Series synopsis
Law & Order: UK is a British drama television series that premiered on ITV1 on February 23, 2009. It ended on June 11, 2014. It stars Bradley Walsh, Jamie Bamber, Harriet Walter and Ben Daniels.
Adapted from the hit US series, Law & Order: UK follows a team of police detectives and prosecutors representing the public interest in the criminal justice system.
Premise
Adapted from the hit US series, Law & Order: UK follows a team of police detectives and prosecutors representing the public interest in the criminal justice system.
Cast and characters
Leading cast
- Bradley Walsh as Ronnie Brooks
- Jamie Bamber as Matt Devlin
- Harriet Walter as Natalie Chandler
- Ben Daniels as James Steel
- Freema Agyeman as Alesha Phillips
- Bill Paterson as George Castle
- Dominic Rowan as Jake Thorne
- Peter Davison as Henry Sharpe
Supporting cast
- Paterson Joseph as Wes Layton
- Paul Nicholls as Paul Nicholls
- Georgia Taylor as Kate Barker
- Ben Bailey Smith as Joe Hawkins
Guest cast
Episodes
This series spans 8 seasons with 53 episodes.
| Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 7 | February 23, 2009 | April 6, 2009 |
| Season 2 | 6 | January 11, 2010 | February 15, 2010 |
| Season 3 | 7 | September 9, 2010 | October 21, 2010 |
| Season 4 | 6 | March 7, 2011 | April 11, 2011 |
| Season 5 | 6 | July 10, 2011 | August 14, 2011 |
| Season 6 | 7 | January 6, 2012 | February 17, 2012 |
| Season 7 | 6 | July 14, 2013 | August 18, 2013 |
| Season 8 | 8 | March 12, 2014 | June 11, 2014 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Care A body is found at a London hospital, but can the police and the Crown Prosecutors bring the person responsible to justice? |
February 23, 2009 |
| 2 |
Unloved When a teenager is murdered, the alleged killer's defence barrister has an audacious plan up her sleeve. |
March 2, 2009 |
| 3 |
Vice When a former vice cop is discovered beaten to death in an underpass, DS Ronnie Brooks and DS Matt Devlin find their investigation going in unexpected directions. |
March 9, 2009 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Samaritan A police officer is killed in a shoot out with a drug dealer. Based on the testimony of another dealer, Brooks and Devlin must determine whether back up was slow to arrive and left the officer to die because he was gay. |
January 11, 2010 |
| 2 |
Hidden Devlin and Brooks investigate the case of a 10 year-old girl, Jodie Gaines, who was kidnapped, and then found two weeks later dead, in a rubbish bin. A suspect is found but all is not as it seems. |
January 18, 2010 |
| 3 |
Community Service A homeless man is found beaten and unconscious in a park. Because he is bipolar his testimony is disjointed and make him unable to identify his attacked. A neighbourhood resident is charged with the premeditated attack. |
January 25, 2010 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Broken The terrifying CCTV image of a toddler being led to his death haunts this episode of Law & Order UK which deals with the difficult and morally complex issue of children who kill. As a society, we are very unforgiving of child killers but if the killers themselves are only children, it begs the question - who really is responsible for the crime? With two children in the frame, each blaming the other, can forensic evidence prove who is guilty of strangling little Conor to death? In an emotionally gut wrenching episode, George defies his superiors and instead takes instruction from the victim's mother who has a surprising point of view on the crime. Can the justice system, and ultimately the government, afford to be lenient? |
September 9, 2010 |
| 2 |
Hounded When the body of a 16 year old girl is found dead in her home in the middle of the afternoon, the investigating police cannot be sure a crime was even committed. With no forensic evidence and nothing to suggest the victim didn't die of natural causes, Matt and Ronnie question why they have been called out in the first place. However, the mother's victim believes she was raped because she never slept naked. On further investigation, an unlikely murder weapon is uncovered and a likely suspect - someone with whom Crown Prosecutor James Steel has a history. Determined the accused is guilty, James pursues him with every power available. Like a man possessed, he pushes the boundaries of the law to the legal limit. Is our hero persecuting an innocent man or justified in his convictions? |
September 16, 2010 |
| 3 |
Defence When three people are brutally murdered in a shop in central London and a fourth left for dead, Matt and Ronnie are up against the clock to find the killer who they fear could strike again at any moment. The nature of the attack was frenzied and brutal with the killer using a bayonet to slay his victims. With this information and a photofit, Matt and Ronnie are quickly must identify the killer before they strike again. James assumes a straightforward case ahead of him. However, things take an unexpected turn when he learns that the defendant has brilliant legal support. With the case for defence looking very strong, James' only hope is to convince a deluded defendant to accept responsibility for his crimes. |
September 23, 2010 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Help The police investigate the murder of a former professional footballer, Robert Nichols, who is found lying beside his car bludgeoned to death. He was on his way to meet his sister and was apparently replacing a flat tire when the attack occurred. The only thing taken was his very expensive watch. They manage to trace a passerby, Mike Jones, who initially denies having seen anything but eventually admits he was helping Nichols fix his flat. The police are naturally suspicious and believe Jones may have been the perpetrator. In checking into Nichols's background however, they learn he was a big-time gambler and owed well-known mobster Don Marsh a quarter of a million pounds. Jones obviously has good reason to lie since he saw who killed Nichols but the mobster has made it clear that his life is in danger if he testifies. |
March 7, 2011 |
| 2 |
Denial A judge is badly injured when she is shot during what appears to be a car robbery. The investigation reveals that a hitman had been hired to kill her. |
March 14, 2011 |
| 3 |
ID The case starts with the murder of a doctor in the car park of the hospital where she works. What initially seems like a crime of passion soon unravels into a conspiracy involving senior government officials. Risking their careers, James and Alesha must get to the bottom of this case before another life is destroyed. |
March 21, 2011 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Wrong Man Brought into A&E with flu-like symptoms and leaving in a body bag, Suzanne Morton’s death is treated as suspicious by DS Ronnie Brooks and DS Matt Devlin as they investigate a hospital department which has had three such untimely deaths within six months. With an extremely busy A&E ward the night Suzanne died, can our heroes find the killer before the killer finds their next victim? Senior Crown Prosecutor, Jake Thorne is pulled in opposite directions when the chief suspect in the case claims to have been framed for the murder by others within his department. With a conspiracy of silence permeating the hospital staff, it’s clear that there’s more to this case than meets the eye and only by penetrating the web of professional loyalties can the truth emerge |
July 10, 2011 |
| 2 |
Safe When two year old Ryan Stark goes missing from a high street merry-go-round, his distraught mother, Kayla reports him kidnapped and a massive police hunt is launched to find the missing toddler. In spite of public appeals and additional police manpower, the search throws up more questions than answers. The legal case uncovers a history of dealings with the social services before Ryan went missing, something which alerts our heroes to the possibility that his mother isn’t being entirely truthful. With more than one suspect and little physical evidence, will Ryan’s family ever learn the truth of what happened to their baby boy? |
July 17, 2011 |
| 3 |
Crush Lying in a pool of blood, call girl Katka Cizek, seems to have only one admirer capable of her murder. A man with her on the night, a man without an alibi, a man with everything to lose were his secret obsession for her revealed. A seemingly cut and dry case, Alesha, given the reins to lead the cross-examination, begins to suspect someone has reason to frame the accused. Dogged in her pursuit of the truth, she unearths a betrayal of such enormity proving there are no winners in this case. |
July 24, 2011 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Survivor’s Guilt A drive-by shooting outside the Old Bailey leaves one police officer dead and another wounded in what appears to be a targeted attack on a witness in an attempted murder trial. However, Ronnie and the team are surprised to learn the gunman was specifically targeting police officers, believing his family victims of a police cover-up. The defense team argues their client has been subjected to racism by the police. Can Jake and Alesha convince the jury that the defendant ought to be tried as a murderer and not a victim? |
January 6, 2012 |
| 2 |
Immune A bungled robbery leads to an innocent hero being shot dead and a hostage with a potentially life threatening medical condition being seized by two armed gunmen. It's up to Ronnie and Sam to beat the clock and find the hostage in just ten hours. |
January 13, 2012 |
| 3 |
Haunted When a petty criminal makes a deathbed confession to the murder of a teenage girl, Ronnie is left shaken to the core as he is forced to reopen a case he thought he had put to bed fourteen years ago. |
January 20, 2012 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Tracks A suicidal man kills several people when he causes a catastrophic train crash, and Sam struggles to cope after one of the young victims dies in his arms. |
July 14, 2013 |
| 2 |
Tremors When a person is found dead in the cells, Sam becomes the main suspect, leaving Ronnie and Wes facing a race against time for them to get their hands on the real culprit. |
July 21, 2013 |
| 3 |
Paternal A man is found dead in a hotel room owing his ex-wife thousands of pounds in child support. The child's grandfather is the only suspect, but is the case that easily solved? |
July 28, 2013 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Flaw Ronnie and new partner Joe Hawkins, who has come from the child protection unit, investigate a gruesome double murder where the victims' hands and teeth were removed. |
March 12, 2014 |
| 2 |
Safe from Harm Philip Gardner, a psychiatrist specialising in troubled adolescents, is stabbed to death and Ronnie initially believes that one of his clients is the culprit. |
March 19, 2014 |
| 3 |
I Predict a Riot When a car is pulled from a river with a skeleton in its boot the pathologist reckons both have been there for a quarter of a century and eventually the dead man is shown to be Taylor Kane, one of the first black undercover officers, who disappeared at the time of the Brixton riots. |
March 26, 2014 |
Production
Release
| Original network/platform | ITV1 |
|---|---|
| First aired | February 23, 2009 |
| Last aired | June 11, 2014 |
| Runtime | 48 minutes |
| Status | Ended |
| Schedule | at 21:00:00 |