The Unsolved Crime and Open case Squad return to BBC One for a final season of New Tricks.
Dennis Waterman will depart the long-running crime drama early in Season 12, with new regular cast member Larry Lamb (EastEnders) joining as ex-copper Ted Case, alongside returning regulars Tamzin Outhwaite, Denis Lawson and Nicholas Lyndhurst.
> Buy Season 11 on DVD on Amazon.
The team must put head over heart as one of their own is implemented in a case that spans three decades and shakes the police force to its core, while the very existence of UCOS also comes under threat.
Gerry becomes embroiled in a scandal that forces him to confront some skeletons in his closet, while Danny and Fiona take their relationship up a notch, Steve worries about his bank balance and everyone must pull together when Sasha is dealt a devastating blow.
The team is knocked sideways by the arrival of Ted Case: an old-school ex-copper who dives into his first case feet first, armed with only the gift of the gab and his trusty pocket lighter for good luck.
From bodies in the basement to skeletons in the swimming pool, lottery syndicates gone fatally wrong to making sense of The Madhouse, the UCOS team must pull together more than ever to uncover the city’s long buried secrets and bring justice to the streets of London.
Episode 1: ‘Last Man Standing (Part One)’
Tuesday 4 August 2015, 9pm
Gerry is spooked by the discovery of UCOS’ latest victim: a cop, whose body has laid untouched under a basement for thirty years.
As deep-rooted accusations of police corruption and underhand dealings begin to surface, Gerry has to face up to some skeletons in his own closet and it’s a race against time for the team to help before his murky past catches up with him.
While babysitting his grandson, Gerry becomes convinced that only he holds the key to the investigation and leaves the team quite literally holding the baby as he goes AWOL in a bid to uncover the truth.
Episode 2: ‘Last Man Standing (Part Two)’
Tuesday 11 August 2015, 9pm
Gerry fights to clear his name before his enemies catch up with him.
Sasha and Steve enlist Fiona to help examine the evidence against the clock, while Danny takes Gerry on the run as they search frantically for the proof they desperately need to prove his innocence – despite Gerry remaining tight-lipped about his involvement with dodgy dealings in his old unit.
The stakes are high as the team go after one of the biggest crime families in London and it’s those closest to Gerry who are dangerously put in the firing line.
Episode 3
Tuesday 18 August 2015, 9pm
Danny and Steve ‘welcome’ new boss Ted Case into the UCOS office in Sasha’s absence, but for all his wealth of experience, keen eye for detail and a killer instinct for detecting liars, they aren’t quite as sold on his superstitious quirks.
While busy trying to work one another out, the team must tread carefully in the case of a brutally murdered vicar who received racist hate mail in the lead up to his death. With emotions running high it’s up to Ted to pull together his new unit and keep the peace within a dangerously fractured family in one of UCOS’ most sensitive cases yet.
Elsewhere, a nervous Danny ends up bloodier than Fiona’s Beef Wellington when her parents come for dinner – while Steve sharpens up for his new boss.
Episode 4
Tuesday 25 August 2015, 9pm
Ted leads an investigation into the apparent suicide of a city trader, embroiled in the cut throat world of London’s financial district back in the eighties.
With Ted capitalizing on his acting talents, the team delve deeper into the macho fraternity of ‘the wolfpack’ and soon find a darker side to the debauchery, secret hand signals and all-nighters that bonded the traders together – including a strict hierarchy that might just be worth killing for.
Sasha’s nose is put out of joint when she returns to a different kind of boy’s club and Steve tries to learn some trade secrets on the job, amid his own financial crisis.
Episode 5
Tuesday 1 September 2015, 9pm
With Sasha back on fighting form, UCOS investigate the death of a talented cricket prodigy: star of the pitch and apple of his father’s eye – yet loathed by his fellow team mates.
The death was recorded as misadventure but with new evidence pointing to infighting, over-zealous autograph hunters and extramartial affairs, UCOS are soon bowled over by the list of potential murder suspects.
Wise to Steve’s monetary problems, Danny appoints himself as personal financial advisor and enforces a strict no-frills, no-fun budget for Steve – but can’t escape his own worries about telling his ex-wife about his relationship with Fiona.
Sasha cracks down on the boys’ lackluster fitness and reluctance to come to the ‘cursed’ Mum and Dad’s Do, and the team are pleased to finally meet Ted’s better half.
Episode 6
Tuesday 8 September 2015, 9pm
While Sasha is occupied with an intensive training course, the boys’ investigations take them to a lookalike agency, where their top two acts were found dead in an apparent double suicide 13 years ago.
In an industry reliant on the art of the illusion and their suspects intent on giving them the run-around, Ted, Steve and Danny are convinced there’s more to this case than first meets the eye.
Steve can’t contain his excitement when their enquiries take them to the door of one of his football heroes – but his glee is short-lived when he remembers an expensive promised birthday gift. Sasha tries to instill discipline in her son Alex, and Danny and Fiona end up in a stalemate over their living situation.
Episode 7
Tuesday 15 September 2015, 9pm
UCOS investigate the murder of a private investigator, who is stabbed through the heart in a suspected robbery gone wrong.
The answers may well lie with the victim’s last three cases, but it’ll take the whole team’s expertise to crack the codes within his mysterious notebook. The movements of a rare collectable stamp ‘Russian Cousin’ could hold the key to the whole investigation – if only UCOS could track it down.
Steve rents out his flat to a pair of demanding and hot-tempered Italians while Ted is determined to avoid a trip to the doctor for fear of coming face to face with his own mortality.
Episode 8
Tuesday 22 September 2015, 9pm
A skeleton uncovered in the foundations of a swimming pool is identified as Cheryl – a young, pretty lottery winner reported missing 17 years ago.
UCOS’s prime suspects are her fellow quiz team mates, who won their lucky windfall as part of a syndicate. But while some have put their money to good use, the victim’s boyfriend has fallen on hard times and the media remain convinced he is the prime suspect in her murder.
As allegations of affairs, fights and betrayal begin to surface, the team are left to ponder whether money really is the root of all evil.
Sasha is set for a night in studying, but the boys have different plans and plot to set her up with Fiona’s colleague Adam.
Episode 9
Tuesday 29 September 2015, 9pm
A blood-stained bust is uncovered during some reconstruction work in a cemetery, pointing UCOS to the murder of an alternative medicine practitioner, bludgeoned to death seven years ago.
The evidence leads to the pioneering but controversial world of cryopreservation – the practice of keeping ‘clinically dead’ patients frozen in time to extend their life cycle.
In a sensitive case, with the watchful eye of their bosses upon them, Sasha is determined that her team won’t put a foot wrong. But with suspects constantly running rings around them and the sobering possibility that two perpetrators are still at large, UCOS must go out on a limb if they are to unlock their most difficult cold case yet.
Fiona is offered a job too good to be true in Aberdeen, leaving Danny bereft at the thought of losing her. Ted is devastated when he realises he’s lost his lucky cigarette case, and Sasha has an interesting offer from the notoriously cut-throat Assistant Commissioner Cynthia Kline.
Episode 10
Tuesday 6 October 2015, 9pm
UCOS is threatened with closure following their perceived mishandling of the Henway case.
Their final case begins with the bloody murder of a political activist 15 years ago at The Madhouse – a hub for those suffering from mental health issues.
Just as the team are getting somewhere, the order comes from above for Ted, Danny and Steve to cease the investigation. But in true UCOS spirit, the boys throw away the rulebook and uncover something much bigger than just a straight forward murder, involving some top officials, a multinational drugs company and signs of a massive cover up.
Danny and Fiona’s relationship hangs in the balance as she must give an answer to the job offer in Aberdeen and Sasha is pulled into a game of political cat and mouse as she realises UCOS are merely puppets in Cynthia’s game.
Watch the Season 12 trailer…
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