Summary
"New Tricks" is a detective series focusing on the work of the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS). UCOS is mainly made up of veteran detectives who took early retirement, only to find they missed cracking cases. The original squad included old-school copper Gerry Standing (Dennis Waterman), eccentric recovering alcoholic Brian "Memory" Lane (Alun Armstrong) and Jack Halford (James Bolam), the steady, sensible one. Together they can be a bit of a handful, but DS Sandra Pullman (Amanda Redman) is around to keep the old dogs on a tight leash. She's a no-nonsense individual with the unenviable job of introducing them to newfangled concepts like computers, DNA and political correctness. In the opening edition, the former detectives re-examine the case of a man whose conviction for murder 20 years earlier has just been overturned. The series has attracted a number of impressive guest stars, including Isla Blair, Cherie Lunghi, Keith Barron, Jane Asher, Stephen Tompkinson, Timothy West, Frances Barber, Richard Briers, Kevin Whately, George Cole, Eric Sykes, Richard Wilson and Annette Crosbie. James Bolam left the show after starring in eight series. Denis Lawson replaced him from the ninth series as retired DI Steve McAllister. Alun Armstrong exited the show halfway through the tenth series. Nicholas Lyndhurst joined the cast in series 10 as Danny Griffin. The hugely popular series premiered on BBC One in 2003.
