Cry Havoc

A violent thug on a Housing estate attacks and seriously injures a Sergeant, then on the run he attacks another Officer.

Wow, it comes as no surprise that this is the highest rated episode of the 2400 strong series, it is still a tremendous watch. Twenty four minutes of thrilling, pulse racing drama.

So many interesting strands, the plight of Peters and Stringer, normally you get one dramatic character story, here we're given two. Sun Hill has had its fair share of drama in recent times.

A masterclass from a very young Marc Warren, who doesn't look massively different all these years on.

Even Bob Cryer's reflection on his current situation is fascinating.

Stringer has been a somewhat anonymous character for quite a while, here though he's finally given a big storyline, and Dow was tremendous here.

This is the show I remember from my childhood, what do we have similar in 2021, the closest is probably Doctors, and I'm sure most people feel the same way about that as I do.....

Absolutely brilliant this one, 10/10.

You may notice that a lot of episodes were characters die/get seriously injured are voted highly on here and this is no exception and is perhaps a great example of why they are rated so highly.

Alec Peters is out and about and gets mixed up with a violent criminal, who ends up stabbing him. The whole gang rallies round to help, even Brownlow pops up at the hospital. While we are all waiting to find out if he lives or not a few other things are happening.

1) Cryer is facing his own mortality and age reflecting on Penny's shooting (S3) and the stabbing. One of the first times you see him get quite defensive about it telly Kathy to get back to the cad room. A nice mention of Penny as it always drives me nuts in shows when characters leave and they literally fall off the earth like they never existed... The Bill was a rare exception.

Next we have poor Barry Stringer, he has lost contact on his radio and is on his way to a get a new one when he bumps into the criminal covered in blood. Obviously unaware of the stabbing he thinks the guy has been hurt. Now really Barry is one of the few who would follow this guy into a derelict building and end up almost dying as a result.

I wonder who's idea it was to have June Ackland stay covered in blood for so long? So within character for her.

Marc Warren plays the criminal in question and he has become somewhat typecast. The first thing I saw him in was A touch of frost ep called "Paying the Price" (with various other greats stars) and he played a nutter in that one too. Why not I say no point fixing whats not broke.

Overall fantastic and sets the scene for a lot of what happens in the next few months.