- "You point a gun at someone, odds are you're gonna be taken out of the game."—Tony Clark
Station Under Investigation: Coverdale Road
When a youth is shot by armed police, years of resentment are set to explode into violence.
Provides examples of:
- Bathroom Stall of Angst: After the shooting Jelks hides in the bathroom at Coverdale Road and sobs while he listens to a couple of officers joke that it wouldn't be worth the £200 per week salary to get shot at.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Mo briefly puts on a London accent to pretend to be a friendly neighbour in order to trick Vernon's girlfriend into her and Tony into her flat to speak to Mikey.
- Cop Hater: The police are widely despised on the estate, which in turn has led Jameson to foster a culture of contempt amongst his officers for the people they've ostensibly been charged to protect.
- Damsel in Distress: Mo doesn't have very much to do in this episode besides hide behind Tony once a riot breaks out on the estate.
- Deadpan Snarker: Jameson, when he finds Deacon reading over Mikey's criminal record:Deakin: Just reading Michael Brandell's biography.Jameson: Won't spoil it for you if I tell you how it ends?
- Disappointed by the Motive: Tony is pretty disgusted when he realises that Mikey set Vernon up to get shot by the police just so he could get with Vernon's girlfriend.
- Downer Ending: Webb and Jelks are left traumatised by the shooting, Mikey gets away with killing his brother and Jameson gets to continue his heavy-handed approach to policing on his patch with public approval.
- The Dragon: Inspector Reith, who seems quite happy to smugly do Jameson's bidding.
- Due to the Dead: Tony suggests that the Brandells should have a closed casket at the wake, only for Mrs Brandell to angrily refuse because she wants everyone to see what the police have done to her son.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Mikey claims that even if word got out on the estate that he called the police on his own brother, his neighbours would support him because they'd see it as a case of him doing what he had to in order to protect Darren.
- I Don't Pay You to Think: Deakin's reaction when he learns that Tony's trying to investigate where the replica came from instead of just wrapping things up once it's been established that there are no charges to bring against Jelks and Webb.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Tony puts it to Mikey that he's actually the biological father of Vernon's son, Darren, but Mikey shrugs this off.
- Manly Tears:
- Jelks tears up as he goes over the sequence of events in the shooting with Tony.
- Tony seems pretty close to tears when he delivers the news of the shooting to the Brandells.
- Married to the Job: Sue gets upset when she realises that working in Complaints won't necessarily mean that she and Tony will get to spend more time together.
- Mistaken Identity: The police initially believe that they've shot Mikey Brandell, when they in fact shot his brother, Vernon.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Jameson blames some poor anonymous female PC for the fact that none of his officers knew the gun Vernon had was actually a replica:"Some soppy plonk passed me the wrong info. You know what they're like. Sitting on their fannies all day thinking about cock, minds only half on the job."
- Potty Emergency: Webb mentions when Tony and Mo come to see him at his house that he's been running back and forth constantly to the bathroom, presumably as a result of the stress he's been under. He jokes that he "must have an arsehole the size of a frying pan."
- Shoot Him, He Has a Wallet!: It's only after Vernon is shot and killed that the police learn that the gun he had was actually a replica.
- Shout-Out:
- "Goddess" by Patrick Wilson & Adam Routh can be heard playing on the kitchen radio of one of the estate residents when the police back-up arrives after Mikey's been shot.
- There's a Blues Brothers poster on one of the doors in the Brandells' flat.
- When Harry watches the tape of Vernon getting shot, he quips that they "won't be sending this to Jeremy Beadle", Beadle being a TV host at the time known for his Candid Camera Prank shows.
- Harry also says "that's all, folks" while watching the tape.
- When Tony sees the troops at Coverdale Road getting ready to go out onto the estate in riot gear, he asks them if they're "tooling up for the Relief of Mafeking."
- When Jameson hears about Mo and Tony going onto the estate without backup, he heads out while whistling "Ride of the Valkyries". The colour of the later riot sequence does seem to owe something to Apocalypse Now.
- Deakin references the Poll Tax riots when chewing out Tony for nearly triggering a riot on the Sowerville estate.
- The scenario of an intellectually disabled young man being killed by the state because of a snap judgement made by police about his Ambiguous Syntax is similar to the Real Life case of Derek Bentley, as dramatised in the 1991 film, Let Him Have It.
- The Stool Pigeon: Subverted. DS Roper tells Tony that he had previously leaned on Vernon by threatening to frame him for up to thirty burglaries in the area unless he gave them information on where Mikey had stashed a gun he'd used in a couple of robberies, but Vernon refused.DS Roper: "As far as Vern was concerned, Mikey had a solar ring-piece. You couldn't have got him to come in on his brother, not if his life depended on it."
- Villain with Good Publicity: After brushing off Tony's concerns about Jameson's leadership at Coverdale Road, Huxtable suggests that Jameson ought to be recommended for a commendation for his handling of the unrest on the estate.
- Vomiting Cop: Jelks throws up when he catches sight of Vernon's shot-out head.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Downplayed, but as the episode goes on, it seems as though Jameson is losing touch with the reality of his situation, particularly when rides out into the riot on the estate like a Victorian admiral surveying the battlefield:"Inform Her Majesty that the Union Jack and the white ensign are once again flying over the Sowerville estate."
- Yet Another Baby Panda: The episode closes with Tony listening to the news on the radio, which mentions the Sowerville estate and the death of Tinker, who was best known for playing the TV character, Wondermutt.
