New Tricks

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Episode Guide

Series six

Episode 1/8 The War against Drugs

Lane bites the bullet and enters rehab in a bid to tackle his alcoholism. But he's not alone for long. The rest of the team are led to the clinic by an offhand remark that opens up a cold case involving the death of a heroin-addict patient nine years earlier.

RT Choice (Alison Graham, 16 July 2009)

Alcoholic Brian spectacularly fell off the wagon at the end of the last series right in front of his long-suffering wife Esther. As this hugely entertaining, grown-up hybrid of Scooby-Doo and the Famous Five, or in this case the Famous Four, returns for a new series, he's gone into rehab.
But it wouldn't be New Tricks if Brian (Alun Armstrong) didn't find trouble in the oddest places, and he scents a mystery when he learns that a heroin addict died in suspicious circumstances at the clinic some years previously. The place is run by a sinister bunch of monks, headed by Victor Meldrew himself, Richard Wilson, so you know that nothing is what it seems. It doesn't take long for Brian's pals at the unsolved crimes unit - Sandra, Jack and Gerry - to join their old mate in lots of daft antics, including Gerry (Dennis Waterman) checking in as a sex addict.
It's a silly but engaging yarn spun in typical New Tricks-style, mixing farce with murder. In lesser hands this could be a queasy concoction, but here, it works perfectly.
Episode 2/8 The Truth is out There

The team looks into the death of a journalist, whom conspiracy theorists believe was killed by the US government to prevent him from exposing an alleged UFO crash.

RT Choice (Alison Graham, 23 July 2009)

The old geezers are drawn into what looks like an aged government cover-up of an alien crash-landing near a United States air base. The case isn't actually cold or even active, thus the investigation isn't official, but when have such pettifogging rules ever bothered the Four Musketeers?
Despite its inherent silliness, this is a good old-fashioned conspiracy thriller, packed with shadowy figures and hints of things that are not of this Earth. The Fast Show's Mark Williams plays a twitchy UFO-spotting nerd. All right, it's a cliché, but then this is New Tricks, not Samuel Beckett.
Brian (Alun Armstrong) is in his element, bouncing around with extravagant-sounding theories while his more restrained colleagues smile wryly, or even scoff openly. And of course the increasingly disreputable Gerry (Dennis Waterman) still finds time for a romantic diversion when he picks up yet another woman who's half his age.
Episode 3/8 Fresh Starts

The exhumation of a body leaves the team trying to piece together what really caused a fatal car crash.

RT Choice (Alison Graham, 30 July 2009)

The great thing about New Tricks is that you always know where you are with it, because the same thing happens every week. According to this well-polished template, one of the UCOS boys will stumble across a mystery while doing something mundane.
Tonight it's Gerry's turn. On a visit to a park with his grandson, the unfortunately named "little Gerry", he spots a well-dressed man (the suave Samuel West) lurking by the play area, scouring faces. It turns out he's not a pervert, but someone who's convinced he's seen his dead wife, killed in a car crash 18 months ago, on this very spot.
There's the usual initial light resistance from boss Sandra (Amanda Redman) when her team decides they want to take this off-beat, unofficial case. But, of course this is fleeting and she's soon sucked into the investigation, which involves a nice vicar (Hugh Dennis) and an angry Turkish immigrant teenager (impressively played by former Basil Brush companion and latterly Harry Potter actress Georgina Leonadis).