New Tricks

The Metropolitan Police set up a new unit, UCOS, which stands for Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad, to investigate previously unsolved crimes. Led by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, the team is made up of retired policemen Jack Halford, Brian Lane and Gerry Standing. Their first case is to investigate the murder of a nightclub hostess. The man who was convicted of killing her is released on appeal after serving twenty years in prison, having always claimed his innocence. The renewed investigation eventually produces proof of his innocence, but also his guilt of a different murder. In the end the team finds proof that the mans wife killed the nightclub hostess out of jealousy.

The discovery of a fake painting in the Queens 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 members of a prestigious golf club come under suspicion when the UCOS team investigate a child murder.

In an attempt to make contact with his late wife Mary, Jack goes to see a clairvoyant. Instead he meets a girl who died in a shipping container in 1982 and has the case re-opened.

In 1996 a beautiful newlywed, was attacked and left for dead. The only thing taken was her wedding ring and she has been in a coma ever since. The man jailed for the crime is now a born-again Christian and is protesting his innocence

Tabloid editor Chris McConnell asks Sandra Pullman to help him prove celebrity chef Kitty Campbell killed her drunken husband Bertie 40 years ago at the height of their 60s TV fame.

Luck turns against Standing when he loses a poker game, owing bookie Michael Jacobs £10,000. But Michael offers him a chance to clear his debt by finding out what happened to his dad Joe, who died after being mugged outside Walthamstow stadium in 1983.

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.

The murky death of Joe Walsh, General Secretary of the Crane Drivers 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 unions 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.

Ray Cook, a legendary criminal has turned prime time celebrity. The team set off to find him, because there was a notorious bank job which left a cashier dead. He is a suspect, but was he responsible, or is he as innocent as he claims?

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.

Sandras private and professional worlds become intertwined when her mother has a fall and goes into a care home - but the establishment is revealed to be a scene of a suspicious death a year earlier.

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 owners 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 Dorothys 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 Dorothys death.

When Brians 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 couldnt 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 Sandras 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 doesnt get the answers shes looking for. Unfortunately, her fathers 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 shes 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?

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 Circles Dr Moroni leaves a sceptical Gerry Standing feeling paranoid and his colleagues a little nervous around him.

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 mans 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.

The team find themselves at the centre of a shocking cover-up.

UCOS are forced to re-open the investigation into producer Max Stones death.

The team reinvestigate the disappearance of two young political activists.

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. Its 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. Its an episode peppered with revelations. We discover Gerry Standings very interesting family history - hes 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 its 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.

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.

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 companys 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 a retrospective exhibition of murdered fashion designer Ritchie Levenes 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 team reinvestigate a 30-year-old safety deposit robbery, and they soon find themselves being drawn into a case involving police corruption that threatens the future of the UCOS itself.

The UCOS team reinvestigates the murder of an unnamed vagrant strangled on a tube train 15 years ago when DNA tests on a suspect in a warehouse robbery reveal him to be the dead mans son.

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 victims 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.

Sandras old flame DCI Larson, head of the Mets 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 Eddies murder to prove hes targeting the wrong man.

The team reopen the case of zookeeper Zac Halsey, originally thought to have been mauled to death by a tiger, when blood evidence discovered in his lodgings suggests he was killed before he was found in the tigers enclosure.

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.

Retired DI Steve McAndrew from Glasgow joins the team to reopen one of his old cases when the DNA of a woman who went missing as a teen turns up at the scene of a petrol station robbery.

The team investigate the death of a 16-year-old tennis star who fell—or was pushed—from a penthouse balcony after she lost an important match to a rival.

The team investigate the murder of an East German immigrant, but they only have his mysterious final words to work with. As they attempt to piece together his remarkable story, Sandra attempts to gain the trust of his estranged daughter.

Thirty years ago, Strickland and a group of his associates, including Stephen Fisher, were involved in a covert operation on behalf of MI5. Now, someone is trying to kill all the members of that group and Strickland turns to the UCOS team for help.

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.

As Lane comes to terms with life after UCOS, Esther asks him to help one of her book club friends find her missing brother - but will his nose for the truth get him into further trouble? And how will his former colleagues cope without their most dogged sleuth?

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.

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.

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...

When Steve McAndrews 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...

The team investigate the death of a personal trainer who had belonged to a Roman reenactment 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.

While investigating the murder of 55 year-old interpreter Agnes Bradley, the UCOS team get a partial DNA match from a teenage boy who once threw a brick onto a motorway as a dare. They interview the boy to see if one of his male relations could be the murderer, only to discover that his mother was raped and they could be looking for a rapist-turned-murderer. Agnes was a chess enthusiast so Gerry Standing and Steve McAndrew interview members of her local club while Sasha Miller and Strickland investigate leads from Agnes’s working life, where they meet a Chilean diplomat with a possible axe to grind. Steve McAndrew’s elderly father is dying, so he brings him to a London hospice for his last days.

A mix tape from 1983 is discovered, containing the voice of a teenage girl who was murdered shortly after it went into her schools time capsule. Griffin becomes convinced that the girl is reading from a speech secretly prepared for the Queen to broadcast in the event of a nuclear war. Meanwhile Sasha is distracted by a romantic entanglement with a charming record shop owner and Gerry is dreading his future son-in-law Robins stag night, which promises to be something very special...

Gerry attempts to clear his name before his enemies catch up with him. Sasha and Steve get Fionas help to examine the evidence against the clock. Danny takes Gerry on the run as they look for the proof they need to prove his innocence.

Ted leads an investigation into the apparent suicide of a city trader in the 80s.

The boys investigations take them to a lookalike agency whose top acts were found dead.

The team investigate when a skeleton is uncovered in the foundations of a swimming pool.

The team investigate the bloody murder of a political activist 15 years ago.