy Christmas.
God, I wanted to nut
that smug bastard.
Why don't we put him
in a line-up, sir?
See if Kit picks him out.
He saw them here. Any lawyer
would laugh us out of court.
It's all changing, isn't it?
It's getting to the point now where
I don't even understand the crime.
People of my generation thought
you just kept your nose clean,
work hard.
Young people nowadays, they know
that's a lie. These toe-rags, John.
What if they're the future, eh?
What then?
Yeah?
Edith.
Who did this to you, Kit?
Was it the lads you saw
at the police station?
I don't know. Their
faces were covered.
Where were you?
I told you to stay out of town.
Were you meeting your girl?
What girl?
I'll get it.
I was getting my mum's
prescription, and erm...
they just came at me.
One of them pushed me down and
then they started kicking me.
George, it's for you.
Hello.
They've lost Burdon.
Raven Street followed them
as far as Neville Street,
then lost them at the train station.
They must have doubled back.
He won't go to the hospital.
I'll get the patrol car to
check every now and again.
Just keep him at home.
What's this about, George?
What's he done?
He hasn't done anything wrong.
Is it something to do with this?
They say his grades are bad.
He's been skipping classes.
Kicked him out of the Cadets.
They're taking his scholarship away?
They might just as well expel him.
I think he's being bullied,
but he won't say anything.
He just doesn't fit in.
A boy needs a dad, George.
And if he doesn't get one, he finds
his own - good ones, bad ones.
You were one of the good ones.
I want to help now, Edith.
It's not too late, is it?
I feel like everything's speeding
past me. And I can't catch up.
You should have had kids of your own.
We weren't that
fortunate. And then...
Kit is important to me. His
future is important to me.
Guv, what's the point?
What is the point? You've already
made up your mind up, haven't you?
I'm still waiting for
a rational objection.
She's a girl. And she's not
even a proper detective.
No. But she's up to it.
I don't know.
Look. Burdon's a narcissist.
He loves having his own
reflection look back at him.
So let's give him the
attention he wants.
And he might just open up.
~ A short-skirted piece of attention?
~ Yeah.
All right. All right.
All right. Well, if we're going
to have female coppers,
then we might as well use them
for what they're good for.
~ Morning.
~ Morning.
Rachel, weren't you saying the
other day that long hair is
difficult to manage and maintain?
~ No.
~ Ah.
The Chief Inspector's got something
he'd like to tell you.
Well, actually, I can tell
you both at the same time.
This isn't effective
until the New Year.
But as of January 1st, you're
not going to be a WPC any more.
Congratulations, Detective Sergeant.
Congratulations, pet.
~ Uh-uh.
~ Detective Sergeant.
Now are you going to
give her the bad news?
Hello, mate. I don't think we've met.
Shut up. Aye, funny.
Aye, you can laugh.
But it's me mum you'll
have to answer to.
Understand, Rachel...
If you start to feel threatened
in any way - any way at all -
you get out. But I
think you're ready.
You're going to have
to be now, aren't you?
When this is over, Mr Gently,
you're paying for Vidal Sassoon.
It's a deal.
Oh, my goodness.
Excuse me.
Beer, please.
There you go.
What are you drinking?
~ I'm all right, thanks.
~ You sure?
~ I've got one, thanks.
She'll be fine.
Say it, John.
She'll be fine.
Those pills?
I haven't got any.
Can I have a beer, please?
Come on and dance, will you? Come on.
I'm all right, thanks.
Beer please, mate. Cheers.
Get out me face, man.
~ One dance.
~ Get your hands off me.
~ One dance.
~ Get your hands off me.
That's right. Piss off!
Right dive, isn't it?
So you're too classy
for this place, then?
No. Why do you come here, then?
It's my dive.
What's your excuse?
I heard the music was good.
I heard wrong.
That's cos you don't know
how to listen to it.
The sound of the oppressed people.
What? You're black now, are you?
I'm oppressed. I live in a ghetto
and the police like to batter us.
May as well be living
in Kingston Town.
At least I wouldn't be
freezing my arse off.
Deep.
Dope.
Oi! Where do you think you're going?
We haven't finished our debate yet.
Where do you work?
You're a shop girl?
No.
Teacher.
You have that look.
What look?
Naive hope.
Still think you can better yourself.
Lux beauty soap and desperate dreams.
Ah well, it's better than
stale fags and the dole.
Who's on the dole?
Do you want to go somewhere?
Aye! Back to yours?
You think you're so
irresistible, don't you?
Them little tweety-birds
in there must just
swoon off their perches
whenever you whistle.
Tomorrow? Tomorrow night.
OK, you win!
Broad daylight.
Raven Street.
Be there or I'll find you.
Tomorrow. Raven Street flats.
Lunchtime. I'm meeting him tomorrow.
Good girl.
Anything looks beautiful if you're
looking down from high enough.
From space, Newcastle looks like the
Hanging Gardens of Bloody Babylon.
Buy your way out. It's the only way.
Some class warrior you are.
Class warrior?
I'm no poxy Trotskyite.
What are you, then? Skin forever?
Screw that.
Most skins are just young kids
looking for the next big thing.
I'm the end of the story.
Purple hearts?
So that's how you make your money.
Them kids were popping them
like sweeties in the club.
That's just my paper round.
Does it make the hairs stand up?
What hair?
I think you're all talk.
Show us.
Show us what you're into.
Life without a safety net.
Don't, man.
You said you wanted us to show you.
Stop it.
Slimy toad.
Who do you think you
are, my Uncle Bernie?
Why are you in such a hurry?
It's later than you think, girl.
They're like a pack of dogs, man.
My dogs.
There you go.
So your dad died in Burma?
A month before the war ended.
So you're feeling sorry for us?
Poor little Jonjo?
Spell in borstal sorted us out.
Wait here.
Lessons in loyalty.
~ Sugar?
~ No.
It's his half brother.
I've checked him out.
Stewart Murdock, 25,
occasional delivery
driver, no record.
Well, they are going to need another
getaway driver, aren't they?
They close, him and his brother?
They are fighting about something.
They're going to the football
together tomorrow.
Taylor's trying to get tickets
for that. Crime doesn't pay?
It gets you stubbies
at the Gallowgate End.
Are you all right, Rachel?
Sir, I don't know.
It's like he came out wrong.
Like a sheep with two heads.
What are we doing, guv?
I think we'll follow the brother.
Guv, why don't we just
stop him, talk to him?
No. I said we're just
going to follow him.
Well, it's been scintillating
stuff so far, hasn't it, eh?
The Rotary Club, the Empress,
linens for the Great Northern...
No gunsmiths so far.
Hold on.
~ Well now!
~ Yeah. All right.
Wait till he's gone, then do some
more digging at the bank, John.
Right.
You look a bit like Sandie Shaw.
Right then, sir.
Stewart delivers clean shirts to
the bank manager of the Derwent
every week, right.
But he also delivers to one
other bank. The Tyne & Wear.
~ The one that was robbed?
~ Yes, the one that was robbed.
Now, I got chatting to the
bank manager's secretary,
and she said that she's
called the laundry to
complain about Stewart cos he
was loitering around the bank,
supposedly chatting
up all the cashiers.
~ Casing the joint out for Jonjo.
~ That's it.
~ So Stewart's not the driver,
he's reconnaissance.
~ Yep.
They're going to hit the Derwent.
It's just when, isn't it?
Well, I can find out for you.
Well, I can't exactly go and
have tea with me mum, can I?
Not until this mess grows out.
That's true.
How's your big brother?
What? Oh, yeah, he's OK. Mostly.
When he behaves.
I'm busy.
Does it not bother
you, all the aggro?
I heard the other lot carry guns.
The hairies? No. They're too busy
smoking dope to cause aggro.
But the guns, though...
Do you carry guns?
Your problem is you ask
all the wrong questions.
What's the right questions?
Heads or tails.
So nothing matters?
Guns matter.
Stick one in someone's face and
watch them find out who they are.
Here. Get us some drinks.
Four beers. I'll be back in a minute.
Why's that?
Pretty little thing.
Go on now, piss off, will ya?
You're his latest?
I'm no-one's latest. We're
friends, that's all.
Sorry. My brother doesn't
have friends.
He always gets what he wants.
We'll see about that.
You either give him something he
wants... or something even sweeter.
It's a shame, you seem nice.
Thanks.
That's not what I meant. He'll
use you, that's what he does.
Sorry about that.
You will be.
I'll make it up to you.
You're taking us to the football?
No, I'm busy. It's
a gift. Take a friend.
Something's come up.
Tomorrow, the Derwent
Bank, then? Bloody hell.
Aye, Jonjo gave up his tickets.
Changed his plans as
soon as he met Stewart.
It's going to be busy.
We have to assume they'll be armed.
Let's just pull them
in now. The whole lot.
Him, his brother, the whole gang.
Right, just pull them in.
Before they even get a
chance. We know it's them.
We can use the drugs.
Sir, he did admit to selling
the purple hearts.
I don't care. I want
to know about guns.
Gun. One gun.
And even then it might
have been a lucky find.
Well, we've got to catch them with
their hands on the money, on a gun.
You're going to let them do it?
No, I'm not. We're going
to be there to stop them.
Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.
Close your eyes.
What are you doing?
Just close your eyes.
Don't come in yet.
Right, you can come in, but
just... keep your eyes closed.
Cos it's Christmas.
Christmas was last week.
I was in London last week.
Ow!
This is our Christmas.
Now.
This is what you wanted, isn't it?
Just you and me.
So how was work?
Ah, you know.
Do you want to talk about it?
Walter never wants
to talk about work.
Well, we're just...
We're fixing to do
something tomorrow,
and I don't think it's a good
idea. But the boss is... He's...
You trust him. You know that.
I did. But he's ill and...
I don't know.
You're an inspector now.
What does that mean?
It means it's time
you were your own man.
Is this it, Gem?
Your life down there
and away-days with me?
Now, come on, let's eat.
You get your present after.
I don't have to go until
tomorrow lunchtime.
Right.
What?
I don't want this.
Sorry, they ran out of
turkey, it's chicken.
I don't mean the food,
Gem. It's just...
This is not enough. Once a month.
Once a fortnight maybe,
if we're lucky?
Look, I'm not... I'm not a woman!
I'm not just a bit on the side!
I'm more than that.
Well, I mean...
I think this is something.
It's a lot to me.
No, it's not real life, Gem.
And that's what I want.
I want that with you, and the kids,
and maybe one day have
some of our own.
I want everything.
So it's just girls who have to
make do with being on the side?
Leave him.
You've got reason to, Gem.
I know you don't love him.
Do you?
You talk about real life. This is it.
Nobody gets it all. It's bits
and pieces if you're lucky.
That's enough for you, is it?
It's just how it is, John.
Go and find some slip of
a thing just out of school
if you're looking for hope and glory.
And watch them drain from her
when she finds out what men are.
I'm not like that.
I would never hurt
you. You know that.
Are you saying you
don't love us, Gem?
Here, now, this is what
I've got to offer you.
If anyone ever had a chance,
you know it was us.
A girl only gets one chance.
Which one are you? Butch or Sundance?
Look. I don't know about you, sir,
but I'm going to be ready
for them, all right?
What's wrong, John?
There's another magazine there, sir,
if you fancy having a pop... Pop.
John... What's wrong?
She's gone. All right? She's
gone to London. To him.
I'm really sorry, John.
~ Are you?
~ Yes.
Really? Well, you don't
have anybody, sir.
In fact, you don't even need anyone.
So don't pretend you
understand. All right?
Now, come on. Let us
see what you've got.
Come on. What are you scared
of? Is it the shakes?
Is that it?
Is it your nerves, sir? Huh?
Is this about the bank job?
Are you worried about that?
Because that's good. You should be.
No. I'm worried about you.
I don't think you're up to it.
I don't have to prove
myself to you, John.
No? I'm exactly the person
you need to prove yourself to.
Thank you.
You've all got your
cards, haven't you?
Yes. Yes. Cards, lads.
~ Check.
~ Thank you.
Serial number.
Gun magazine, full box.
Thank you very much. Webleys
for these boys, please.
Check.
Check.
Sign, please.
Ammunition.
~ Morning, John.
~ Yeah.
Make no mistake.
Today will be a success if nobody
fires a shot. All right?
~ All right.
~ Yes, sir.
~ Let's go.
Guv, all the money's been
taken to a safe place.
And all the cashiers
have been sent home.
Right. Well, all my men are
behind the cashiers' desks.
I will be in the bank at all times.
Little stiffener, lads?
All right?
Something's wrong. It should
have happened by now.
Well, there's another half
an hour yet, isn't there?
They'll be cutting it fine.
They close at 3.00.
Oi. Pull it together.
Sorry, sir.
Ignore it out there, madam. Just
a little bit of... staff training.
That's all. If you'd
like to follow me.
Your money is always
safe at the Derwent.
Shut your mouth. Get in there. Now!
Right. Everyone on the ground. Right.
Right. You... fill these bags.
And don't you be thinking about
putting in any of those
bait packs in. We've
done this before.
Where's that coming
from? Who's done that?
Turn if off now!
You! Turn it off!
I said turn it off now!
This is what happens.
Damn it.
I said turn it off!
Here!
Fill those bags now.
I think they must have called it off.
No, look. I say we sit
tight. Cos you never know.
They might even hit the bank
when it's closing, sir.
They were onto us. They must
have seen the mobile units.
You don't know that, sir.
We're wasting our time, John.
What are we thinking?
That Burdon beat up Stewart
because Stewart didn't
want to hit this place.
Because he was afraid it
would lead back to him.
~ Sir, reported gunshots at Haymarket.
~ That's on Stewart's route.
We're in the wrong bloody bank.
Come on!
Right, Northumbria Bank.
Left onto Ward Street.
It's in Haymarket. Left here, sir.
Look at this.
~ Shit, shit.
~ It's the bloody match, isn't it?
This is why they've done it today.
It's gridlocked.
Right, lads. We're on
foot. Quick. Come on.
C'mon, man.
Armed police. Stay down!
They've gone.
Help! Help! Can I have
some help here, please?!
United! United!
United!
United! United!
United! United!
United! United! United!
United! United!
United!
I'll get the police at St
James' Park to have a look.
~ Newcastle got their descriptions?
~ Yeah. Yeah. And the brother.
I've got panda cars going
out to Burdon's home
and Retford's Laundry.
How's the lad who was shot?
He'll be all right.
48,000 quid gone.
Three Sten guns.
It's a good job we didn't
come in on them.
It would've been a bloodbath.
Why did they dump them?
So he could get away,
unnoticed. I don't know.
Because he can.
He's got as many of these
guns as he wants, it seems.
Now he can tool the barrels and
make his own firing pins, he has.
A gun factory.
Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!
Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!
Have you seen Jonjo?
No. His brother phoned earlier.
Told me to buy you a drink.
Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!
Hey, man. Get out of my way.
Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!
"Hello, Rachel. It's me, Jonjo.
I got out like I said."
Mum?
"Just a bit quicker
than I'd planned."
Mum?
Is that you, pet? I'll come down.
No, no, Mum. It's all right.
I'll be up in a minute.
"I would have loved to have taken
you with us, seen your face.
"Now I know who you really are.
"Now I know where you live."
Hello. Is DCI Gently back yet?
It's Rachel Coles.
Can you get him to give us a
call as soon as he gets back?
He knows where I am.
Stewart, you in there?
Come out, Stewart.
I know you must be
frightened, I would be.
I can protect you.
Dead.
No. Nothing.
His own blood, though. That's
24-carat psychopath, isn't it?
I reckon he had a little
thing for you.
~ For me?
~ Yeah.
I think it takes a lot for
someone to deliver their
dirty laundry at your doorstep.
And in that interview...
he barely looked at me.
And then when you came in,
he just wanted to impress you.
All that shouting and
"oi-oi-oi" and all that.
Is she OK?
She'll be all right.
I've called round every nick
from Aberdeen to Truro,
there's no sign of him.
Find the guns, we'll find Burdon.
That's one relationship
he won't give up on.
And these are all of the confirmed
firearms incidents over
the last three years. No Sten gun.
What about the unconfirmed ones?
I reported this six month back.
And did the police attend?
Did they hell. Said it was poachers.
Rapid fire. That's not shotguns.
No.
Don't I know you?
I don't think so.
Rachel!
I want to search the
whole area again.
The local gun clubs, the
army base at Herrington.
He's picking up the decommissioned
weapons from somewhere.
Guv, it's New Year's Eve, man.
We are stretched to breaking.
We'll get the Territorials to help.
I'll tell you what, we'll
get the groundkeeper in.
~ That's funny.
~ How about that? He took
a bit of a shine to Rachel.
"Do I know you, pet, from
somewhere?" We can get him in.
I'm sure he'll come in.
What's going on out there?
It's a big 'un, isn't it? Think
New Year's Eve times ten.
There's a message from the Met there.
They picked up a fella in
London, just bought five
re-commissioned Sten guns.
It's not just our problem
now then, is it?
He claims he did a deal in
a pub with a Geordie lad,
told him there were plenty more
guns where these came from.
Finest Northumberland craftsmanship.
It's him. He's gone.
~ You on tonight?
~ No.
~ Shame, could've have been your lucky night.
~ Constable.
Hey. You should lose the wig.
~ A lot of the blokes love a slaphead.
~ Aye, well, I'm sure they do.
~ It's just, I don't like
those kind of blokes.
~ What's your plan?
What, for the 1970s?
No. Tonight.
You've got to plan
your celebrations out
otherwise you'll peak too
early, like that lot.
Ah, well. That lot think
it's the end of the world.
I certainly intend on reaching
oblivion tonight.
The world's just beginning for me.
I'm a detective sergeant in the
Northumberland Police Force.
Ten years ago, a girl like
me would have been making tea.
That's progress, isn't it?
Women sergeants. It'll be jetpacks
and robot dogs next.
Are you coming? Come on.
Eh?
A glass of warm Asti Spumante.
Eh? Dropping the lips
on a lass at midnight.
Sounds a bit ritzy for me.
All right.
Anyway, I've got some thinking to do.
~ Yeah. I know.
~ What?
I know, guv.
And what do you think you know?
Doesn't matter.
I just thought, for once,
maybe this decade,
we could've had a
proper conversation.
Let's have a conversation now.
What are going to talk about?
Hmm... I know. Let's talk
about your love life.
Guv, I know that you're sick.
I'm sick of this place.
You'll be, er...
You'll be thinking of
retiring. Won't you?
Not being able to
trust your judgment,
not that I understood
your judgment anyway.
Sod off, John!
Now we're having a conversation.
Here we are. Come on.
What is it? Parkinson's?
That's my guess.
Cos that's my guess in the
sweepstake that we've been having.
Steady as a rock.
Oh, it's gone, has it? Oh, good.
Well, in that case, I'll sleep well.
Oh, good.
I think you've forgotten
how to tell the truth.
In fact, I don't even think
you know what it is any more.
It's not Parkinson's. It's MS.
Multiple sclerosis.
It affects the central
nervous system.
Right.
Well, you can treat that. Can't
you? Surely? I mean, these days.
No. There's no cure.
Good news is, though, I haven't
had any symptoms for a while.
I could be symptom free for years.
On the other hand...
Am I fooling myself?
Hey, no. No.
No. You've got to stay positive.
Hey, come on. Come out with us.
Come out. Have one and then you
can go. No, sod that. Stay out.
Get bladdered, man.
I'll think about it.
All right.
Get me a radio.
'John. Pick up. Pick
up. Pick up. Pick up.'
Go ahead.
How far have you got, John?
Not far.
Guv?
What did the gamekeeper
say to Rachel again?
That she looked familiar?
He thought he knew her.
He was just flirting with
her, the randy old bugger.
What if he was confusing
her with Lexie?
What if Lexie was there when
they were testing the Sten guns?
So you think she's the
link to the source?
Go back to the gamekeeper. See
if this photo jogs his memory...
~ Guv, man. I want to be...
~ John. John. It'll only take half an hour.
And if you can't get me on the radio,
then call me at Allinson House.
~ That's where I'll be.
~ (All right.)
What are you looking for?
I don't really know,
to tell you the truth.
Hello.
Inspector.
Thank you.
Hello.
'Right, sir. I've just come back'
from the gamekeeper now.
And you were right. He recognised
Lexie from the photograph,
he reckons she was loitering round
the grounds this last summer.
'With another lad.'
Was it Burdon?
Well. That's just it, sir.
He swears blind that he's
never seen Burdon before.
Oh, my God.
Not out celebrating?
I'm sorry...
Mum never said.
Were we expecting you?
No. It's a spur of the moment thing.
Did you buy her that?
Out of your savings account?
All she does is sit in.
At least now she can do it in colour.
Come and talk to me, Kit.
You know that old tradition they've
got up here, first foot?
First one through the door on
New Year's Eve after midnight
either brings you good
fortune or bad portent.
Start of a new decade.
You want to be careful who
comes through your threshold.
Ten years of bad luck.
You don't want that, mate.
You've just got to be
better than the past.
Cheers to that.
Actually...
I only came back to check on Mum.
I'm actually going for a drink with
some friends in the village so...
Yeah. You're a good lad,
Kit. Don't let me keep you.
That girl of yours, she
was daft to let you go.
She died.
She was never really my girlfriend.
We knew each other
when we were little.
Yeah. I know.
I heard you were fostered
for a few months.
I didn't know they put you in a home.
Lexie looked after me.
She was the only one.
She kept in touch.
I thought she was...
We were...
But she was seeing another boy?
Not a boy. He was...
Jonjo Burdon. I know.
And you haven't got a savings
account at the Tyne & Wear.
Cos I checked.
I wish I'd checked earlier.
You knew they were going to
hit that bank, didn't you?
That's why you were there.
I heard Lexie talking about it.
I thought I could stop her, but...
.. then he came in.
It's my fault she's dead.
I, erm...
You know, don't you?
But I need to hear it from you.
I read about it in
the library at school.
Do those posh gits have any idea
what they're teaching you?
A little knowledge, dangerous thing.
You wait, this thing's crazy.
Have they not missed it?
They've got dozens of them.
The cadets use them to march
up and down the playground,
playing soldiers.
No idea they can make
them work again.
Posh bastards. Really?
What are you going to do with it?
Nothing. It's just a bit of fun.
You should see what it does
on the automatic setting.
Do you want to go again?
I told you, Jonjo, Kit's the best!
She did, you know.
Always going on about her little
mate with the big brain.
Always talking about Kit.
Always going on about
Kit. Even when we're...
You know.
So...
So you really did this by yourself?
It's not difficult.
I found a diagram of the firing
pins, milled it myself
and then I unplugged the barrel.
So you could do more?
You could earn yourself some money,
little big man. Girls like money.
I was at Allinson House too.
Right dosshouse, isn't it?
They treat you like
you're nowt, nobody.
But I can tell, Kit, just by looking
at you, you're not nobody.
Are you, Kit?
Yeah! Wooo! Yeah!
So how many has he got now?
All of them.
50-odd.
They broke into the school.
Nobody will notice till term starts.
I came to tell you.
That morning I heard Lexie had died.
But he was there.
He saw me.
And you were letting him go.
So you re-commissioned
50 Sten guns for him?
No, I only did the first one.
He said he had some bloke down
the docks with a machine shop,
he'd do the rest for him.
So I showed him how to do it...
He said he'd kill me mum.
He said he'd kill you.
I know where he is.
In London? You know
where he's staying?
~ He's not in London. You know
the Raven Street estate?
~ Yeah.
The towers.
All units. All units.
Armed officers to Raven Street
Estate, Churchill Tower,
please acknowledge.
'Roger that, sir.'
Sorry, Mum.
Did you get rid of him?
Food? Who was the food for?
You know, you did say you had somebody
else to do the guns once.
You said you'd leave
me and my mum alone
once I'd shown you how to do them.
You're a craftsman, Kit,
there's not many about any more.
His one jammed and yours never did.
I deserve the best, don't I?
Go on. Get on with it.
I can't do it.
What don't you understand, eh?
I said get those guns done.
No.
Do it.
'It seems that the New Year
is the time for the young.
'And that the '70s
will be their era.'
I said... do it.
Go on.
No.
Oi, leave him alone.
Why would I do that?
I'm here now.
You think I'm not serious?
Oh, I know you're serious.
So what, you've got the
place surrounded, eh?
20 pigs lurking in the hedgerow?
No, no. It's just me and you, mate.
But I'm different from them. Because
I've got nothing to lose.
Don't...
Come on. Let him go.
It's not his fault.
It's nobody's fault. Don't
you get it? It's the future.
And there's no place for
little kids. Or old men.
Come on. Come on.
I hadn't finished the barrel.
I can't see.
I cannae see.
Just an ambulance, Kit.
Edith.
George.
Time to go to bed.
I fell asleep.
Where's Kit?
I'm taking care of him.
Happy New Year.
It's your boss.
Hello.
John, I'm at the McDonald
House. I need you here now.
Guv, please tell me
that you are joking?
I wish I was. John, come alone.
All right. All right.
Are you all right?
Is Burdon going to be OK?
Well, he'll be well
enough to stand trial.
Don't think he's going to
regain his sight, though.
I hadn't finished the barrel.
I never meant to hurt anyone.
Hey, come on, eh? What
are you crying for?
I'm not crying.
I just want to put it right.
But I can't now.
No-one can.
Guv...
We need to call this in.
I know what you're thinking.
I'm not sending him to prison,
John. I'm not. I can't.
We can sort this out. He's
only linked to the one gun.
The others were tooled by
some bloke in the docks.
~ We'll go after him.
~ Guv!
He's just a silly kid
who fell in love.
Guv, you're preaching to
the converted here, but...
Right.
Do whatever it is you need to
do and then we'll call it in.
Are you sure about this, John?
Yes. Of course. Just
do it quickly, please.
Done. The kid's name's nowhere
near the charge sheet.
Thank you.
How did you know the
gun wouldn't work, sir?
I didn't.
There's talk about you taking
your pension. Had enough?
I shall need your help if I'm
going to keep on doing this job.
If?
I need to do this job.
You're not going anywhere, then?
No-one else would have you.