When Roddy Winger is released on appeal after serving twenty years for the murder of a nightclub hostess - a crime he always claimed he did not commit - his case gets re-investigated by UCOS - The Unsolved case squad. The squad is to be made up of some of the best retired officers available. The squad gets headed up by Det Supt Pullman, who is moved after shooting a dog in a hostage rescue gone wrong. With Jack Halford she sets out to build her team and investigate the case.
The discovery of a fake painting in the Queen's art collection sends the UCOS team on a hush-hush mission to uncover the forger. Their investigations swiftly uncover a trail of high class frauds and suspicious deaths, but also lead to suspension for one of the squad. NOTE: In Scotland This Episode Was Shown On Sunday 11th April Due To LIVE Sportscene Football Being Shown
The Home Office pathologist asks the team to identify the remains of an unidentified woman, whose remains were found back in 1987. These remains are the only body that he was unable to identify. With his help and that of his attractive assistant, not only must the team identify the body bits, but how she died and who killed her.
A car in which five years ago a teacher was murdered is returned to the victim's husband. Pullman re-opens the unsolved case, hoping her team can track down the dead woman's secret lover, and a clue soon leads them to a male prostitute. Pullman had worked on the original case and been troubled throughout by the lack of emotion shown by Nancy's husband Stephen
The murky death of Joe Walsh, General Secretary of the Crane Driver's Union, whose body was found in the Thames in 1975, is reinvestigated. At the time of his death, Walsh stood accused of stealing money from the union's account. The team find themselves at the centre of a political minefield, with suggestions of misappropriated union funds, MI5 involvement and a union leader whose threats of strike action were gravely threatening the national interest.
The vicious criminal Chopper Hadley, who has been back in the country for a week, is searched for by the team. However, Halford is viciously intimidated and the squad start to realise the full danger of their target. Desperate measures are used and Brian is sent undercover to get Hadley once and for all.
A young woman insists that the suspicious death of a local librarian was because of witchcraft and the team are drawn into the world of magic and the supernatural. A series of strange events occur and they are put under increasing pressure. The squad gets convinced that the supernatural exist and struggle to remain cynical.
Pullman struggles to keep the boys in line as their chequered pasts begin to be revealed. Halford is determined to nail a vicious criminal who has so far eluded him and in doing so he puts himself in grave danger. Standing receives a surprise visitor which shocks him. Pullman is increasingly frustrated and weighs up an opportunity that could end her time in UCOS.
The future of the team is threatened and without having that to deal with, Sandra has to take drastic measures to prevent Jack from exacting revenge against the man who killed his wife Mary. Sandra also has the added benefit of trying to keep Jack’s actions from shady new recruit DCI Karen Hardwick while working on a 10-year-old murder case.
A family feud erupts when a rich and lonely old woman, Dorothy Hepple, is found dead in her home. Dorothy leaves all her money and property to her beloved cats, rather than her nephew, Harry, and niece, Caroline. Her body lay undiscovered for two weeks and the cause of death is undetermined, but the fact that her cats were deliberately locked in the house, forcing them to start eating their owner's remains and any evidence, makes Jack suspicious. There appears to have been no love lost between the late Ms Hepple and her neighbour, Tim Cuswell. Meanwhile her carer, Dale , seems to have been devoted to her, his motives are questionable. When the last of Dorothy's feline beneficiaries dies, her estate suddenly comes up for grabs. With no shortage of people laying claim to the estate, the team decides to reopen the investigation into Dorothy's death.
The team reinvestigates the 1950s murder of a young wages clerk at Battersea Power Station. Richard Dunne was hanged for Frederick Tully's murder, but his granddaughter, Hannah, is waging a campaign to have Dunne posthumously pardoned. The discovery of a suitcase containing used fivers in the attic of the Tully home sheds new light on the case, revealing a possible blackmail plot. A trace on the used fivers reveals that they should have been destroyed in the Battersea Power Station furnaces back in the 1950s, but were actually being saved by Douglas Murray, a friend of Tully's. It also becomes clear that the Battersea furnaces were being used to destroy other sensitive documents as well as used bank notes. When the team discovers a classified document relating to a massacre of civilians carried out by the British Army in Kenya, they uncover a blackmail plot spanning more than 50 years.
When Brian's dog finds a body, it prompts two people to confess to murder. It turns out that the body is over 600 years old, so Sandra, Jack, Brian and Gerry must discover why the pair took responsibility for a crime they couldn't possibly have committed and if they are the perpetrators of other killings. Elsewhere, Strickland is rather keen for them to solve an even more tricky mystery that is closer to home.
The news that Sandra's father, a DI, killed himself while under investigation for corruption, throws into doubt everything she believed in. Her mother, Grace , is in hospital following a stroke, and she wastes no time in confronting her, but she doesn't get the answers she's looking for. Unfortunately, her father's service records provide Pullman with some revelations she may never come to terms with. Meanwhile, Christy Berlin asks the team to look into the death of the man she's recently discovered was her biological father - ringmaster The Great Miraculob. But will the investigation at Spingles Circus be enough to distract Sandra from feeling betrayed by her colleagues?
New series of the drama featuring an eccentric group of ex-police officers brought out of retirement to investigate unsolved crimes. Jack confronts his nemesis in court when Ricky Hanson stands trial for his attempted murder, and Gerry faces the consequences of lying to his 'daughter', Emily. The team uncover a shady organ-donor racket when they reinvestigate the murder of a wealthy businessman who left a three million pound fortune to a prostitute.
The team return to the 1992 case of actor Michael Austin, shot dead by his wife on stage during the opening night performance of Death at the Masked Ball. Already a man down when Halford goes AWOL, the case looks like claiming another member of the team as Lane embraces his newfound love of acting and the theatre.
Gerry meets his heroes, the 70s rock band Bad Faith, when the team investigate the death of its lead guitarist. It is over 30 years since the group split up, however, and the ageing rockers do not quite live up to the legends Gerry remembers. Meanwhile, determined to prevent UCOS from disbanding, Brian finally tracks down Jack and tries to persuade him to return.
The team investigate the art of illusion when they reopen a case involving a magic trick that ended in murder. Powerful mind games and hypnosis prove a dangerous mix for Brian Lane, however, sending him down a destructive path. Meanwhile, a session with the Magic Circle's Dr Moroni leaves a sceptical Gerry Standing feeling paranoid and his colleagues a little nervous around him.
As Brian Lane struggles to control and conceal his desire to drink again, he finds the perfect refuge in a commune at the centre of the team's investigation into the death of a university student. The case also helps Gerry face up to his relationship with Emily, who has not spoken to him since she discovered the truth about the DNA test at Ricky Hanson's trial.
Jack and Strickland form an unlikely alliance that sees them break the rules to find out why a British soldier died while taking part in a Ministry of Defence medical trial. With three of the man's colleagues now suffering from psychological, drink or memory problems, the team consider whether he died as a result of the experiment, or if he was a victim of an Army cover-up.
UCOS reinvestigate a high-profile riverboat disaster on the Thames after a new witness comes forward claiming the collision was the result of sabotage, rather than an accident. But the case means putting DAC Strickland's wealthy sailing chums under the investigation spotlight; what better motivation could the team have?
As the series comes to an end, the desiccated, neatly carved-up body of a butcher who disappeared more than 30 years ago is discovered, leading Sandra Pullman and her boys to pay a visit to Smithfield meat market in London, the original murder scene. It's a pity the butcher is dead, because he has a few questions to answer about why the body of a doctor was found hanging from a meat hook all those years ago at the back of his market stall. It's an episode peppered with revelations. We discover Gerry Standing's very interesting family history - he's descended from French Huguenots and is thus tormented by his colleagues for being a fake cockney, much to his annoyance: "Je suis ang-bleedingglais!" he protests. But it's Sandra who has to face up to a startling personal disclosure that has a direct bearing on the case and also throws a whole new light on her father. For once Gerry, Brian and Jack are left completely speechless.
UCOS reinvestigate the death of a wealthy financier when a psychic tells the dead man's daughter that she needs to resolve some unfinished business on her father's behalf. Deeply sceptical of Sebastian Carter's 'gift', the team set out to prove him a fraud, but Pullman struggles to dismiss him as a con man when he reveals a conflict involving her own late father.
Brian finds the library card of cold case victim Dr Richard Symes, leading him to reinvestigate the death of the professor, who died after falling from the roof of his college three years previously. Sandra and Gerry interview Symes' widow, who believes principal Jeremy Ventham drove her husband to suicide following a conflict over teaching methods.
After being released from jail, notorious paedophile John Davies admits to the abduction and murder of a child 25 years previously. Suspicious of his motives, the detectives reopen the unsolved case in an unusual attempt to prove his innocence, reinvestigating the boy's disappearance while on a demonstration with his left-wing activist parents. Guest starring Adrian Schiller (Being Human) and Samantha Bond (Outnumbered)
A recent rape is linked to two similar attacks at a chocolate factory 10 years previously, leaving the team no choice but to reopen all three cases. The detectives uncover news of an unhappy workforce, learning of an alleged suicide, and their investigation becomes even more complicated when they discover a severed finger was found in one of the company's snacks. After a visit to the doctor, Gerry decides to quit smoking, and instead of resorting to nicotine patches or gum, he enlists Sandra to help him quit
When graffiti appears around London by an unknown person claiming to have murdered a celebrated street artist, the team reopens the four-year-old case. Originally part of a gang, the victim went solo when he received support from a wealthy art patron, leaving the detectives suspicious of his resentful former crew members. Meanwhile, Brian signs up to Twitter to chart the gritty life of a lawman, much to his colleagues' displeasure.
When a retrospective exhibition of murdered fashion designer Ritchie Levene's work opens, the team is prompted to re-examine the three-year-old crime. The detectives learn about his tempestuous relationships with his new spouse, personal assistant and ex-wife Sarah, who believes his brother Adrian is the killer because he had the most to gain from his death. Meanwhile, Gerry enlists Emily to help update his image, although not everyone is impressed with the results.
When 18-year-old debutante Barbara Linden-Warner disappeared without trace 27 years ago, the assumption at the time was that she had been kidnapped and her father, a wealthy British arms manufacturer, paid a ransom for her return. When new evidence emerges about her last movements, the indication is that she may still be alive.
The OAP detectives return to investigate a fresh batch of unsolved crimes, beginning with the murder of a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum. After a bit of digging, the team discover the victim was a respected but outspoken scientist with a knack for rubbing people up the wrong way - and when they discover he was strongly opposed to the museum's sponsorship deal with a large fuel company, the old dogs soon have plenty of suspects. Amanda Redman stars, with guest appearances from the late Trevor Bannister (Are You Being Served?), Lucy Brown (Primeval) and Natasha Little (Spooks)
New information links the unexplained death of a market trader to a series of drug rapes in east London - but with that case still ongoing, Ucos are unable to question the chief suspect, so they have to look into their victim's past in their search for clues. Gerry soon finds a likely culprit in the shape of the market inspector who clamped his car, while Sandra has problems of a more personal nature when her hated mother arrives for a visit.
After psychologist Samantha Gerson shows up at UCOS to conduct a study on older men in the workplace, she ends up getting a mixed reception. Samantha also wants a favour and asks Pullman to look at her brother's case. Darren Gerson was the victim of a hit and run in May 2006 which left him with a serious brain injury and complete memory loss of anything about his life before the accident happened. Darren now is convinced that he is still a target because of the package he was carrying at the time.
Sandra's old flame DCI Larson, head of the Met's arts and antiques squad, asks the team to reinvestigate the murder of antiques dealer Mal Baxter. His death was originally thought to be the result of a burglary gone wrong, but new evidence suggests Baxter was a police informant while conducting underhanded deals.
As part of his initiation into a motorbike gang called The Braves, Reece Chapman plans to murder the rival gang member he believes killed his father Eddie, the former leader of The Braves. Desperate to stop Reece, his girlfriend Stephanie Parr turns to UCOS for help in solving Eddie's murder to prove he's targeting the wrong man.
Jack announces that he he has decided to leave the team, but before Sandra, Brian and Gerry can question his reasons, Whitehall figure Stephen Fisher shows up with one of his secret cases featuring the unsolved murder of a woman dating back around a hundred years. With only 24 hours to solve it, the team attempt to find time to get to the bottom of Jack's surprising decision and attempt to persuade him not to leave.
The team are called in to reinvestigate the disappearance of PE teacher Jason Bowe after a body is found on the perimeter of the elite public boarding school where he was employed. The investigation has come at a really bad time for the school, which is getting to welcome a former pupil, the Rt Hon Geoffrey Parkes MP, for the opening of a new computer centre.
UCOS re-open the investigation of a diplomat who drowned in the Thames just before Christmas 2008. Her eccentric twin sister believes that the Foreign Office is behind the death of her diplomat sister, making Pullman wonder if there might be some truth to Minnie's paranoia but Gerry is convinced there is another answer
The body of a missing computer expert turns up in a hospital morgue under a false name, so the team reopens the investigation into his disappearance. The dead man worked for the Metropolitan Police, giving him access to a great deal of sensitive information—added to which, he was in contact with a group of online hackers. As the seasoned detectives unravel the mystery, Brian struggles to accept Steve as the new UCOS member, forcing Esther to intervene.
The team unlock over three decades of secrets and lies on the Rock of Gibraltar and find the link which solves the murder of a playboy shipping heir from '98 and a young local boy from '82. With both cases solved, they return to England where Lane faces a disciplinary hearing, dragging up a death in custody from his past which threatens his career in UCOS.
When blood-stained clothes belonging to Simon Belgrade, missing for five years, are uncovered in a London forest, UCOS find themselves trying to solve the conundrum of what seems to have been the perfect vanishing act. Standing finally faces up to a childhood fear, while Griffin is a comfort to Pullman as she passes a milestone and McAndrew makes a big decision about his son.
Pullman seizes the chance to solve a murder that she believes is linked to her first ever case, and the team start putting together a jigsaw puzzle of suspects from a photograph taken in a London park in the 90s. Eventually faced with increasing pressure to hand over the investigation, Sandra makes a huge decision, which is going to change UCOS forever.
Feathers are ruffled when new boss DCI Sasha Miller arrives to take over the running of UCOS. An unexploded World War II bomb is unearthed on an urban allotment in west London, dredging up a long-hidden murder weapon, and the team find themselves investigating a ritualistic killing of an Italian immigrant from 25 years ago.
Miller is faced with a dilemma when the investigation of a corrupt senior officer calls into question the conviction of Edward Monroe - who she believes to be guilty of murdering her old work partner. Pre-empting an appeal, UCOS must carry out preliminary investigative work for Strickland. As things begin to look like someone else could be guilty of the crime in question, can Miller hide a key fact from the team or will she do the right thing?
Family ties affect both Gerry Standing and Sasha Miller. While Sasha is forced to work with ex-husband Ned as he fills in for Strickland, Gerry returns to his roots in Bermondsey to help arrange his daughter's wedding. As a consequence he is thrown into a case involving the possible murder of an architecture student who is also the grandson of an old friend. Meanwhile, Danny Griffin has been on an FBI course in reading body language.
The team investigate the unsolved killing of brilliant young doctor Lydia Dryden in a case that takes them into the two very different worlds of public and private medicine. Danny Griffin is bereft when daughter Holly leaves home to start university, so his UCOS colleagues throw some fun distractions his way. And he might even be about to acquire a pet...
A dynamic high-flying city lawyer, Bryony Willis, receives a note to say that her terrorist father was not accidentally killed by his own bomb in 1982 but was actually murdered by the police. The UCOS team interviews Bryony's mother, who raised her on Greenham Common, and stumbles upon a dangerous, high-powered police cover-up. Sasha's ex-husband Ned tries to win her back. Is she tempted? Or has too much water passed under the bridge?
When Steve McAndrew's teenage son Stewie is arrested for drug possession, he finds himself face to face again with his ex-wife Tricia as they try to save the boy from a downward spiral. And after a distressed dementia patient escapes her care home to report a murder, the team look into the disappearance of a policeman, possibly murdered but missing since 1956...
Tension mounts as Ned and Sasha are forced to work together when the body of a film critic found in a sewer is thought to be linked to the 20-year-old murder of a concept artist, David Straka. As the team interview Straka's contemporaries, groupies and assistants, looking for possible connections between the deaths, they find themselves immersed in the macabre world of the occult. And Griffin's expert knowledge of the history of London and in particular the hidden Fleet River, proves invaluable.
The team investigate the death of a personal trainer who had belonged to a Roman re-enactment society and discover a gang selling illegal steroids, but the motive for murder may not be all it seems. And Danny Griffin starts to become attracted to his forensic pathologist colleague Fiona Kennedy, just as he receives some troubling news about his wife.
The arrest of a Turkish barmaid working in London illegally reopens the cold case of a landlord who died in a suspected arson attack on his City pub. Gerry and Steve take a trip out to a vineyard in Kent while Griffin indulges his passion for fruit machines. When Miller decides to get the boys match fit for a charity football game it proves more difficult than she imagined.
As the detective drama returns, Gerry is spooked by the discovery of UCOS's latest victim - a cop, whose body has lain untouched under a basement for 30 years. As accusations of police corruption and underhand dealings begin to surface, Gerry has to face up to some skeletons in his own closet and it's a race against time for the team to help before his murky past catches up with him. While babysitting his grandson, Gerry becomes convinced that only he holds the key to the investigation and goes Awol to uncover the truth.
Danny takes Gerry on the run as they search for the proof they need to prove his innocence - despite Gerry remaining tight-lipped about his involvement with dodgy dealings in his old unit. The stakes are high as the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad goes after one of the biggest crime families in London, and it's those closest to Gerry who are dangerously put in the firing line.
Ted leads an investigation into the apparent suicide of a city trader embroiled in the cut-throat world of London's financial district back in the '80s. With Ted capitalizing on his acting talents, the team delve deeper into the macho fraternity of 'the Wolfpack' and soon find a darker side to the debauchery, secret hand signals and all-nighters that bonded the traders together - including a strict hierarchy that might just be worth killing for. Sasha's nose is put out of joint when she returns to a different kind of boys' club, and Steve tries to learn some trade secrets on the job, amid his own financial crisis.
With Sasha back on fighting form, UCOS investigate the death of a talented cricket prodigy: star of the pitch and apple of his father's eye - yet loathed by his teammates. The death was recorded as misadventure, but with new evidence pointing to infighting, overzealous autograph hunters and extramarital affairs, UCOS are soon bowled over by the list of potential murder suspects. Wise to Steve's monetary problems, Danny appoints himself as personal financial advisor and enforces a strict no-frills, no-fun budget. But even with this distraction, he can't escape his own worries about revealing his relationship with Fiona to his ex-wife. Sasha cracks down on the boys' lacklustre fitness and reluctance to come to the 'cursed' Mum and Dad's Do.
While Sasha is occupied with an intensive training course, the boys' investigations take them to a lookalike agency where the top two acts were found dead in an apparent double suicide 13 years before. In an industry reliant on the art of the illusion and their suspects intent on giving them the runaround, Ted, Steve and Danny are convinced there's more to this case than first meets the eye. Steve can't contain his excitement when their enquiries take them to the door of one of his football heroes - but his glee is short-lived when he remembers an expensive promised birthday gift. Sasha tries to instill discipline in her son Alex, and Danny and Fiona end up in a stalemate over their living situation.
UCOS investigate the murder of a private investigator, stabbed through the heart in a suspected robbery gone wrong. The answers may well lie within the victim's last three cases but it'll take the whole team's expertise to crack the codes within his mysterious notebook. The movements of a rare collectable stamp, The Russian Cousin, could hold the key to the whole investigation - if only UCOS could track it down. Steve rents out his flat to a pair of demanding, hot-tempered Italians and Ted is determined to avoid a trip to the doctor for fear of coming face to face with his own mortality.
A skeleton uncovered in the foundations of a swimming pool is identified as Cheryl - a young, pretty lottery winner reported missing 17 years ago. UCOS' prime suspects are her quiz teammates, who won their lucky windfall as part of a syndicate. But while some have put their money to good use, the victim's boyfriend has fallen on hard times, and the media remain convinced he is the prime suspect in her murder. As allegations of affairs, fights and betrayal begin to surface, the team are left to ponder whether money really is the root of all evil. Sasha is set for a night in studying, but the boys have different plans and plot to set her up with Fiona's colleague Adam.
A blood-stained bust is uncovered during some reconstruction work in a cemetery, pointing UCOS to the murder of an alternative medicine practitioner bludgeoned to death seven years ago. The evidence leads to the pioneering but controversial world of cryopreservation - the practice of keeping clinically dead patients frozen in time to extend their lives. In a sensitive case, with the watchful eyes of their bosses upon them, Sasha is determined that her team won't put a foot wrong. But with suspects constantly running rings around them and the sobering possibility that two perpetrators are still at large, UCOS must go out on a limb to unlock their most difficult cold case yet. Fiona is offered a job too good to be true in Aberdeen, leaving Danny bereft at the thought of losing her. Ted is devastated when he realises he's lost his lucky cigarette case, and Sasha has an interesting offer from the notoriously cut-throat assistant commissioner Cynthia Kline.
In the ultimate series finale, UCOS are threatened with closure following their perceived mishandling of the Henway case. Their final case begins with the bloody murder of a political activist 15 years ago at the Madhouse - a hub for people with mental health issues. Just as the team are getting somewhere, the order comes from above for Ted, Danny and Steve to cease the investigation. But in true UCOS spirit, the boys throw away the rulebook and uncover something much bigger than just a straightforward murder, involving some top officials, a multinational drugs company and signs of a massive cover-up. Danny and Fiona's relationship hangs in the balance as she must give an answer to the job offer in Aberdeen, and Sasha is pulled into a game of political cat and mouse as she realises UCOS are merely puppets in Cynthia's game.