Stephen Tompkinson is back as DCI Alan Banks for a fourth season of contemporary crime drama DCI Banks.
Andrea Lowe (Monroe) also returns as DS Annie Cabbot, alongside Caroline Catz (Doc Martin) as DI Helen Morton.
> Buy Season 1 on DVD on Amazon.
Inspired by Peter Robinson’s books, Season 4 will feature “powerful personal stories for the lead characters, both in their private lives and in their work environment”, including a deeper exploration of Banks’ relationship with his parents, further complications in Annie and Banks’ on/off romance and a personal crisis that threatens Helen’s career.
Episode 1: ‘What Will Survive (Part One)’
Wednesday 4 March 2015, 9pm
When Banks’ suffers a massive personal loss, along with knowledge that Annie is back with her former boyfriend David, he is forced to navigate a complex murder investigation while still grieving.
A young Estonian woman is found dead on a piece of wasteground, suspected of being buried alive. As they piece together her movements, the team uncover a world of prostitution and drugs hidden behind a respectable veneer. They discover the murder victim had come to the UK searching for her sister, who went missing recently. No one wants to talk – but they eventually trace her sister’s pimp, who claims to run a legitimate escort business.
Helen and Banks make inroads with the prostitutes’ driver and Helen begins to suspect his autistic son might have had something to do with Katrin’s death, but when their house is burned down in a tragic fire Banks and his team begin to uncover an even more disturbing truth.
Episode 2: ‘What Will Survive (Part Two)’
Wednesday 11 March 2015, 9pm
The team are dismayed to discover that an arson attack at the Osgood’s house has injured Michael and killed his autistic son, Robbie. Helen and Annie collar the local lad who was bullying Robbie – Gary McCready. The investigation into the murder of Katrin Vesik and her missing sister, Annika, continues. They are intrigued when the body of an older man who died of natural causes is found buried near Katrin’s grave.
When Ken brings new evidence about the fire to light, Banks presses Michael for further information. Suspecting Jason McCready may have abducted Annika, Banks discovers a shocking secret that he has been keeping. Jason is arrested and questioned over the discovery, the dead man and the murder of Katrin, which he flatly denies.
Forensics prove Jason transported Katrin’s body. But does this mean that he is the murderer? Banks makes a moving speech at his mother’s funeral, where he shares a bonding moment with both Annie and his father.
Episode 3: ‘Buried (Part One)’
Wednesday 18 March 2015, 9pm
A husband and daughter struggle to come to terms with their grief when the body of wife and mother Anaan Kamel is found washed up by an underground river.
Suspicion falls on Marcus Leyton, a former employee of Anaan and Raheel’s law chambers, who was recently fired by Raheel – especially when texts between her and Marcus suggest an affair which progressed to blackmail on his part.
The team struggles to find further information about Marcus as his records only seem to go back five years. Banks and Helen believe that the family are hiding something when daughter Nafeesah makes up a story about her mother recently falling down the stairs, until she eventually reveals Anaan’s brother Bilal hit her in an argument over her conduct and faith. Bilal swears he is innocent of his sister’s killing.
When Marcus’s body is found upstream, the team are faced with a double murder. Evidence at the crime scene makes them suspect a contract killing and there seems to have been an eyewitness who has fled the scene. Banks wonders if the husband, Raheel, has ordered the killing.
Annie and Ken track down the witness, Geoff Dwyer who witnessed the killer. They persuade him to help create an E-fit, which matches Jacky Mullen, an ex-army man from Nottingham, known to have associated with a notorious14 loan-shark, Lewis Hargreaves. Banks discovers the facts that explain Marcus’s history and connections to Hargreaves.
Banks arrests Hargreaves and although he claims to have nothing to do with the murder, the police find a newspaper clipping about Marcus in his possession. Mullen traces where Geoff is living with his teenage daughter, Evie. He breaks in and scrawls a terrifying warning not to speak out.
Episode 4: ‘Buried (Part Two)’
Wednesday 25 March 2015, 9pm
Geoff is now a marked man. Banks puts him and his daughter Evie under watch at an anonymous hotel while he widens the search for gunman Mullen.
Annie and Ken use some ingenuity to procure an address for Mullen’s former girlfriend but he has just left when Banks bursts in. Mullen follows Evie’s boyfriend to the hotel where he smokes out Annie, Geoff and Evie by setting off the fire alarm.
Banks suspects loan shark Hargreaves is behind the hit and so despite having nothing concrete on him manages to extend his stay in the cell. The team use a combination of forensics and CCTV to trace Mullen to a disused match factory, but he once again evades them. They pursue him to a viaduct where he is cornered by Banks who talks him down and persuades him to hand over the gun.
Banks works out that the phone Anaan had in her locker actually belonged to her husband. Through diligent digging they discover Raheel met Marcus during Lewis Hargreaves’ trial, where Marcus was giving evidence. Raheel breaks down and explains all to Banks.
Annie reveals to Banks that David has asked her to move in with him and Banks is sworn to secrecy when he discovers how Helen’s personal circumstances have changed.
Episode 5: ‘Ghosts (Part One)’
Wednesday 1 April 2015, 9pm
The body of a university undergraduate, Josh Tate, is found dumped in a ravine, stabbed with something like a screwdriver. His flatmate, Spencer, says Josh was the quiet type – he last saw him heading off to his part time job at the uni lab.
As the team piece together his movements, a picture emerges of another Josh, who was infatuated with his friend Spencer’s lap-dancer girlfriend Melanie and was manufacturing ecstasy for club owner Fallon with the help of his biochemistry tutor.
Helen is unnerved by the arrival of former lover Martin Hexton, an undercover officer who claims to be working a case in Yorkshire, just as her husband Michael reveals he wants custody of their children. Evidence seems to point to Fallon as Josh’s murderer and the team head to arrest him. But breaking into his flat they find him badly beaten and it looks like Hexton might be responsible.
Banks is furious with Helen for not revealing the full extent of her relationship with Hexton earlier. She tries to win back his faith by leading him to Hexton’s B and B but Hexton has disappeared. Unbeknownst to the team, he now appears to be stalking Melanie.
Episode 6: ‘Ghosts (Part Two)’
Wednesday 8 April 2015, 9pm
Banks learns that missing former undercover policeman, Martin Hexton, was believed by his former boss to have gone rogue. Banks thinks that Hexton beat up a suspect in the Josh Tate murder – Liam Fallon – but Fallon swears he doesn’t know Hexton and didn’t see his assailant.
Helen, who is feeling ostracised, does some digging into Sarah Tate’s past and realises that Hexton is actually Josh’s biological father. The team get a lead on Hexton’s mobile and trace him to the Fosters, but they are too late – he has taken Melanie.
Melanie collapses and Hexton takes her to the hospital where Helen corners him and has him arrested. She and Banks question him over the beating of Fallon but he admits nothing. He explains that Josh believed Melanie was pregnant with his baby but the team discover she has had an abortion, and Melanie swears it wasn’t Josh’s. They eventually have to let Hexton go.
Banks realises that Spencer, Josh’s friend, is the most likely suspect for his murder, yet struggles to pin anything on him due to his protective and clever parents. But when Spencer is released, Hexton abducts him, taking him to the ravine where Josh’s body was found. Arthur galvanises Banks to fight for Annie but is Banks too late.
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