New Tricks Series 4 Spoilers

[Jessie Wallace]

When Brian Lane is left to fend for himself for a few days by Esther, his dog, Scampi, digs up a skeleton on a routine walk on the common, as the drama about an unlikely team of crack detectives continues.

Back in the office, the team receives an unusual amount of interest in the details of the human remains from a local youth worker, Andrew Bartlett, and the widow of a notorious criminal, Jackie Small, who goes on to confess to killing her husband's lover, Tina Murphy.

Having discovered that the skeleton is actually 600 years old, Brian is keen to get involved in the case, but is forbidden to do so by Det Supt Pullman under DAC Strickland's instruction.

The boys finally convince Pullman to let them pursue both Jackie Small and Bartlett after Jack Halford looks into Bartlett's past and discovers he was interviewed in connection with the disappearance of an MP, Neil Williams, some years earlier. The MP's body was never discovered, but his then business partner, Michael Evans, is serving life for his murder. The team needs to find out if the common hides the grim remains of more than one victim, and Brian enlists the help of a local academic, Professor Alice Sandwell.

Det Supt Sandra Pullman is played by Amanda Redman, Gerry Standing by Dennis Waterman, Jack Halford by James Bolam, Brian Lane by Alun Armstrong, DAC Strickland by Anthony Calf, Jackie Small by Pippa Haywood, Andrew Bartlett by Philip Jackson and Professor Alice Sandwell by Selina Cadell.

[Jessie Wallace]

When a camera and film belonging to Stuart Sharpe, a photographic lab assistant murdered in 1987, are discovered in the toilets of a Soho pub, the team of unlikely crack detectives enters the glamorous, but murky, world of modelling to reinvestigate the young man's killing, as the drama continues.

After the film has been tested and processed, the team discovers two images that stand out from the standard christening and wedding shots – a junkie shooting up and a long-lens shot of a couple kissing. However, it is not the images found on the film that raises eyebrows, but the traces of sperm. The motive at the time of the original investigation was thought to be robbery, but the retrieval of the camera and film would suggest otherwise.

Stuart's brother, Kevin, a paparazzi photographer, identifies the shot of the couple kissing as one of his own pictures of footballer Denny Clacy. But who is the junkie featured in the other shot and what links the two images?

Gerry Standing's daughter, Emily, joins the team when she turns to Det Supt Sandra Pullman, rather than the man she believes to be her father, to help her fulfil her professional ambition. Apart from feeling snubbed, Standing isn't convinced that Pullman is the right role model for Emily as he doesn't want to see his daughter sacrifice her personal life for the job. But is Pullman about to prove him wrong about her life being all work and no play, when she becomes close to former model Chris Parr during the course of the investigation?

Meanwhile, Brian Lane starts to unravel emotionally and psychologically. Even by his normally eccentric standards, Lane's behaviour and fragile state of mind is alarming.

Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman is played by Amanda Redman, Gerry Standing by Dennis Waterman, Jack Halford by James Bolam, Brian Lane by Alun Armstrong, Emily Driscoll by Hannah Waterman, Chris Parr by Jeremy Sheffield, Kevin Sharpe by Huggy Leaver and Denny Clacy by Peter De Jersey.

[Jessie Wallace]

Det Supt Pullman's trust in her team is shattered when she discovers they have hidden an important secret about her past from her, in the final episode of the current series about a team of unlikely crack detectives.

The news that her 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 Pullman 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.

Still reeling from the news, Pullman is asked to reinvestigate another family affair – the death of circus ringmaster The Great Miraculo, aka Bert Dignam, at the request of Christy Berlin, who has recently discovered that he was her biological father. But will the investigation at Spingles Circus be enough to distract Pullman from feeling utterly betrayed by her colleagues?

Det Supt Sandra Pullman is played by Amanda Redman, Gerry Standing by Dennis Waterman, Jack Halford by James Bolam, Brian Lane by Alun Armstrong, Grace Pullman by Sheila Hancock, Christy Berlin by Christine Tremarco, Oona Pearce by Gillian Bevan and Michael Meadowcroft by Ian McNeice.