Series synopsis
New Tricks is a British drama comedy television series that premiered on BBC One on January 1, 2004. It ended on October 6, 2015. It was created by Nigel McCrery. It stars Dennis Waterman, Amanda Redman, James Bolam and Alun Armstrong.
New Tricks is a British comedy-drama that follows the work of the fictional Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad of the Metropolitan Police Service. Originally led by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes.
Premise
New Tricks is a British comedy-drama that follows the work of the fictional Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad of the Metropolitan Police Service. Originally led by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes.
Cast and characters
Leading cast
- Dennis Waterman as Gerry Standing
- Amanda Redman as Sandra Pullman
- James Bolam as Jack Halford
- Alun Armstrong as Brian Lane
- Tamzin Outhwaite as Sasha Miller
- Denis Lawson as Steve McAndrew
- Nicholas Lyndhurst as Danny Griffin
- Chiké Okonkwo as PC Clark
Guest cast
- Storme Toolis as Holly Griffin
- Jeremy Gittins as Vic (Speed Dater)
- Rita Tushingham
- Jenny Agutter as Yvonne Barrie
- Stephen Tompkinson
- Simon Dutton
- Kieran O'Brien as Michael Jacobs
- Seeta Indrani
- Natalie J. Robb
- Joseph Millson
- Eric Sykes
- Claudia Harrison
Episodes
This series spans 13 seasons with 120 episodes.
| Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 0 | 13 | March 27, 2003 | March 27, 2003 |
| Season 1 | 7 | January 1, 2004 | May 6, 2004 |
| Season 2 | 8 | May 9, 2005 | June 27, 2005 |
| Season 3 | 8 | April 17, 2006 | June 5, 2006 |
| Season 4 | 8 | April 9, 2007 | May 28, 2007 |
| Season 5 | 8 | July 7, 2008 | August 25, 2008 |
| Season 6 | 8 | July 16, 2009 | September 3, 2009 |
| Season 7 | 10 | September 10, 2010 | November 12, 2010 |
| Season 8 | 10 | July 4, 2011 | September 5, 2011 |
| Season 9 | 10 | August 27, 2012 | October 29, 2012 |
| Season 10 | 10 | July 30, 2013 | October 1, 2013 |
| Season 11 | 10 | August 18, 2014 | October 20, 2014 |
| Season 12 | 10 | August 4, 2015 | October 6, 2015 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Pilot 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. |
March 27, 2003 |
| 2 |
Season 6: Features, Behind The Scenes Behind The Scenes Season 6 |
|
| 3 |
Outtakes Seasons 1 to 7 outtakes and bloopers |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Pilot: The Chinese Job 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 man's wife killed the nightclub hostess out of jealousy. |
January 1, 2004 |
| 2 |
ID Parade UCOS investigate into the death of a policewomen-whose case was closed years ago-following the recovery of the murder weapon from a lake. |
April 1, 2004 |
| 3 |
Painting on Loan 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 |
April 8, 2004 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
A Delicate Touch Deputy Assistant Commissioner Robert Strickland is the new boss in charge of the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS). He asks the team to look into the death of David Barrie, a top barrister found in his car in 1980 after being bound and gagged. |
May 9, 2005 |
| 2 |
Family Business 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 |
May 16, 2005 |
| 3 |
Trust Me The team re-examine the case of Hannah Taylor who was kidnapped from her home in 1992. A body, previously thought to be Hannah's, has just been identified as that of another kidnap victim |
May 23, 2005 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Lady's Pleasure 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 |
April 17, 2006 |
| 2 |
Dockers 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. |
April 24, 2006 |
| 3 |
Old Dogs When a serial dog killer starts stalking local parks, the team are reluctantly forced into taking on the case. |
May 1, 2006 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Casualty 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. |
April 9, 2007 |
| 2 |
God's Waiting Room Sandra's 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. |
April 16, 2007 |
| 3 |
Ducking & Diving When an armoured van is discovered at the bottom of a lake, the team makes a link with the murder of a women 17 years ago. |
April 23, 2007 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Spare Parts 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. |
July 7, 2008 |
| 2 |
The Final Curtain 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. |
July 14, 2008 |
| 3 |
A Face For Radio The team reinvestigates the murder of a popular DJ who died live on air after an arson attack at 80s music station Roxy Radio. Lane is determined to find the missing Jack Halford when Pullman and Standing threaten to quit rather than work with a new team member. |
July 21, 2008 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The War Against Drugs Brian Lane enters rehab to treat his alcoholism, but the rest of the team soon join him. |
July 16, 2009 |
| 2 |
The Truth Is Out There The team find themselves at the centre of a shocking cover-up. |
July 23, 2009 |
| 3 |
Fresh Starts The team exhumes the body of a car crash victim after claims she has been seen alive. |
July 30, 2009 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Dead Man Talking 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. |
September 10, 2010 |
| 2 |
It Smells Of Books 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. |
September 17, 2010 |
| 3 |
Left Field 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) |
September 24, 2010 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Old Fossils 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) |
July 4, 2011 |
| 2 |
End of the Line 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 man's son. |
July 11, 2011 |
| 3 |
Lost in Translation The UCOS team are drawn into a world of immigration loopholes, Albanian gangs and family feuds when they reinvestigate the death of an unidentified male discovered on farmland outside Waltham Forest in 1996, in what appeared to be a crucifixion. |
July 18, 2011 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
A Death in the Family 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. |
August 27, 2012 |
| 2 |
Old School Ties 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. |
September 3, 2012 |
| 3 |
Queen And Country DS Pullman breaks the rules to explore a possible cover-up at the Foreign Office. |
September 10, 2012 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Rock: Part One Lane's future at UCOS is threatened by a death in custody which emerges from his past. Meanwhile, the discovery of a mysterious gun in the Thames re-opens the unsolved 1998 murder of a playboy shipping heir and leads the team to the Rock of Gibraltar. |
July 30, 2013 |
| 2 |
The Rock: Part Two 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. |
August 6, 2013 |
| 3 |
The Sins of the Father Brian Lane knows his days at UCOS are numbered. Meanwhile the team investigate a 16-year-old murder of a young mum by her criminal husband that could be a miscarriage of justice. However Gerry Standing feels very strongly that the conviction should not be called into question. |
August 13, 2013 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Bermondsey Boy 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. |
August 18, 2014 |
| 2 |
Tender Loving Care 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... |
August 25, 2014 |
| 3 |
Deep Swimming The team looks into the death of a terrorist 30 years previously after his daughter receives an anonymous note claiming he was murdered - an investigation that takes them right back to the Greenham Common anti-nuclear protests. Meanwhile, Sasha agrees to go for dinner with her ex-husband Ned, which he is hoping will lead to a reconciliation. |
September 1, 2014 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Last Man Standing, Part One Gerry feels spooked following the discovery of UCOS's latest victim, a policeman, whose body has lain untouched under a basement for the last 30 years. Accusations of police corruption and underhand dealings start to surface causing Gerry to face up to some skeletons in his own closet. |
August 4, 2015 |
| 2 |
Last Man Standing, Part Two Gerry attempts to clear his name before his enemies catch up with him. Sasha and Steve get Fiona's 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. |
August 11, 2015 |
| 3 |
The Curate's Egg Ted Case is welcomed by Danny and Steve into the UCOS office in Sasha's absence, but for all his wealth of experience, they aren't sold on his superstitious quirks. The team take a look at the case of a brutally murdered vicar who received racist hate mail in the lead up to his murder. |
August 18, 2015 |
Production
Release
| Original network/platform | BBC One |
|---|---|
| First aired | January 1, 2004 |
| Last aired | October 6, 2015 |
| Runtime | 60 minutes |
| Status | Ended |
| Schedule | Tuesday at 21:00:00 |