New Tricks Series 4 Spoilers

[Jessie Wallace]

Episode 1

Following the cliff-hanger ending of the last series, when Jack Halford finally discovered the identity of the hit-and-run driver who murdered his wife, he is now prepared to risk everything to kill the man responsible: crook Ricky Hanson. Determined that Hanson should meet the same fate as his wife, Halford lies in wait in a pub car park, engine running. As Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman becomes aware of the dangerous situation Halford has put himself in, she has to act fast to prevent him confronting his nemesis, resulting in a crash that jeopardises the future of the entire team.

With Gerry Standing, Brian Lane and Halford hospitalised, Pullman is forced to accept temporary help at UCOS from the super-efficient DCI Karen Hardwick, a woman who irritates Pullman on every level. As she struggles to keep the truth behind the crash a secret from DAC Strickland, Pullman becomes deeply suspicious that Hardwick has been recruited to spy on her. And with Halford clearly on the edge and suffering temporary memory loss since the crash, Pullman has her work cut out in trying to keep Hardwick in the dark.

Threatened by a new face in the office and desperate to prove that they are still a crack team, even from a hospital bed, the boys need a case. So when their consultant, Dr Finlay McKenzie, mentions the suspicious death of a patient, Alan White, on their ward 10 years ago, they seize the opportunity to reinvestigate, hoping it will hold the team together. At the time of the original investigation, the finger of blame pointed to the doctor and nurse in charge of the ward, both of whom have long since left the hospital. But as the team delves deeper into former teacher White's past, they uncover a history of child abuse and more than one victim whose life was destroyed by White's actions.

Detective Superintendent 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, Ricky Hanson by David Troughton, DCI Karen Hardwick by Lynda Bellingham and Dr Finlay McKenzie by John Sessions.

[Jessie Wallace]

Episode 2

Det Supt Sandra Pullman's private and professional worlds clash when her mother, Grace, suffers a fall and needs care, as the drama about a team of unconventional detectives continues.

Mother and daughter do not share a close relationship so, when Grace temporarily moves in with Sandra, sparks fly. However, the two do agree that Grace can no longer live on her own and they set about finding a suitable nursing home for her.

On the surface, Whitemead seems perfect, until one of the residents, Leonard, confides that the death a year previously of another elderly resident, his fiancée Maggie Newley, was covered up and passed off as suicide. Despite hearing this, and to Sandra's dismay, Grace sets her heart on moving in.

Since the alleged murder doesn't fall under her department's remit, but wanting to act in the best interests of her mother, Pullman is forced to turn a blind eye to her team's suggestion of an unofficial undercover investigation.

Jack Halford reluctantly agrees to play the role of an elderly relative and manages to secure a place for himself at the home. Like a thorn in Halford's side, Gerry Standing takes great delight in playing the concerned son visiting his old dad and, in an ironic twist, neurotic Brian Lane gets to play his doctor.

But it soon becomes clear that the calm façade of the home belies jealousies and petty crimes within. With Maggie's family and Leonard insisting that she would not have taken her own life, the team discover a link to her prescribed medication and that she had a love rival at the home, Pru Saunders. But would a dotty old woman really commit murder for love?

Detective Superintendent 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, Grace Pullman by Sheila Hancock, Pru Saunders by June Whitfield, Kim Newley by Gwyneth Strong, Daniel Newley by Adrian Rawlins and Leonard by Geoffrey Bayldon.

[Jessie Wallace]

Episode 3

When an armoured security van is found at the bottom of a lake, a link is made to Michael Dudley who disappeared 17 years ago, as the drama about a team of unconventional detectives continues. Michael's disappearance coincided with the murder of Marie Sinclair. With the discovery of the van revealing that it was ransacked whilst underwater, and with Marie's murder remaining unsolved, the team decides to reopen the case.

The chief suspect at the time, Marie's husband and owner of the security firm, Andrew Sinclair, continues to insist he is entirely innocent, but his story doesn't quite add up. A visit to the new owner of the security firm, Steve Palmer, doesn't provide Gerry Standing with records he was hoping to find, but it does result in Palmer making the cash-starved Standing an offer he can't refuse. Brian Lane looks into the dive clubs that would have had access to the lake over the years, which leads him to diving instructors Martin Viner and Trisha, but that appears to be another dead end.

Frustrated by the pace of the investigation, Pullman decides to make the dive herself to take a closer look at the van. It's a risky strategy, but it pays off when she finds the murder weapon on the van and the team is able to trace it back to Sinclair. But just when they finally believe they are getting closer to solving the case, a key witness is murdered.

Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman is played by Amanda Redman, Gerry Standing by Dennis Waterman, Jack Halford by James Bolam, Brian Lane by Alun Armstrong, Steve Palmer by George Baker, Martin Viner by David Harewood, Trisha by Claudia Harrison and Andrew Sinclair by Peter Hugo-Daly.

[Jessie Wallace]

Episode 4

A family feud erupts when a rich, lonely old woman, Dorothy Hepple, is found dead in her home, as the drama about a team of unconventional detectives continues. She 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 Halford suspicious.

There appears to have been no love lost between the late Ms Hepple and her neighbour, Tim Cuswell, and while 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.

New Tricks stars Amanda Redman as Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, Dennis Waterman as Gerry Standing, Alun Armstrong as Brian Lane and James Bolam as Jack Halford. Peter Baker is played by Victor McGuire, Harry by Adrian Scarborough, Caroline by Lindsey Coulson, Tim Cuswell by Eric Sykes and Dale Hewson by David Bamber.

[Chloe O'brien]

Good to see new tricks back on. Sheila Hancock willl give Amanda Redmond a run for her money as her mother.

[Jessie Wallace]

Yeh that should be a good one. It was also nice to see Lynda Bellingham in it the other day. This show always seems to bring in some class actors.

[Chloe O'brien]

Yeh that should be a good one. It was also nice to see Lynda Bellingham in it the other day. This show always seems to bring in some class actors.

They were brilliant together in "The Braithwaites"

[Jessie Wallace]

The team reinvestigates the Fifties murder of Frederick Tully, a young wages clerk at Battersea Power Station, as the drama about an unlikely team of crack detectives continues. Patrick Dunne was hanged for 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. And when Sir Edward Chambers, the key witness against Dunne, retracts his evidence, the team has reason to question the original investigation. However, with Hannah reluctant to co-operate with the police, it is left to Gerry Standing to charm her mother, June, in order to gain an insight into the case, which Standing takes a little too literally.

The original case against Dunne is weakened when the team discovers that the man leading the investigation was Tommy Collinson, an officer known for bending the rules and falsifying evidence in order to gain a result. Sir Edward found the murder weapon on a bus, but, when the team visits him to go through his statement, he claims that Collinson misled him into wrongly identifying Dunne as the man he saw that night.

A trace on the used fivers reveals that they should have been destroyed in the Battersea Power Station furnaces back in the Fifties, 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, the most useful of which were once again rescued by Murray and Tully. 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.

Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman is played by Amanda Redman, Gerry Standing by Dennis Waterman, Jack Halford by James Bolam, Brian Lane by Alun Armstrong, Sir Edward Chambers by George Cole, Hannah by Georgina Rylance, June by Jan Francis and Douglas Murray by Roy Hudd.

[Chloe O'brien]

Loved the scene when Dennis Waterman and James Bolam where singing in the nursing home.

[Jessie Wallace]

Oh that was a classic, it's such a good show tho, and all those it little like that just make it even better.

[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.