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The "Law" includes JamieBamber (later replaced by Paul Nicholls) and Bradley Walsh as DS Ronnie Brooks (previously known for ''CoronationStreet'') [[PlayingAgainstType playing against type]] as a detective, and the "Order" includes Ben Daniels (now Dominic Rowan), Creator/FreemaAgyeman (now Georgia Taylor), PeterDavison, and Bill Paterson.
to:
The "Law" includes JamieBamber (later replaced by (now Paul Nicholls) and Bradley Walsh as DS Ronnie Brooks (previously known for ''CoronationStreet'') [[PlayingAgainstType playing against type]] as a detective, and the "Order" includes Ben Daniels (now Dominic Rowan), Creator/FreemaAgyeman (now Georgia Taylor), PeterDavison, and Bill Paterson.
Paterson (now PeterDavison).
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* ManlyTears: Matt lets loose with these at the end of "Confession"
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* SurvivorGuilt: The very title and theme of the episode dealing with [[spoiler: Matt's death. In the opening sequence, Ronnie is seen talking with his AA group, lamenting the fact that he was not able to get to Matt in time to push him out of the way and possibly even [[TakingTheBullet take the bullet]] for him. Then, in a conversation with Alesha, he bemoans the fact that unlike him, Matt never had a chance to experience marriage and fatherhood. Later, when talking with his killer, he goes even further. When he correctly deduces that the young man is so grief-stricken over his brother's death that he would take his place in order to bring him back, it's painfully obvious that he's voicing his own feelings about Matt. This is sadly evidenced by Matt's killer himself, as his actions stemmed from his desperation to alleviate his grief over his brother's own murder.]]
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* SurvivorGuilt: SurvivorGuilt:
** Matt is clearly struggling with this in "Confession", blasting himself for failing to protect his friend from from the priest who was abusing him and for failing to realize that his friend was suicidal.
** The very title and theme of the episode dealing with [[spoiler: Matt's death. In the opening sequence, Ronnie is seen talking with his AA group, lamenting the fact that he was not able to get to Matt in time to push him out of the way and possibly even [[TakingTheBullet take the bullet]] for him. Then, in a conversation with Alesha, he bemoans the fact that unlike him, Matt never had a chance to experience marriage and fatherhood. Later, when talking with his killer, he goes even further. When he correctly deduces that the young man is so grief-stricken over his brother's death that he would take his place in order to bring him back, it's painfully obvious that he's voicing his own feelings about Matt. This is sadly evidenced by Matt's killer himself, as his actions stemmed from his desperation to alleviate his grief over his brother's own murder.]]
** Matt is clearly struggling with this in "Confession", blasting himself for failing to protect his friend from from the priest who was abusing him and for failing to realize that his friend was suicidal.
** The very title and theme of the episode dealing with [[spoiler: Matt's death. In the opening sequence, Ronnie is seen talking with his AA group, lamenting the fact that he was not able to get to Matt in time to push him out of the way and possibly even [[TakingTheBullet take the bullet]] for him. Then, in a conversation with Alesha, he bemoans the fact that unlike him, Matt never had a chance to experience marriage and fatherhood. Later, when talking with his killer, he goes even further. When he correctly deduces that the young man is so grief-stricken over his brother's death that he would take his place in order to bring him back, it's painfully obvious that he's voicing his own feelings about Matt. This is sadly evidenced by Matt's killer himself, as his actions stemmed from his desperation to alleviate his grief over his brother's own murder.]]
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* WhamEpisode: "Deal". Even knowing that this would JamieBamber 's last episode doesn't make thos final minutes any less shocking.
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** Also averted in that the show has now been running for 7 seasons, totaling 40-something episodes, something very rare in British television.
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** Also averted in that the show has now been running for 7 seasons, totaling seasons--with plans for an 8th--totaling 40-something episodes, something very rare in British television.
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* SurvivorGuilt: The very title and theme of the episode dealing with [[spoiler: Matt's death. In the opening sequence, Ronnie is seen talking with his AA group, lamenting the fact that he was not able to get to Matt in time to push him out of the way and possibly even [[TakingTheBullet take the bullet]] for him. Then, in a conversation with Alesha, he bemoans the fact that unlike him, Matt never had a chance to experience marriage and fatherhood. Later, when talking with his killer, he goes even further. When he correctly deduces that the young man is so grief-stricken over his brother's death that he would take his place in order to bring him back, it's painfully obvious that he's voicing his own feelings about Matt.]]
to:
* SurvivorGuilt: The very title and theme of the episode dealing with [[spoiler: Matt's death. In the opening sequence, Ronnie is seen talking with his AA group, lamenting the fact that he was not able to get to Matt in time to push him out of the way and possibly even [[TakingTheBullet take the bullet]] for him. Then, in a conversation with Alesha, he bemoans the fact that unlike him, Matt never had a chance to experience marriage and fatherhood. Later, when talking with his killer, he goes even further. When he correctly deduces that the young man is so grief-stricken over his brother's death that he would take his place in order to bring him back, it's painfully obvious that he's voicing his own feelings about Matt. This is sadly evidenced by Matt's killer himself, as his actions stemmed from his desperation to alleviate his grief over his brother's own murder.]]
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* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler: Matt's killer. So angry and tormented over his brother's murder and the police's racially motivated bungling of the case that he ends up taking it out on someone completely undeserving of it, devastating Matt's loved ones as well as his own mother, who now has to contend with losing both her sons. That he ends the episode genuinely horrified and remorseful over what he's done--telling Matt's sister "I'm sorry I took your brother away from you--cinches it.]]
to:
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler: Matt's killer. So angry and tormented over his brother's murder and the police's racially motivated bungling of the case that he ends up taking takes it out on someone completely undeserving of it, devastating Matt's loved ones ones, as well as his own mother, who now has to contend with losing both BOTH of her sons. Not to mention that he's ruined his own life--he'd heretofore been a solid university student with a bright future ahead of him, but is now facing life in prison. That he ends the episode genuinely horrified and remorseful over what he's done--telling Matt's sister "I'm sorry I took your brother away from you--cinches you"--cinches it.]]
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Changed line(s) 143 (click to see context) from:
** Junior Crown Prosecutor Alesha Phillips, played by [[Creator/FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her" Agyeman]], now Kate Barker, played by Georgia Taylor.
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** Junior Crown Prosecutor Alesha Phillips, played by [[Creator/FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her" Agyeman]], now Agyeman]]
** Her replacement, Kate Barker, played by Georgia Taylor.
** Her replacement, Kate Barker, played by Georgia Taylor.
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Changed line(s) 81,82 (click to see context) from:
The "Law" includes JamieBamber (later replaced by Paul Nicholls) and Bradley Walsh as DS Ronnie Brooks (previously known for ''CoronationStreet'') [[PlayingAgainstType playing against type]] as a detective, and the "Order" includes Ben Daniels (now Dominic Rowan), Creator/FreemaAgyeman, PeterDavison, and Bill Paterson.
to:
The "Law" includes JamieBamber (later replaced by Paul Nicholls) and Bradley Walsh as DS Ronnie Brooks (previously known for ''CoronationStreet'') [[PlayingAgainstType playing against type]] as a detective, and the "Order" includes Ben Daniels (now Dominic Rowan), Creator/FreemaAgyeman, Creator/FreemaAgyeman (now Georgia Taylor), PeterDavison, and Bill Paterson.
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Changed line(s) 143 (click to see context) from:
** The Junior Crown Prosecutor is played by [[Creator/FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her" Agyeman]].
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** The Junior Crown Prosecutor is Alesha Phillips, played by [[Creator/FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her" Agyeman]].Agyeman]], now Kate Barker, played by Georgia Taylor.
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[[folder:Season 7]]
## "Tracks" ("Locomotion" [season 15])
## "Tremors" ("Aftershock" [season 6])
## "Paternal" ("Deadbeat" [season 7])
## "Fatherly Love" ("Family Values" [season 5])
[[/folder]]
## "Tracks" ("Locomotion" [season 15])
## "Tremors" ("Aftershock" [season 6])
## "Paternal" ("Deadbeat" [season 7])
## "Fatherly Love" ("Family Values" [season 5])
[[/folder]]
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Changed line(s) 107 (click to see context) from:
* UsefulNotes/BritishWeather: Also in spades. You can count on one hand the number of scenes where the weather doesn't appear to be chilly and/or rainy, judging both from what we can see, and by how the actors are dressed. It's especially glaring for an episode that will have time stamps indicating that it's mid-to-late spring, yet everyone is in coats and scarves and has visible breath. This was probably inevitable, given that the series is filmed in London.
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* UsefulNotes/BritishCoppers: Aside from the detectives, obviously, there are plenty of appearances by the other examples of this trope.
* UsefulNotes/BritishWeather:Also in spades. You can count on one hand the number of scenes where the weather doesn't appear to be chilly and/or rainy, judging both from what we can see, and by how the actors are dressed. It's especially glaring for an episode that will have time stamps indicating that it's mid-to-late spring, yet everyone is in coats and scarves and has visible breath. This was probably inevitable, given that the series is filmed in London.
* UsefulNotes/BritishWeather:
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** The killers in "Good Girl" and "Masquerade" were both lying about acting in self-defense following a rape. But whereas the killer in "Good Girl" was upset because her boyfriend was breaking up with her (he was fed up with her concealing their interracial relationship), the killer in "Masquerade" was panicked because her similarly-fed up lover ''insisted'' that she tell her parents about them.
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** The killers in "Good Girl" and "Masquerade" were both lying about acting in self-defense following a rape. But whereas the killer in "Good Girl" was upset because her boyfriend was breaking up with her (he was fed up with her concealing their interracial relationship), the killer in "Masquerade" was panicked because her similarly-fed up lover ''insisted'' that she tell her parents about them.them and was threatening to do so himself.
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* LondonGangster: Don Marsh, several drug lords, etc.
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* BritishBrevity: Each season has been only 6 or 7 episodes long, and this itself has resulted from a season of only 13 episodes that were split in half in order to align with British viewing habits. The American producers were frustrated by the length they had to work with: only 13 episodes per season. The UK producers were also frustrated by the length they had to work with: a grueling ''13 whole episodes per season!''.
** Also averted in that the show has now been running for 7 seasons, totaling 40-something episodes, something very rare in British television.
** Also averted in that the show has now been running for 7 seasons, totaling 40-something episodes, something very rare in British television.
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** The Junior Crown Prosecutor is played by [[Creator/FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her" Agyeman]]. .
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** The Junior Crown Prosecutor is played by [[Creator/FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her" Agyeman]]. .
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** The killers in "Good Girl" and "Masquerade" were both lying about acting in self-defense following a rape. But whereas the killer in "Good Girl" was upset because her boyfriend was breaking up with her (he was fed up with her concealing their interracial relationship), the killer in "Masquerade" was panicked because her similarly-fed up lover ''insisted'' that she tell her parents about them.
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** In the same episode, Merrick's attorney goes on a tear about how women who lie about rape (as she incorrectly thinks Alesha is doing) make things harder for the real victims. In the episode "Samaritan", Alesha herself says this when she realizes that the young woman they're prosecuting is lying about having acted in self-defense after being assaulted.
** Also from "Samaritan", Alesha blasts a reporter for printing a police report that makes their victim look like a sexual predator (thus lending credence to the defense's claims of self-defense), insinuating the journalist should be more sensitive to the victim since they're both minorities. He blasts her for trying to play the race card to suggest that he have sympathy for a rapist. Yet in the episodes "Survivor" and "Survivor's Guilt", she's infuriated when the others suggest that she be more sympathetic to the respective defendants because of their similar backgrounds.
** Also from "Samaritan", Alesha blasts a reporter for printing a police report that makes their victim look like a sexual predator (thus lending credence to the defense's claims of self-defense), insinuating the journalist should be more sensitive to the victim since they're both minorities. He blasts her for trying to play the race card to suggest that he have sympathy for a rapist. Yet in the episodes "Survivor" and "Survivor's Guilt", she's infuriated when the others suggest that she be more sympathetic to the respective defendants because of their similar backgrounds.
to:
** In the same episode, Merrick's attorney goes on a tear about how women who lie about rape (as she incorrectly thinks Alesha is doing) make things harder for the real victims. In the episode "Samaritan", "Masquerade", Alesha herself says this when she realizes that the young woman they're prosecuting is lying about having acted in self-defense after being assaulted.
** Also from"Samaritan", "Masquerade", Alesha blasts a reporter for printing a police report that makes their victim look like a sexual predator (thus lending credence to the defense's claims of self-defense), insinuating the journalist should be more sensitive to the victim since they're both minorities. He blasts her for trying to play the race card to suggest that he have sympathy for a rapist. Yet in the episodes "Survivor" and "Survivor's Guilt", she's infuriated when the others suggest that she be more sympathetic to the respective defendants because of their similar backgrounds.
** Also from
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* OldCopYoungCop: Ronnie and Matt (and later Sam). What's more, the former two really ''do'' develop a father/son bond, to the point where Ronnie outright says "he was like ''my'' son when [[spoiler: pleading with the mother of Matt's killer to convince her son to confess]], no doubt because of their mutually troubled pasts--Ronnie was an alcoholic who neglected his daughters while it's heavily implied that Matt was physically abused by his father/stepfather.
to:
* OldCopYoungCop: Ronnie and Matt (and later Sam). What's more, the former two really ''do'' develop a father/son bond, to the point where Ronnie outright says "he was like ''my'' son son" when [[spoiler: pleading with the mother of Matt's killer to convince her son to confess]], no doubt because of their mutually troubled pasts--Ronnie was an alcoholic who neglected his daughters while it's heavily implied that Matt was physically abused by his father/stepfather.
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* SurvivorGuilt: The very title of the episode dealing with [[spoiler: Matt's death, and a running theme throughout. In the opening sequence, Ronnie is seen talking with his AA group, lamenting the fact that he was not able to get to Matt in time to push him out of the way and possibly even [[TakingTheBullet take the bullet]] for him. Then, in a conversation with Alesha, he bemoans the fact that unlike him, Matt never had a chance to experience marriage and fatherhood. Later, when talking with his killer, he goes even further. When he correctly deduces that the young man is so grief-stricken over his brother's death that he would take his place in order to bring him back, it's painfully obvious that he's voicing his own feelings about Matt.]]
to:
* SurvivorGuilt: The very title and theme of the episode dealing with [[spoiler: Matt's death, and a running theme throughout.death. In the opening sequence, Ronnie is seen talking with his AA group, lamenting the fact that he was not able to get to Matt in time to push him out of the way and possibly even [[TakingTheBullet take the bullet]] for him. Then, in a conversation with Alesha, he bemoans the fact that unlike him, Matt never had a chance to experience marriage and fatherhood. Later, when talking with his killer, he goes even further. When he correctly deduces that the young man is so grief-stricken over his brother's death that he would take his place in order to bring him back, it's painfully obvious that he's voicing his own feelings about Matt.]]
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* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler: Matt's killer. So angry and tormented over his brother's murder and the police's racially motivated bungling of the case that he ends up taking it out on someone completely undeserving of it, devastating Matt's loved ones as well as his own mother, who now has to contend with losing both her sons. That he ends the episode genuinely horrified and remorseful over what he's done--telling Matt's sister "I'm sorry I took your brother away from you--cinches it.]]
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Changed line(s) 131,132 (click to see context) from:
* HelloAttorney: The Junior Crown Prosecutor is played by [[Creator/FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her" Agyeman]]. It's a shame that solicitor-advocates[[hottip:*:a solicitor who's undergone special training to get rights of audience in higher courts]] are not required to [[FetishFuel to wear wigs]] in court, though she's been wearing it in several episodes as of late.
** British porn is weird.
** British porn is weird.
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* HelloAttorney: HelloAttorney:
** The Junior Crown Prosecutor is played by [[Creator/FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her"Agyeman]]. It's a shame that solicitor-advocates[[hottip:*:a solicitor who's undergone special training to get rights of audience in higher courts]] are not required to [[FetishFuel to wear wigs]] in court, though she's been wearing it in several episodes as of late.
** British porn is weird.Agyeman]]. .
** The Junior Crown Prosecutor is played by [[Creator/FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her"
** British porn is weird.
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* [[FunWithInitialisms Initialism's]] [[NamesTheSame The Same]]: In America, CPS is [[LawAndOrderSVU Child Protection Services]] while in the UK it means Crown Prosecution Service.
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* [[FunWithInitialisms [[FunWithAcronyms Initialism's]] [[NamesTheSame The Same]]: In America, CPS is [[LawAndOrderSVU [[Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit Child Protection Services]] while in the UK it means Crown Prosecution Service.
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* SarcasticConfession: The husband of the victim in "Denial" is outraged when he realizes that he's a suspect and proceeds to suggest that maybe their doorman did it because he wasn't given a tip. Sure enough, it's soon revealed that he arranged the hit on his wife.
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* UsefulNotes/BritishAccents: In spades. Accents and dialects from what seems like every part of London if not all of the UK and all the socioeconomic classes contained within.
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* BritainIsOnlyLondon: Despite the "UK" present in its title, the show is only set in London (and originally ''had'' the working title of Law and Order: London). That said, the filming locations clearly encompass all of the city, rather than merely the central London seen in most examples of this tropes.
* UsefulNotes/BritishAccents: In spades. Accents and dialects that appear to encompass every example of this trope, from what seems like every part of London if not all of the UK and all the socioeconomic classes contained within.
* UsefulNotes/BritishAccents: In spades. Accents and dialects that appear to encompass every example of this trope, from what seems like every part of London if not all of the UK and all the socioeconomic classes contained within.
* MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome: The killer in "Masquerade" claims to have acted in self-defense after the victim raped her. George shrewdly notes that public sympathy will be skewed in her favor, given that she's a pretty blonde girl while the murder victim is a Pakistani boy.
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* OldCopYoungCop: Ronnie and Matt (and later Sam). What's more, the former two really ''do'' develop a father/son bond, to the point where Ronnie outright says "he was like ''my'' son when [[spoiler: pleading with the mother of Matt's killer to convince her son to confess]], no doubt because of their mutually troubled pasts--Ronnie was an alcoholic who neglected his daughters while Matt was physically abused by his father/stepfather (it's never made clear which).
to:
* OldCopYoungCop: Ronnie and Matt (and later Sam). What's more, the former two really ''do'' develop a father/son bond, to the point where Ronnie outright says "he was like ''my'' son when [[spoiler: pleading with the mother of Matt's killer to convince her son to confess]], no doubt because of their mutually troubled pasts--Ronnie was an alcoholic who neglected his daughters while it's heavily implied that Matt was physically abused by his father/stepfather (it's never made clear which).father/stepfather.
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did someone edit out the creator or did I justnot save the changes?
Changed line(s) 73,74 (click to see context) from:
The "Law" includes JamieBamber (later replaced by Paul Nicholls) and Bradley Walsh as DS Ronnie Brooks (previously known for ''CoronationStreet'') [[PlayingAgainstType playing against type]] as a detective, and the "Order" includes Ben Daniels (now Dominic Rowan), FreemaAgyeman, PeterDavison, and Bill Paterson.
to:
The "Law" includes JamieBamber (later replaced by Paul Nicholls) and Bradley Walsh as DS Ronnie Brooks (previously known for ''CoronationStreet'') [[PlayingAgainstType playing against type]] as a detective, and the "Order" includes Ben Daniels (now Dominic Rowan), FreemaAgyeman, Creator/FreemaAgyeman, PeterDavison, and Bill Paterson.
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* HelloAttorney: The Junior Crown Prosecutor is played by [[FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her" Agyeman]]. It's a shame that solicitor-advocates[[hottip:*:a solicitor who's undergone special training to get rights of audience in higher courts]] are not required to [[FetishFuel to wear wigs]] in court, though she's been wearing it in several episodes as of late.
to:
* HelloAttorney: The Junior Crown Prosecutor is played by [[FreemaAgyeman [[Creator/FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her" Agyeman]]. It's a shame that solicitor-advocates[[hottip:*:a solicitor who's undergone special training to get rights of audience in higher courts]] are not required to [[FetishFuel to wear wigs]] in court, though she's been wearing it in several episodes as of late.
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Changed line(s) 73,74 (click to see context) from:
The "Law" includes JamieBamber (later replaced by Paul Nicholls) and Bradley Walsh as DS Ronnie Brooks (previously known for ''CoronationStreet'') [[PlayingAgainstType playing against type]] as a detective, and the "Order" includes Ben Daniels (now Dominic Rowan), Creator/FreemaAgyeman, PeterDavison, and Bill Paterson.
to:
The "Law" includes JamieBamber (later replaced by Paul Nicholls) and Bradley Walsh as DS Ronnie Brooks (previously known for ''CoronationStreet'') [[PlayingAgainstType playing against type]] as a detective, and the "Order" includes Ben Daniels (now Dominic Rowan), Creator/FreemaAgyeman, FreemaAgyeman, PeterDavison, and Bill Paterson.
Changed line(s) 130 (click to see context) from:
* HelloAttorney: The Junior Crown Prosecutor is played by [[Creator/FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her" Agyeman]]. It's a shame that solicitor-advocates[[hottip:*:a solicitor who's undergone special training to get rights of audience in higher courts]] are not required to [[FetishFuel to wear wigs]] in court, though she's been wearing it in several episodes as of late.
to:
* HelloAttorney: The Junior Crown Prosecutor is played by [[Creator/FreemaAgyeman [[FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her" Agyeman]]. It's a shame that solicitor-advocates[[hottip:*:a solicitor who's undergone special training to get rights of audience in higher courts]] are not required to [[FetishFuel to wear wigs]] in court, though she's been wearing it in several episodes as of late.
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* SurvivorGuilt: The very title of the episode dealing with [[spoiler: Matt's death. In the opening sequence, Ronnie is seen talking with his AA group, lamenting the fact that he was not able to get to Matt in time to push him out of the way and possibly even [[TakingTheBullet take the bullet]] for him. Later, when talking with his killer, he goes even further, implying that he loved Matt so much that even now he would take his place in order to bring him back.]]
to:
* SurvivorGuilt: The very title of the episode dealing with [[spoiler: Matt's death.death, and a running theme throughout. In the opening sequence, Ronnie is seen talking with his AA group, lamenting the fact that he was not able to get to Matt in time to push him out of the way and possibly even [[TakingTheBullet take the bullet]] for him. Then, in a conversation with Alesha, he bemoans the fact that unlike him, Matt never had a chance to experience marriage and fatherhood. Later, when talking with his killer, he goes even further, implying further. When he correctly deduces that he loved Matt the young man is so much grief-stricken over his brother's death that even now he would take his place in order to bring him back.back, it's painfully obvious that he's voicing his own feelings about Matt.]]
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Changed line(s) 73,74 (click to see context) from:
The "Law" includes JamieBamber (later replaced by Paul Nicholls) and Bradley Walsh as DS Ronnie Brooks (previously known for ''CoronationStreet'') [[PlayingAgainstType playing against type]] as a detective, and the "Order" includes Ben Daniels (now Dominic Rowan), FreemaAgyeman, PeterDavison, and Bill Paterson.
to:
The "Law" includes JamieBamber (later replaced by Paul Nicholls) and Bradley Walsh as DS Ronnie Brooks (previously known for ''CoronationStreet'') [[PlayingAgainstType playing against type]] as a detective, and the "Order" includes Ben Daniels (now Dominic Rowan), FreemaAgyeman, Creator/FreemaAgyeman, PeterDavison, and Bill Paterson.
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* HelloAttorney: The Junior Crown Prosecutor is played by [[FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her" Agyeman]]. It's a shame that solicitor-advocates[[hottip:*:a solicitor who's undergone special training to get rights of audience in higher courts]] are not required to [[FetishFuel to wear wigs]] in court, though she's been wearing it in several episodes as of late.
to:
* HelloAttorney: The Junior Crown Prosecutor is played by [[FreemaAgyeman [[Creator/FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her" Agyeman]]. It's a shame that solicitor-advocates[[hottip:*:a solicitor who's undergone special training to get rights of audience in higher courts]] are not required to [[FetishFuel to wear wigs]] in court, though she's been wearing it in several episodes as of late.
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* LongRunnerCastTurnover: Series 5 began with 1/3rd of the original cast gone, Series 6 with 1/2, and by the time Series 7 (by British standards, the show has been on a very long time) starts, Bradley Walsh will be the only original cast member remaining.
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* IronyAsSheIsCast: Matt butchering the French language when trying to interview a witness when in RealLife, JamieBamber speaks excellent French.
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** And in his final episode, James Steel does an excellent--and successful--job of defending himself against charges of "perverting the course of justice". It's a nice use of a ChekhovsSkill, as it's been mentioned several times that he used to be a defense attorney, though it's odd to hear him refer to himself in the third person as "the defendant".
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* AFoolForAClient-[[AvertedTrope Averted]] or semi-averted in two episodes: Convicted murderer Luke Slade wins himself a new trial in "Unsafe" based on newly discovered evidence, then an acquittal, just with the law he studied in prison, running rings around the seasoned prosecutors. Mentally ill defendant John Smith in "Defence" also chooses to represent himself, but he'd actually graduated law school before his schizophrenia took over, and even the prosecution agrees he'd have had potential as a lawyer.
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* AFoolForAClient-[[AvertedTrope Averted]] or semi-averted in two episodes: Convicted murderer Luke Slade wins himself a new trial in "Unsafe" based on newly discovered evidence, then an acquittal, just with the law he studied in prison, running rings around the seasoned prosecutors. Mentally The mentally ill defendant John Smith in "Defence" also chooses to represent himself, but he'd actually graduated law school before his schizophrenia took over, and even the prosecution agrees he'd have had potential as a lawyer.
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Changed line(s) 82 (click to see context) from:
* AFoolForAClient-The mentally ill defendant in "Defence" chooses to represent himself, but he'd actually graduated law school before his schizophrenia took over, and has enough skill that it nearly works.
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* AFoolForAClient-The mentally AFoolForAClient-[[AvertedTrope Averted]] or semi-averted in two episodes: Convicted murderer Luke Slade wins himself a new trial in "Unsafe" based on newly discovered evidence, then an acquittal, just with the law he studied in prison, running rings around the seasoned prosecutors. Mentally ill defendant John Smith in "Defence" also chooses to represent himself, but he'd actually graduated law school before his schizophrenia took over, and has enough skill that it nearly works.even the prosecution agrees he'd have had potential as a lawyer.
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* AFoolForAClient-The mentally ill defendant in "Defence" chooses to represent himself, but he'd actually graduated law school before his schizophrenia took over, and has enough skill that it nearly works.
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Reading the section on BritishCoppers is recommended for international viewers.
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Reading the section on BritishCoppers UsefulNotes/BritishCoppers is recommended for international viewers.
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* BritishAccents: In spades. Accents and dialects from what seems like every part of London if not all of the UK and all the socioeconomic classes contained within.
* BritishWeather: Also in spades. You can count on one hand the number of scenes where the weather doesn't appear to be chilly and/or rainy, judging both from what we can see, and by how the actors are dressed. It's especially glaring for an episode that will have time stamps indicating that it's mid-to-late spring, yet everyone is in coats and scarves and has visible breath. This was probably inevitable, given that the series is filmed in London.
* BritishWeather: Also in spades. You can count on one hand the number of scenes where the weather doesn't appear to be chilly and/or rainy, judging both from what we can see, and by how the actors are dressed. It's especially glaring for an episode that will have time stamps indicating that it's mid-to-late spring, yet everyone is in coats and scarves and has visible breath. This was probably inevitable, given that the series is filmed in London.
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* BritishAccents: UsefulNotes/BritishAccents: In spades. Accents and dialects from what seems like every part of London if not all of the UK and all the socioeconomic classes contained within.
*BritishWeather: UsefulNotes/BritishWeather: Also in spades. You can count on one hand the number of scenes where the weather doesn't appear to be chilly and/or rainy, judging both from what we can see, and by how the actors are dressed. It's especially glaring for an episode that will have time stamps indicating that it's mid-to-late spring, yet everyone is in coats and scarves and has visible breath. This was probably inevitable, given that the series is filmed in London.
*
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* BittersweetEnding: To many episodes where legal victory can come at a great cost. Driven home in "Survivor's Guilt"--[[spoiler: Matt's killer is caught, confesses, pleads guilty, and even sincerely apologizes for his actions. But despite all this, Matt, like so many other victims, can never be brought back.]]
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* GoodCopBadCop: Ronnie and Matt would often alternate these roles, sometimes in the very course of an interrogation, depending on what kind of person they were dealing with. Sam appears to have taken the latter role firmly.
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* GoodCopBadCop: Ronnie and Matt would often alternate these roles, sometimes in the very course of an interrogation, with varying versions of each, depending on what kind of person they were dealing with. Sam appears to have taken the latter role firmly.firmly.
** Some episodes even have them playing both roles--they're both very gentle and supportive of a young suspect in "Vice", and in "Samaritan". Ronnie grills a police officer suspected of leaving his colleague to die while Matt, who believes the man to be innocent, sits silently, leading the suspect (and the audience) to believe he'll be playing "Good Cop". Until Matt opens his mouth and surprises him (and the audience) by proceeding to interrogate him much in the same manner that Ronnie was. It turns out that thanks to some offscreen investigating that shows discrepancies in the man's story, Matt is now just as suspicious as Ronnie.
** Some episodes even have them playing both roles--they're both very gentle and supportive of a young suspect in "Vice", and in "Samaritan". Ronnie grills a police officer suspected of leaving his colleague to die while Matt, who believes the man to be innocent, sits silently, leading the suspect (and the audience) to believe he'll be playing "Good Cop". Until Matt opens his mouth and surprises him (and the audience) by proceeding to interrogate him much in the same manner that Ronnie was. It turns out that thanks to some offscreen investigating that shows discrepancies in the man's story, Matt is now just as suspicious as Ronnie.
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SpinOff of ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'', set in the UK, specifically London (it had a WorkingTitle of ''Law & Order: London''). The first 13 episodes made have been split into two seasons as {{ITV}} asked for an early delivery (or possibly for financial reasons- as the episodes don't appear on their accounts until they've aired)- the second half have already aired in Canada. A further 13 have been ordered. Since October 2010 the series has aired for North American audiences on BBC America.
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SpinOff of ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'', set in the UK, specifically London UsefulNotes/{{London}} (it had a WorkingTitle of ''Law & Order: London''). The first 13 episodes made have been split into two seasons as {{ITV}} Creator/{{ITV}} asked for an early delivery (or possibly for financial reasons- as the episodes don't appear on their accounts until they've aired)- the second half have already aired in Canada. A further 13 have been ordered. Since October 2010 the series has aired for North American audiences on BBC America.
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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lawandorderuk_7039.jpg]]
->''"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important, groups: the police who investigate crimes, and the Crown Prosecutors who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."''
'''[[MostWonderfulSound Chung! Chung!]]'''
SpinOff of ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'', set in the UK, specifically London (it had a WorkingTitle of ''Law & Order: London''). The first 13 episodes made have been split into two seasons as {{ITV}} asked for an early delivery (or possibly for financial reasons- as the episodes don't appear on their accounts until they've aired)- the second half have already aired in Canada. A further 13 have been ordered. Since October 2010 the series has aired for North American audiences on BBC America.
Thus far, each episode has been a remake of an episode of the original series, with the stories updated for the modern day and the UK legal system (a task the writers found harder than they'd thought- you can't chuck FelonyMurder at people in the UK [[note]] or plausibly (thanks to the UK's much stricter gun control laws) [[VigilanteExecution have the Spouse/Parent/Lover/Neighbor/BFF of the victim show up on the courthouse steps with a handgun to kill the baddie every time they appear to get off]][[/note]]). The episodes so far have been based on:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Season 1]]
## "Care" ("Cradle to Grave" [Season 2])
## "Unloved" ("Born Bad" [Season 4])
## "Vice" ("Working Mom" [Season 7])
## "Unsafe" ("American Dream" [Season 4])
## "Buried" ("...In Memory of" [Season 2])
## "Paradise" ("Heaven" [Season 2])
## "Alesha" ("Helpless" [Season 3])
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Season 2]]
## "Samaritan" ("Manhood" [Season 3])
## "Hidden" ("Bitter Fruit" [Season 6])
## "Community Service" ("Volunteers" [Season 4])
## "Sacrifice" ("Sonata for Solo Organ" [Season 1])
## "Love and Loss" ("Consultation" [Season 3])
## "Honour Bound" ("Corruption" [Season 7])
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Season 3]]
## "Broken" ("Killerz" [Season 10])
## "Hounded" ("Mad Dog" [Season 7])
## "Defence" ("Pro Se" [Season 6])
## "Confession" ("Bad Faith" [Season 5])
## "Survivor" ("Punked" [Season 9])
## "Masquerade" ("Good Girl" [Season 7])
## "Anonymous" ("Stalker" [Season 8])
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Season 4]]
## "ID" ("Promises To Keep" [Season 3])
## "Denial" ("DNR" [season 10])
## "Shaken" ("Homesick" [season 6])
## "Duty of Care" ("Endurance" [season 11])
## "Help" ("We Like Mike" [season 8])
## Skeletons" ("Trophy" [season 7])
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Season 5]]
## "The Wrong Man" ("Prescription for Death" [season 1])
## "Safe" ("Angel" [season 6])
## "Crush" ("Humiliation" [season 6])
## "Tick Tock" ("Hot Pursuit" [season 6])
## "Intent" ("Privileged" [season 5])
## "Deal" ("Slave" [season 6])
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Season 6]]
## "Survivor's Guilt" ("Suicide Box" [season 13])
## "Immune" ("Double Down" [season 7])
## "Haunted" ("Ghosts" [season 16] )
## "Trial" ("Double Blind" [season 6])
## "Line Up" ("Performance" [season 5])
## "Dawn Till Dusk" ("Mayhem" [season 4])
## "Fault Lines" ("Just A Girl In The World" [season 20])
[[/folder]]
The "Law" includes JamieBamber (later replaced by Paul Nicholls) and Bradley Walsh as DS Ronnie Brooks (previously known for ''CoronationStreet'') [[PlayingAgainstType playing against type]] as a detective, and the "Order" includes Ben Daniels (now Dominic Rowan), FreemaAgyeman, PeterDavison, and Bill Paterson.
The showrunner, by the way, is Creator/ChrisChibnall (of ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'').
Reading the section on BritishCoppers is recommended for international viewers.
----
'''This show contains examples of:'''
* ActorAllusion: the dead baby in the first episode is found at the Royal Hope Hospital, the name of the hospital Martha Jones worked at in her first ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "Smith and Jones".
* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: A mild case, as some of the changes between The Mothership and UK don't quite mesh with logic. For example: Steele's BatmanGambit in "Alesha" makes far less sense that it worked without the SmugSnake smirk of the defendant from "Helpless".
* AmoralAttorney: "Limbo" Riley, because of how low he'll stoop.
** Bea [=McArdle=], [[FoeYay who had a relationship with Steel]].
--> '''George''': "Just because you two used to do the headboard shuffle doesn't mean you have any insight into how she runs her defenses these days."
** Phyllis Gladstone, a virtual StrawFeminist who uses nearly every anti-male DoubleStandard trope in defending her female clients. Then she defends Alesha's rapist and still tries to spin this as an example of championing women's rights, claiming that she's doing it on behalf of the real victims whom Alesha is supposedly mocking with her FalseRapeAccusation.
** Miriam Pescatore
* AndStarring: Bill Paterson, head lawyer, gets the "And".
** As does PeterDavison.
* BerserkButton: Ronnie, for Matt. He freaks out if Ronnie's threatened.
** He has a very similar reaction (along with the rest of the team) to anything happening to Alesha. Oddly enough, in her case, his BerserkButton is just as evident in his visible struggle to NOT freak out.
*** And understandably, given both his explicit and implicit backstory, Matt's third BerserkButton is abused children.
*** "I been that kid, Ronnie."
** And as tragically seen in "Deals" and "Survivor's Guilt", Matt, for Ronnie.
--> (from "Confession": "God forbid Matty here got himself shot, I'd be out there straight away trying to find out who did it and string him up myself.")
** DI Natalie Chandler doesn't tolerate screw-ups from her detectives--or anyone else criticizing them.
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition[=/=]{{Retirony}}: Plays the first trope straight while simultaneously subverting the second. At the end of "Deal", Ronnie gushes to Matt about the birth of his grandson and the possibility of reconciling with his daughter. Minutes later. . .it's ''Matt'' who's been shot.
* BloodFromTheMouth: Matt, in the episode "Deals."
** May be a form of ActorAllusion then, given the eventual fate of [[spoiler: Archie Kennedy]] in [[Series/HoratioHornblower a certain historical naval drama series]].
** [[spoiler: Plus the fact that like Archie, Matt died making a HeroicSacrifice. Or the tendency of Jamie Bamber's characters [[ChronicallyKilledActor to get killed off]]]]
* BritishAccents: In spades. Accents and dialects from what seems like every part of London if not all of the UK and all the socioeconomic classes contained within.
* BritishWeather: Also in spades. You can count on one hand the number of scenes where the weather doesn't appear to be chilly and/or rainy, judging both from what we can see, and by how the actors are dressed. It's especially glaring for an episode that will have time stamps indicating that it's mid-to-late spring, yet everyone is in coats and scarves and has visible breath. This was probably inevitable, given that the series is filmed in London.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Defense counsel Jason Peters, an obsessive-compulsive germophobe who's never lost a case.
* CrossOver: JustForFun/JohnMunch hasn't turned up. Yet. And while the London setting is a bit out of the way for the New York based [[LawAndOrderSVU Special Victims Unit]] and [[LawAndOrderCriminalIntent Major Case Squad]], it's almost definitely going to happen at some point. One of the creators joked that it's a contractual obligation for Richard Belzer to appear in every Law & Order series.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Occasionally, the show will take a Mothership script and give it a darker, less-sympathetic spin:
** "Defence" - The defendant in [[LawAndOrder "Pro Se"]] was portrayed far more sympathetically; less trying to duck the consequences of his actions as clinging to a chance to do what he was trained to do and angry at the mental disease that led him to those acts. The defendant in "Defence" showed an utter lack of remorse for any of his actions and treated the whole thing like he'd smashed someone's window.
** "Safe" - in the original ("Angel"), the defendant was a disturbed woman who killed her infant daughter because she believed she'd be better off dead and in heaven than with her. In "Safe", the mother was a self-centered dullard who let her boyfriend abuse her son and killed him rather than let Child Services take the child (or hand him over to his biological father).
** "Confession". The PedophilePriest in the original episode "Bad Faith" was a pathetic loser who did nothing but make excuses for his behavior and try to blame everyone else for his actions. His counterpart in "Confession" was even worse--a menacing figure who alternated between showing absolutely no remorse for his crimes or smugly denying them outright and 25 years later was ''still'' trying to intimidate his former, now adult victims into keeping quiet.
* DirtyCop:
** The victim in "Vice" turns out to have been an AssholeVictim--he was blackmailing his killer for sex in exchange for not arresting her nor revealing her secret life as a prostitute. It's implied that he'd done this to other women.
** "Samaritan": The homophobic cop who did nothing to help his dying colleague because he disapproved of his sexual orientation.
** "Honor Bound": Jimmy Valentine, who is revealed to have been working for a local drug dealer, going so far as to steal evidence and murder a potential witness on his orders. Adding insult to injury, when he's arrested, he tries to implicate Ronnie as payback.
* {{Expy}}: You can clearly see the similarities between these characters and the ones from the American series.
** Brooks is clearly Lennie Briscoe, but less snarky.
** Also, Devlin is obviously Mike Logan
** Natalie is easily Anita Van Buren.
** George (and now Henry)= Adam Schiff.
** James Steel was not-quite-as-obviously Ben Stone (with Jack [=McCoy's=] personal life).
*** And in comes Jacob Thorne (Dominic Rowan), who is far closer to Jack [=McCoy=], love life intact. There is only one thing to take from this: [[ThePornomancer British prosecutors have fantastic love lives.]]
** Even some of the minor characters get this. For example, there are a lot of similarities between Phyllis Gladstone and Danielle Melnick, and a shrink the team often consults with bears a resemblance to Elizabeth Olivet.
* FalseRapeAccusation:
** Subverted with the killer is "Vice", who was being blackmailed for sex by the victim, but her claims that she killed him in self-defense when he tried to rape her outright prove untrue.
** Alesha is accused of making this by her assailant's defense lawyer.
** The killer in "Masquerade" claims the victim drugged and assaulted her (with a story that bears an eerie similarity to Alesha's) and that she killed him in self-defense. It turns out she was in a panic over his insistence on telling her parents about their relationship and concocted the story to avoid her bigoted father's wrath.
* GoneHorriblyRight: In "Unwanted", as in the original episode it was based on, The lawyer's 'Genetic predisposition toward violence' claim made the defendant believe he was cursed to never escape his DNA, and he asked to be permanently incarcerated.
* GoodCopBadCop: Ronnie and Matt would often alternate these roles, sometimes in the very course of an interrogation, depending on what kind of person they were dealing with. Sam appears to have taken the latter role firmly.
* HelloAttorney: The Junior Crown Prosecutor is played by [[FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her" Agyeman]]. It's a shame that solicitor-advocates[[hottip:*:a solicitor who's undergone special training to get rights of audience in higher courts]] are not required to [[FetishFuel to wear wigs]] in court, though she's been wearing it in several episodes as of late.
** British porn is weird.
** James Steel, Jacob Thorne, and a handful of the defense attorneys easily count as well.
* HeroicBSOD: Poor Ronnie is clearly in the throes of this at the beginning of "Survivor's Guilt", as evidenced by his stunned, shell-shocked expression and demeanor and his feeble, futile attempts to react like a police officer--"I was first on the scene"--rather than someone who just watched his partner/friend/surrogate son get shot [[spoiler: and in all likelihood, die right in front of him and is just utterly bewildered as to how one of the best days of his life (only minutes earlier he was gushing about the birth of his grandson) has turned into one of the worst, not to mention how he ended up having such a hellish experience AGAIN (he already lost a partner to violence)]].
* HeroicSacrifice [=/=] TakingTheBullet: Matt protecting Alesha and the young witness in their case from a hail of gunfire, taking two bullets that would otherwise have struck them.
* HonorBeforeReason: In "Samaritan" Ronnie insists on investigating the report that a police officer did nothing to aide his dying colleague, despite Matt's angry, steadfast refusal to believe it. The feelings are reversed in the aptly titled "Honor Bound", where it's Matt who insists on investigating an officer's murky account of a shooting, while Ronnie refuses to believe that his friend could be corrupt. In each case, with the evidence mounting, each man reluctantly concedes that the other is right and follows protocol.
* HopeSpot: there are occasions where the CPS look almost certain to gain a conviction but fall short (for example, "Alesha"). Some episodes [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zag]] the trope to get JusticeByOtherLegalMeans (e.g. "Alesha", "Love and Loss"). "Broken" inverts it when the CPS are trying to get a ten-year-old girl for manslaughter by diminished responsibility, but the [[{{Convicted By Public Opinion}} press latch onto the case and demand a murder conviction, which happens instead, ]] and "Deal" subverts it when the bad guy ''is'' convicted. All that's left to do is for Matt and Alesha to escort the young witness responsible into juvenile hall. But just then, a car pulls up . . .
* [[FunWithInitialisms Initialism's]] [[NamesTheSame The Same]]: In America, CPS is [[LawAndOrderSVU Child Protection Services]] while in the UK it means Crown Prosecution Service.
* INeverSaidItWasPoison[=/=]SayingTooMuch: During the prosecution of an accused rapist, the key witness is a young woman who had noticed him lurking about her apartment building (and may very well have been the intended victim had she not evaded him). The man angrily denies ever seeing the girl before, calling her a liar and referring to her many tattoos before covering his mouth in horror as he realizes his mistake--although the young woman's arms were indeed covered with tattoos, she was wearing a jacket. The only way he could have known about her tattoos was if he had seen her previously.
* IronicEcho:
** After raping Alesha, her assailant Dr. Merrick tauntingly asks her, "Didn't that feel good?" The rest of the team hears this while reviewing the tape of her attack. Later, as Matt and Ronnie arrest Merrick, he complains, "You're hurting me!" as Matt handcuffs him. To which Matt snarls, "Yes, I know. Didn't that feel good?"
** In the same episode, Merrick's attorney goes on a tear about how women who lie about rape (as she incorrectly thinks Alesha is doing) make things harder for the real victims. In the episode "Samaritan", Alesha herself says this when she realizes that the young woman they're prosecuting is lying about having acted in self-defense after being assaulted.
** Also from "Samaritan", Alesha blasts a reporter for printing a police report that makes their victim look like a sexual predator (thus lending credence to the defense's claims of self-defense), insinuating the journalist should be more sensitive to the victim since they're both minorities. He blasts her for trying to play the race card to suggest that he have sympathy for a rapist. Yet in the episodes "Survivor" and "Survivor's Guilt", she's infuriated when the others suggest that she be more sympathetic to the respective defendants because of their similar backgrounds.
* IronicEchoCut: In the episode "Vice", a car thief has the misfortune of being arrested for breaking into car that just happens to have a dead body in it.
-->'''Perp''': I didn't do it! I didn't do it! \\
(cut to next morning) \\
'''CSU''': He didn't do it. Must've been there ten, twelve hours.
* IronyAsSheIsCast: Matt butchering the French language when trying to interview a witness when in RealLife, JamieBamber speaks excellent French.
* ItsPersonal[=/=]OneOfOurOwn:
** "Vice": The victim turns out to have been a former police officer.
** "Alesha": [[BerserkButton Infuriated]] at what's happened to her, the group basically pulls out all the stops to bring her rapist to justice.
--> '''Ronnie''':" I ain't having some ponced-up Harley Street doctor thinking he can get away with this."
** "Samaritan": Not only is the victim a cop, so is the person indirectly responsible for his death (he didn't shoot him, but refused to help him).
** "Survivor's Guilt"
* JusticeByOtherLegalMeans: Lampshaded, and carried out, in Season 2. Subverted in Season 1, when Alesha's rapist is accquited of the charges regarding ''her'', but they are able to nail him for assaulting other women.
* LighterAndSofter: Many of the UK scripts have been altered to be less cynical or have more sympathetic defendants.
** For example, the bored housewife prostitute from "Working Mom" became a housewife who turned to prostitution to save her business and marriage in "Vice", the gang of cops who set up a gay officer in "Manhood" became a single homophobic cop who was intentionally slow to help in "Samaritan", and the unrepentant serial rapist of 12 women from "Mad Dog" became the victim of dreadful childhood abuse who essentially inevitably became a rapist himself and seemed horrified by his actions in "Hounded". There is also the boy in "Born Bad" is given a ray of hope in "Unloved" when he agrees to Steel's suggestion to see a psychologist while in prison despite believing that he is genetically disposed to violent crime.
** The [[AssholeVictim Asshole Victims]] tend to be watered down as well. For example, the victim in "Humiliation" was a drug-addicted streetwalker who was blackmailing a customer eventually arrested for her murder. In "Crush", she's an immigrant who resorted to working for [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold an escort service in order to make ends meet ]] and was hoping that her life would turn out like the plot of PrettyWoman.
** Some episodes even combine these tropes:
*** "Survivor": In the original "Punked", a woman was given an unduly harsh sentence for a minor drug crime that she may even have been innocent of and Abby is completely unsympathetic to her situation. In "Survivor", the woman was undeniably guilty of drug trafficking and received the standard sentence, yet refuses to take any responsibility for her actions and insists on blaming Alesha--who is portrayed as merely doing her job--for what happened to her and rebuffs her attempts to help.
*** "Survivor's Guilt": In the original ("Suicide Box") the perp was a young boy lashing out at the police for botching, then burying, his brother's murder. There, not only did circumstances pile up to increase the sympathy factor, the cop he shot was an unknown character who survived with just an injured arm. The perp in "Guilt" was an adult actively gunning for cops and his victim was a beloved character who perished. But many of the same mitigating factors were ported over from "Suicide Box" (The missing body, the botched investigation) along with the alleged killer being strongly implied to be lying about the murder for street cred.
* LondonTown: Despite being suffixed with "UK", it takes place solely in London. The working title of the series was ''Law and Order: London''.
* MisplacedRetribution: Matt is gunned down by a young man seeking revenge against the police for bungling the investigation into his brother's murder, a screw-up he believes was racially motivated. But rather than one of the cops who ''did'' botch the investigation, or the actual killer himself, he shoots someone who wasn't a racist, had nothing to do with the investigation in question, and if anything would have done everything possible to ''solve'' the case, claiming "all cops are the same", [[{{Hypocrisy}} essentially displaying the same prejudice he accused the police of]]. It also doesn't help that whatever satisfaction he may have gotten is fleeting--he can't bring his brother back, his mother now has to contend with losing ''both'' of her sons, and he gets to spend the rest of his life knowing the pain and misery he caused Matt's loved ones.
* NotHisSled: A nearly RecycledScript (even admitted so in the credits) had a major shift from the original story in the second half, when something that was a civil matter in New York was a criminal matter in London.
* NotProven: "Samaritan" ends this way.
* OldCopYoungCop: Ronnie and Matt (and later Sam). What's more, the former two really ''do'' develop a father/son bond, to the point where Ronnie outright says "he was like ''my'' son when [[spoiler: pleading with the mother of Matt's killer to convince her son to confess]], no doubt because of their mutually troubled pasts--Ronnie was an alcoholic who neglected his daughters while Matt was physically abused by his father/stepfather (it's never made clear which).
* PedophilePriest: Father Nugent in "Confession". Zig-zags between a screed against the Catholic Church as a whole and a portrayal of the Church as well-intentioned-but-legally-wrong. Not coincidentally aired less than a fortnight after the Pope's state visit to Britain.
* RecursiveImport: Has begun airing on BBC America.
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: As with all ''LawAndOrder'' series, but the third season opener, "Broken" (much like the original LawAndOrder episode that it was based on) is a particularly blatant replica of both the Jamie Bulger case, right down to the infamous CCTV footage of the killers leading the little boy away, and the Mary Bell case from the 60’s with the names changed right down to the girl carving her initials onto the victim, and the 13 year old sidekick that ended up not going to prison.
** However, there was one major difference. In RealLife the victims family’s were unhappy with the little sociopath's light sentence for cold blooded murder and her accomplice got off completely. On the show though the victim’s mother argued that her son’s murderess should not be punished and just needed rehabilitation and acted like her sentence (the same as the real Mary Bell) was too harsh. Needless to say the victims’ families were not happy with the change.
* SettingUpdate: Aside from the transfer to the UK, the dialogue from the much older episodes of the original series often needed to be upgraded to reflect modern times--technology, cultural references, etc. For example, in "Helpless", the rape victim recorded her assault on a tape recorder, while in "Alesha", she used a camera.
* ShortRunInPeru: Episodes 8 to 13 had already aired in Canada.
* ShoutOut: Chandler has a [[Series/DoctorWho TARDIS]] on her desk. ([[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Or maybe she just likes old fashioned Police Call Boxes?]] Nah, I don't believe it either.)
** There's also the murder victim in "Masquerade", named. . .Archie.
* SoundEffectsBleep (in America): [[ValuesDissonance "Tit" (not even referring to breasts, just "Don't make me look like a tit") gets bleeped while "bull/shit" gets a pass?]]
** Not to mention DI Chandler saying she'd like to "cut (the suspect's) dick off and ram it down his throat!" in "Alesha" went through.
* SpinOff: of the ''LawAndOrder'' franchise, of course.
* {{Sting}}: Yep, all present and correct.
* SurvivorGuilt: The very title of the episode dealing with [[spoiler: Matt's death. In the opening sequence, Ronnie is seen talking with his AA group, lamenting the fact that he was not able to get to Matt in time to push him out of the way and possibly even [[TakingTheBullet take the bullet]] for him. Later, when talking with his killer, he goes even further, implying that he loved Matt so much that even now he would take his place in order to bring him back.]]
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: The uber-grim episode "Deal" appears to be ending on a high note--Ronnie's daughter just had a baby boy, the murderous drug dealer has been convicted and Matt and Alesha are escorting the chief witness to juvenile detention, praising him for his courageous testimony. But out of nowhere, shots ring out, [[spoiler: and Matt is fatally injured protecting Alesha and the kid]].
** Though most GenreSavvy viewers would argue that this was foreshadowed by the [[BirthDeathJuxtaposition birth of Ronnie's grandson]].
* ThatOneCase: A few of the characters have had this (James, Ronnie). Unlike most examples, the case in question has been solved and put to rest, only for new evidence to surface years later indicating that the person convicted may be innocent.
* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs:
** The gangster Don Marsh expresses his contempt for the law in many ways, including addressing DS Brooks by his Christian name. Brooks will have none of it, insisting:
-->'''Brooks''': That's "Detective Sergeant Brooks" to you.
** Ronnie gets a similar moment on Matt's behalf when DirtyCop Jimmy Valentine indicates similar contempt for ''him'':
-->'''Valentine''': "This boy of yours, Devlin--"
-->'''Brooks''': ''DS'' Devlin, you mean?
** In yet another scene, he and Matt interrogate another cop whom they suspect of being on the take. When she expresses reluctance about testifying against Valentine, he very pointedly refers to her by her "Detective Sergeant" title to remind her of her duty.
** [[AmoralAttorney Phyllis Gladstone]] refers to Alesha as Jacob's assistant and insinuates that it's only a matter of time before she's sleeping with him. Alesha doesn't appreciate either implication:
--> '''Gladstone''': You'll fall for him eventually. All his assistants do.
--> '''Alesha''': When I see his "assistant", I'll be sure to warn her.
* ThemeMusicAbandonment: Though it must be said, this show ''does'' have [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPPmP4YnVdE a fairly rousing theme of its very own]].
* TransAtlanticEquivalent
* VigilanteMan: The defendant in "Community Service." He might not have started out like this but he's definitely one by [[DownerEnding the end]] thanks to a successful WoundedGazelleGambit on a bipolar homeless man who harassed his neighbors.
* WeAreEverywhere: A Neo-Nazi suspected of killing a Jewish man with a letter bomb make a speech like this, filling the air with tension, which DS Ronnie Brooks promptly bursts with:
--> Let us know when you're coming and we'll bung on a cup of tea for you.
* WholePlotReference: the stories are all based on US scripts.
* WrongGenreSavvy: When Brooks confronts his corrupt ex-partner, the man searches him and finds a wire. After destroying it, he confesses. It never occurred to him that Brooks would have ''another'' wire hidden in the pack of cigarettes he handed to him.
* YouDoNotHaveToSayAnything
* YuriFanboy: A suspect in the first episode.
----
->''"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important, groups: the police who investigate crimes, and the Crown Prosecutors who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."''
'''[[MostWonderfulSound Chung! Chung!]]'''
SpinOff of ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'', set in the UK, specifically London (it had a WorkingTitle of ''Law & Order: London''). The first 13 episodes made have been split into two seasons as {{ITV}} asked for an early delivery (or possibly for financial reasons- as the episodes don't appear on their accounts until they've aired)- the second half have already aired in Canada. A further 13 have been ordered. Since October 2010 the series has aired for North American audiences on BBC America.
Thus far, each episode has been a remake of an episode of the original series, with the stories updated for the modern day and the UK legal system (a task the writers found harder than they'd thought- you can't chuck FelonyMurder at people in the UK [[note]] or plausibly (thanks to the UK's much stricter gun control laws) [[VigilanteExecution have the Spouse/Parent/Lover/Neighbor/BFF of the victim show up on the courthouse steps with a handgun to kill the baddie every time they appear to get off]][[/note]]). The episodes so far have been based on:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Season 1]]
## "Care" ("Cradle to Grave" [Season 2])
## "Unloved" ("Born Bad" [Season 4])
## "Vice" ("Working Mom" [Season 7])
## "Unsafe" ("American Dream" [Season 4])
## "Buried" ("...In Memory of" [Season 2])
## "Paradise" ("Heaven" [Season 2])
## "Alesha" ("Helpless" [Season 3])
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Season 2]]
## "Samaritan" ("Manhood" [Season 3])
## "Hidden" ("Bitter Fruit" [Season 6])
## "Community Service" ("Volunteers" [Season 4])
## "Sacrifice" ("Sonata for Solo Organ" [Season 1])
## "Love and Loss" ("Consultation" [Season 3])
## "Honour Bound" ("Corruption" [Season 7])
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Season 3]]
## "Broken" ("Killerz" [Season 10])
## "Hounded" ("Mad Dog" [Season 7])
## "Defence" ("Pro Se" [Season 6])
## "Confession" ("Bad Faith" [Season 5])
## "Survivor" ("Punked" [Season 9])
## "Masquerade" ("Good Girl" [Season 7])
## "Anonymous" ("Stalker" [Season 8])
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Season 4]]
## "ID" ("Promises To Keep" [Season 3])
## "Denial" ("DNR" [season 10])
## "Shaken" ("Homesick" [season 6])
## "Duty of Care" ("Endurance" [season 11])
## "Help" ("We Like Mike" [season 8])
## Skeletons" ("Trophy" [season 7])
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Season 5]]
## "The Wrong Man" ("Prescription for Death" [season 1])
## "Safe" ("Angel" [season 6])
## "Crush" ("Humiliation" [season 6])
## "Tick Tock" ("Hot Pursuit" [season 6])
## "Intent" ("Privileged" [season 5])
## "Deal" ("Slave" [season 6])
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Season 6]]
## "Survivor's Guilt" ("Suicide Box" [season 13])
## "Immune" ("Double Down" [season 7])
## "Haunted" ("Ghosts" [season 16] )
## "Trial" ("Double Blind" [season 6])
## "Line Up" ("Performance" [season 5])
## "Dawn Till Dusk" ("Mayhem" [season 4])
## "Fault Lines" ("Just A Girl In The World" [season 20])
[[/folder]]
The "Law" includes JamieBamber (later replaced by Paul Nicholls) and Bradley Walsh as DS Ronnie Brooks (previously known for ''CoronationStreet'') [[PlayingAgainstType playing against type]] as a detective, and the "Order" includes Ben Daniels (now Dominic Rowan), FreemaAgyeman, PeterDavison, and Bill Paterson.
The showrunner, by the way, is Creator/ChrisChibnall (of ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'').
Reading the section on BritishCoppers is recommended for international viewers.
----
'''This show contains examples of:'''
* ActorAllusion: the dead baby in the first episode is found at the Royal Hope Hospital, the name of the hospital Martha Jones worked at in her first ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "Smith and Jones".
* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: A mild case, as some of the changes between The Mothership and UK don't quite mesh with logic. For example: Steele's BatmanGambit in "Alesha" makes far less sense that it worked without the SmugSnake smirk of the defendant from "Helpless".
* AmoralAttorney: "Limbo" Riley, because of how low he'll stoop.
** Bea [=McArdle=], [[FoeYay who had a relationship with Steel]].
--> '''George''': "Just because you two used to do the headboard shuffle doesn't mean you have any insight into how she runs her defenses these days."
** Phyllis Gladstone, a virtual StrawFeminist who uses nearly every anti-male DoubleStandard trope in defending her female clients. Then she defends Alesha's rapist and still tries to spin this as an example of championing women's rights, claiming that she's doing it on behalf of the real victims whom Alesha is supposedly mocking with her FalseRapeAccusation.
** Miriam Pescatore
* AndStarring: Bill Paterson, head lawyer, gets the "And".
** As does PeterDavison.
* BerserkButton: Ronnie, for Matt. He freaks out if Ronnie's threatened.
** He has a very similar reaction (along with the rest of the team) to anything happening to Alesha. Oddly enough, in her case, his BerserkButton is just as evident in his visible struggle to NOT freak out.
*** And understandably, given both his explicit and implicit backstory, Matt's third BerserkButton is abused children.
*** "I been that kid, Ronnie."
** And as tragically seen in "Deals" and "Survivor's Guilt", Matt, for Ronnie.
--> (from "Confession": "God forbid Matty here got himself shot, I'd be out there straight away trying to find out who did it and string him up myself.")
** DI Natalie Chandler doesn't tolerate screw-ups from her detectives--or anyone else criticizing them.
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition[=/=]{{Retirony}}: Plays the first trope straight while simultaneously subverting the second. At the end of "Deal", Ronnie gushes to Matt about the birth of his grandson and the possibility of reconciling with his daughter. Minutes later. . .it's ''Matt'' who's been shot.
* BloodFromTheMouth: Matt, in the episode "Deals."
** May be a form of ActorAllusion then, given the eventual fate of [[spoiler: Archie Kennedy]] in [[Series/HoratioHornblower a certain historical naval drama series]].
** [[spoiler: Plus the fact that like Archie, Matt died making a HeroicSacrifice. Or the tendency of Jamie Bamber's characters [[ChronicallyKilledActor to get killed off]]]]
* BritishAccents: In spades. Accents and dialects from what seems like every part of London if not all of the UK and all the socioeconomic classes contained within.
* BritishWeather: Also in spades. You can count on one hand the number of scenes where the weather doesn't appear to be chilly and/or rainy, judging both from what we can see, and by how the actors are dressed. It's especially glaring for an episode that will have time stamps indicating that it's mid-to-late spring, yet everyone is in coats and scarves and has visible breath. This was probably inevitable, given that the series is filmed in London.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Defense counsel Jason Peters, an obsessive-compulsive germophobe who's never lost a case.
* CrossOver: JustForFun/JohnMunch hasn't turned up. Yet. And while the London setting is a bit out of the way for the New York based [[LawAndOrderSVU Special Victims Unit]] and [[LawAndOrderCriminalIntent Major Case Squad]], it's almost definitely going to happen at some point. One of the creators joked that it's a contractual obligation for Richard Belzer to appear in every Law & Order series.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Occasionally, the show will take a Mothership script and give it a darker, less-sympathetic spin:
** "Defence" - The defendant in [[LawAndOrder "Pro Se"]] was portrayed far more sympathetically; less trying to duck the consequences of his actions as clinging to a chance to do what he was trained to do and angry at the mental disease that led him to those acts. The defendant in "Defence" showed an utter lack of remorse for any of his actions and treated the whole thing like he'd smashed someone's window.
** "Safe" - in the original ("Angel"), the defendant was a disturbed woman who killed her infant daughter because she believed she'd be better off dead and in heaven than with her. In "Safe", the mother was a self-centered dullard who let her boyfriend abuse her son and killed him rather than let Child Services take the child (or hand him over to his biological father).
** "Confession". The PedophilePriest in the original episode "Bad Faith" was a pathetic loser who did nothing but make excuses for his behavior and try to blame everyone else for his actions. His counterpart in "Confession" was even worse--a menacing figure who alternated between showing absolutely no remorse for his crimes or smugly denying them outright and 25 years later was ''still'' trying to intimidate his former, now adult victims into keeping quiet.
* DirtyCop:
** The victim in "Vice" turns out to have been an AssholeVictim--he was blackmailing his killer for sex in exchange for not arresting her nor revealing her secret life as a prostitute. It's implied that he'd done this to other women.
** "Samaritan": The homophobic cop who did nothing to help his dying colleague because he disapproved of his sexual orientation.
** "Honor Bound": Jimmy Valentine, who is revealed to have been working for a local drug dealer, going so far as to steal evidence and murder a potential witness on his orders. Adding insult to injury, when he's arrested, he tries to implicate Ronnie as payback.
* {{Expy}}: You can clearly see the similarities between these characters and the ones from the American series.
** Brooks is clearly Lennie Briscoe, but less snarky.
** Also, Devlin is obviously Mike Logan
** Natalie is easily Anita Van Buren.
** George (and now Henry)= Adam Schiff.
** James Steel was not-quite-as-obviously Ben Stone (with Jack [=McCoy's=] personal life).
*** And in comes Jacob Thorne (Dominic Rowan), who is far closer to Jack [=McCoy=], love life intact. There is only one thing to take from this: [[ThePornomancer British prosecutors have fantastic love lives.]]
** Even some of the minor characters get this. For example, there are a lot of similarities between Phyllis Gladstone and Danielle Melnick, and a shrink the team often consults with bears a resemblance to Elizabeth Olivet.
* FalseRapeAccusation:
** Subverted with the killer is "Vice", who was being blackmailed for sex by the victim, but her claims that she killed him in self-defense when he tried to rape her outright prove untrue.
** Alesha is accused of making this by her assailant's defense lawyer.
** The killer in "Masquerade" claims the victim drugged and assaulted her (with a story that bears an eerie similarity to Alesha's) and that she killed him in self-defense. It turns out she was in a panic over his insistence on telling her parents about their relationship and concocted the story to avoid her bigoted father's wrath.
* GoneHorriblyRight: In "Unwanted", as in the original episode it was based on, The lawyer's 'Genetic predisposition toward violence' claim made the defendant believe he was cursed to never escape his DNA, and he asked to be permanently incarcerated.
* GoodCopBadCop: Ronnie and Matt would often alternate these roles, sometimes in the very course of an interrogation, depending on what kind of person they were dealing with. Sam appears to have taken the latter role firmly.
* HelloAttorney: The Junior Crown Prosecutor is played by [[FreemaAgyeman Freema "Even The Girls Want Her" Agyeman]]. It's a shame that solicitor-advocates[[hottip:*:a solicitor who's undergone special training to get rights of audience in higher courts]] are not required to [[FetishFuel to wear wigs]] in court, though she's been wearing it in several episodes as of late.
** British porn is weird.
** James Steel, Jacob Thorne, and a handful of the defense attorneys easily count as well.
* HeroicBSOD: Poor Ronnie is clearly in the throes of this at the beginning of "Survivor's Guilt", as evidenced by his stunned, shell-shocked expression and demeanor and his feeble, futile attempts to react like a police officer--"I was first on the scene"--rather than someone who just watched his partner/friend/surrogate son get shot [[spoiler: and in all likelihood, die right in front of him and is just utterly bewildered as to how one of the best days of his life (only minutes earlier he was gushing about the birth of his grandson) has turned into one of the worst, not to mention how he ended up having such a hellish experience AGAIN (he already lost a partner to violence)]].
* HeroicSacrifice [=/=] TakingTheBullet: Matt protecting Alesha and the young witness in their case from a hail of gunfire, taking two bullets that would otherwise have struck them.
* HonorBeforeReason: In "Samaritan" Ronnie insists on investigating the report that a police officer did nothing to aide his dying colleague, despite Matt's angry, steadfast refusal to believe it. The feelings are reversed in the aptly titled "Honor Bound", where it's Matt who insists on investigating an officer's murky account of a shooting, while Ronnie refuses to believe that his friend could be corrupt. In each case, with the evidence mounting, each man reluctantly concedes that the other is right and follows protocol.
* HopeSpot: there are occasions where the CPS look almost certain to gain a conviction but fall short (for example, "Alesha"). Some episodes [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zag]] the trope to get JusticeByOtherLegalMeans (e.g. "Alesha", "Love and Loss"). "Broken" inverts it when the CPS are trying to get a ten-year-old girl for manslaughter by diminished responsibility, but the [[{{Convicted By Public Opinion}} press latch onto the case and demand a murder conviction, which happens instead, ]] and "Deal" subverts it when the bad guy ''is'' convicted. All that's left to do is for Matt and Alesha to escort the young witness responsible into juvenile hall. But just then, a car pulls up . . .
* [[FunWithInitialisms Initialism's]] [[NamesTheSame The Same]]: In America, CPS is [[LawAndOrderSVU Child Protection Services]] while in the UK it means Crown Prosecution Service.
* INeverSaidItWasPoison[=/=]SayingTooMuch: During the prosecution of an accused rapist, the key witness is a young woman who had noticed him lurking about her apartment building (and may very well have been the intended victim had she not evaded him). The man angrily denies ever seeing the girl before, calling her a liar and referring to her many tattoos before covering his mouth in horror as he realizes his mistake--although the young woman's arms were indeed covered with tattoos, she was wearing a jacket. The only way he could have known about her tattoos was if he had seen her previously.
* IronicEcho:
** After raping Alesha, her assailant Dr. Merrick tauntingly asks her, "Didn't that feel good?" The rest of the team hears this while reviewing the tape of her attack. Later, as Matt and Ronnie arrest Merrick, he complains, "You're hurting me!" as Matt handcuffs him. To which Matt snarls, "Yes, I know. Didn't that feel good?"
** In the same episode, Merrick's attorney goes on a tear about how women who lie about rape (as she incorrectly thinks Alesha is doing) make things harder for the real victims. In the episode "Samaritan", Alesha herself says this when she realizes that the young woman they're prosecuting is lying about having acted in self-defense after being assaulted.
** Also from "Samaritan", Alesha blasts a reporter for printing a police report that makes their victim look like a sexual predator (thus lending credence to the defense's claims of self-defense), insinuating the journalist should be more sensitive to the victim since they're both minorities. He blasts her for trying to play the race card to suggest that he have sympathy for a rapist. Yet in the episodes "Survivor" and "Survivor's Guilt", she's infuriated when the others suggest that she be more sympathetic to the respective defendants because of their similar backgrounds.
* IronicEchoCut: In the episode "Vice", a car thief has the misfortune of being arrested for breaking into car that just happens to have a dead body in it.
-->'''Perp''': I didn't do it! I didn't do it! \\
(cut to next morning) \\
'''CSU''': He didn't do it. Must've been there ten, twelve hours.
* IronyAsSheIsCast: Matt butchering the French language when trying to interview a witness when in RealLife, JamieBamber speaks excellent French.
* ItsPersonal[=/=]OneOfOurOwn:
** "Vice": The victim turns out to have been a former police officer.
** "Alesha": [[BerserkButton Infuriated]] at what's happened to her, the group basically pulls out all the stops to bring her rapist to justice.
--> '''Ronnie''':" I ain't having some ponced-up Harley Street doctor thinking he can get away with this."
** "Samaritan": Not only is the victim a cop, so is the person indirectly responsible for his death (he didn't shoot him, but refused to help him).
** "Survivor's Guilt"
* JusticeByOtherLegalMeans: Lampshaded, and carried out, in Season 2. Subverted in Season 1, when Alesha's rapist is accquited of the charges regarding ''her'', but they are able to nail him for assaulting other women.
* LighterAndSofter: Many of the UK scripts have been altered to be less cynical or have more sympathetic defendants.
** For example, the bored housewife prostitute from "Working Mom" became a housewife who turned to prostitution to save her business and marriage in "Vice", the gang of cops who set up a gay officer in "Manhood" became a single homophobic cop who was intentionally slow to help in "Samaritan", and the unrepentant serial rapist of 12 women from "Mad Dog" became the victim of dreadful childhood abuse who essentially inevitably became a rapist himself and seemed horrified by his actions in "Hounded". There is also the boy in "Born Bad" is given a ray of hope in "Unloved" when he agrees to Steel's suggestion to see a psychologist while in prison despite believing that he is genetically disposed to violent crime.
** The [[AssholeVictim Asshole Victims]] tend to be watered down as well. For example, the victim in "Humiliation" was a drug-addicted streetwalker who was blackmailing a customer eventually arrested for her murder. In "Crush", she's an immigrant who resorted to working for [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold an escort service in order to make ends meet ]] and was hoping that her life would turn out like the plot of PrettyWoman.
** Some episodes even combine these tropes:
*** "Survivor": In the original "Punked", a woman was given an unduly harsh sentence for a minor drug crime that she may even have been innocent of and Abby is completely unsympathetic to her situation. In "Survivor", the woman was undeniably guilty of drug trafficking and received the standard sentence, yet refuses to take any responsibility for her actions and insists on blaming Alesha--who is portrayed as merely doing her job--for what happened to her and rebuffs her attempts to help.
*** "Survivor's Guilt": In the original ("Suicide Box") the perp was a young boy lashing out at the police for botching, then burying, his brother's murder. There, not only did circumstances pile up to increase the sympathy factor, the cop he shot was an unknown character who survived with just an injured arm. The perp in "Guilt" was an adult actively gunning for cops and his victim was a beloved character who perished. But many of the same mitigating factors were ported over from "Suicide Box" (The missing body, the botched investigation) along with the alleged killer being strongly implied to be lying about the murder for street cred.
* LondonTown: Despite being suffixed with "UK", it takes place solely in London. The working title of the series was ''Law and Order: London''.
* MisplacedRetribution: Matt is gunned down by a young man seeking revenge against the police for bungling the investigation into his brother's murder, a screw-up he believes was racially motivated. But rather than one of the cops who ''did'' botch the investigation, or the actual killer himself, he shoots someone who wasn't a racist, had nothing to do with the investigation in question, and if anything would have done everything possible to ''solve'' the case, claiming "all cops are the same", [[{{Hypocrisy}} essentially displaying the same prejudice he accused the police of]]. It also doesn't help that whatever satisfaction he may have gotten is fleeting--he can't bring his brother back, his mother now has to contend with losing ''both'' of her sons, and he gets to spend the rest of his life knowing the pain and misery he caused Matt's loved ones.
* NotHisSled: A nearly RecycledScript (even admitted so in the credits) had a major shift from the original story in the second half, when something that was a civil matter in New York was a criminal matter in London.
* NotProven: "Samaritan" ends this way.
* OldCopYoungCop: Ronnie and Matt (and later Sam). What's more, the former two really ''do'' develop a father/son bond, to the point where Ronnie outright says "he was like ''my'' son when [[spoiler: pleading with the mother of Matt's killer to convince her son to confess]], no doubt because of their mutually troubled pasts--Ronnie was an alcoholic who neglected his daughters while Matt was physically abused by his father/stepfather (it's never made clear which).
* PedophilePriest: Father Nugent in "Confession". Zig-zags between a screed against the Catholic Church as a whole and a portrayal of the Church as well-intentioned-but-legally-wrong. Not coincidentally aired less than a fortnight after the Pope's state visit to Britain.
* RecursiveImport: Has begun airing on BBC America.
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: As with all ''LawAndOrder'' series, but the third season opener, "Broken" (much like the original LawAndOrder episode that it was based on) is a particularly blatant replica of both the Jamie Bulger case, right down to the infamous CCTV footage of the killers leading the little boy away, and the Mary Bell case from the 60’s with the names changed right down to the girl carving her initials onto the victim, and the 13 year old sidekick that ended up not going to prison.
** However, there was one major difference. In RealLife the victims family’s were unhappy with the little sociopath's light sentence for cold blooded murder and her accomplice got off completely. On the show though the victim’s mother argued that her son’s murderess should not be punished and just needed rehabilitation and acted like her sentence (the same as the real Mary Bell) was too harsh. Needless to say the victims’ families were not happy with the change.
* SettingUpdate: Aside from the transfer to the UK, the dialogue from the much older episodes of the original series often needed to be upgraded to reflect modern times--technology, cultural references, etc. For example, in "Helpless", the rape victim recorded her assault on a tape recorder, while in "Alesha", she used a camera.
* ShortRunInPeru: Episodes 8 to 13 had already aired in Canada.
* ShoutOut: Chandler has a [[Series/DoctorWho TARDIS]] on her desk. ([[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Or maybe she just likes old fashioned Police Call Boxes?]] Nah, I don't believe it either.)
** There's also the murder victim in "Masquerade", named. . .Archie.
* SoundEffectsBleep (in America): [[ValuesDissonance "Tit" (not even referring to breasts, just "Don't make me look like a tit") gets bleeped while "bull/shit" gets a pass?]]
** Not to mention DI Chandler saying she'd like to "cut (the suspect's) dick off and ram it down his throat!" in "Alesha" went through.
* SpinOff: of the ''LawAndOrder'' franchise, of course.
* {{Sting}}: Yep, all present and correct.
* SurvivorGuilt: The very title of the episode dealing with [[spoiler: Matt's death. In the opening sequence, Ronnie is seen talking with his AA group, lamenting the fact that he was not able to get to Matt in time to push him out of the way and possibly even [[TakingTheBullet take the bullet]] for him. Later, when talking with his killer, he goes even further, implying that he loved Matt so much that even now he would take his place in order to bring him back.]]
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: The uber-grim episode "Deal" appears to be ending on a high note--Ronnie's daughter just had a baby boy, the murderous drug dealer has been convicted and Matt and Alesha are escorting the chief witness to juvenile detention, praising him for his courageous testimony. But out of nowhere, shots ring out, [[spoiler: and Matt is fatally injured protecting Alesha and the kid]].
** Though most GenreSavvy viewers would argue that this was foreshadowed by the [[BirthDeathJuxtaposition birth of Ronnie's grandson]].
* ThatOneCase: A few of the characters have had this (James, Ronnie). Unlike most examples, the case in question has been solved and put to rest, only for new evidence to surface years later indicating that the person convicted may be innocent.
* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs:
** The gangster Don Marsh expresses his contempt for the law in many ways, including addressing DS Brooks by his Christian name. Brooks will have none of it, insisting:
-->'''Brooks''': That's "Detective Sergeant Brooks" to you.
** Ronnie gets a similar moment on Matt's behalf when DirtyCop Jimmy Valentine indicates similar contempt for ''him'':
-->'''Valentine''': "This boy of yours, Devlin--"
-->'''Brooks''': ''DS'' Devlin, you mean?
** In yet another scene, he and Matt interrogate another cop whom they suspect of being on the take. When she expresses reluctance about testifying against Valentine, he very pointedly refers to her by her "Detective Sergeant" title to remind her of her duty.
** [[AmoralAttorney Phyllis Gladstone]] refers to Alesha as Jacob's assistant and insinuates that it's only a matter of time before she's sleeping with him. Alesha doesn't appreciate either implication:
--> '''Gladstone''': You'll fall for him eventually. All his assistants do.
--> '''Alesha''': When I see his "assistant", I'll be sure to warn her.
* ThemeMusicAbandonment: Though it must be said, this show ''does'' have [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPPmP4YnVdE a fairly rousing theme of its very own]].
* TransAtlanticEquivalent
* VigilanteMan: The defendant in "Community Service." He might not have started out like this but he's definitely one by [[DownerEnding the end]] thanks to a successful WoundedGazelleGambit on a bipolar homeless man who harassed his neighbors.
* WeAreEverywhere: A Neo-Nazi suspected of killing a Jewish man with a letter bomb make a speech like this, filling the air with tension, which DS Ronnie Brooks promptly bursts with:
--> Let us know when you're coming and we'll bung on a cup of tea for you.
* WholePlotReference: the stories are all based on US scripts.
* WrongGenreSavvy: When Brooks confronts his corrupt ex-partner, the man searches him and finds a wire. After destroying it, he confesses. It never occurred to him that Brooks would have ''another'' wire hidden in the pack of cigarettes he handed to him.
* YouDoNotHaveToSayAnything
* YuriFanboy: A suspect in the first episode.
----
