Line #191 Series/NewTricks


1	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/new-tricks1.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:310:[[DoItYourselfThemeTune It's all right, it's okay. Doesn't really matter if you're old and grey.]]]]
3	->''"You shoot one dog in this country..." ''
4	--> -- '''Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman'''
5
6	''New Tricks'' (2003-2015) is a [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] [[CrimeAndPunishmentSeries crime]] comedy/drama about the investigations of the Metropolitan Police's (fictional) Unsolved Crimes and Open Cases Squad (UCOS). Although mostly a MysteryOfTheWeek PoliceProcedural, it also combines a hint of AmateurSleuth in that most of the members of the squad are actually ''retired'' policemen employed to investigate unsolved crimes. The only serving police officer on the squad is the boss, Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman (Amanda Redman), an uptight, tough-as-nails investigator. Her previously high-flying career came crashing down to earth through an unfortunate [[KickTheDog dog-shooting]] [[MyGreatestFailure incident]], resulting in her reluctant appointment to the newly created UCOS. Faced with an unappealing selection of job applicants, she recruited:
7
8	* Jack Halford (James Bolam), an ex-Detective Chief Superintendent and Pullman's old boss and mentor, who left the job in grief over the unsolved hit-and-run death of his beloved wife Mary.
9
10	* Brian 'Memory' Lane (Creator/AlunArmstrong), a brilliant but highly eccentric and anti-social detective with an instant-recall memory and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. A recovered alcoholic.
11
12	* Gerry Standing (Dennis Waterman), a Jack-the-lad charmer with three ex-wives (that he is on excellent terms with), a gambling habit and some shady ethics, who left the force under suspicion of corruption after punching out his boss (who just happens to now be ''Pullman's'' boss). A softened-for-comedy version of what George Carter, Waterman's character in ''Series/TheSweeney'', would be like today, complete with long hair, wide flashy neckties, constant smoking etc.
13
14	In the course of of Series 9 (2012), Jack was PutOnABus and replaced with DI Steve [=McAndrew=], played by Denis Lawson (AKA [[Franchise/StarWars Wedge Antilles]]), a FishOutOfWater retired detective from Glasgow who originally came down to help with a case relevant to his past. In series 10 (2013) there was an even greater cast change, with Brian being replaced by DCI Dan Griffin (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and Sandra being replaced by DCI Sasha Miller (Tamzin Outhwaite). Gerry left the show in 2015, to be replaced by Ted Case (Larry Lamb).
15
16	Also frequently appearing were Pullman's bosses (Don Bevan in the pilot and first series, Robert Strickland in the second onwards) and Esther Lane (Susan Jameson), Brian's put-upon and long-suffering but loyal wife.
17
18	Although a mystery series, much of the interest in the show comes from the characters and their various eccentricities, and in particular the culture clash between modern police methods (represented by Pullman and her media-and-statistics conscious superiors) and the old-school ways (Halford, Lane and Standing are all cops from the seventies and eighties). Pullman is often exasperated by the corners cut and rules ignored by her colleagues, even as she herself is gradually 'corrupted' by them. In some ways, it can be said to foreshadow the popularity of ''Series/{{Life On Mars\|2006}}'', only instead of the boringly squeaky-clean modern copper being sent to the past to be 'corrupted' by it, the past's veteran coppers return in the present.
19
20	This is also a seriously popular show - ''repeats'' have been known to get eight million or more viewers, and they can be found pretty often at that. However, the ratings did eventually decline, leading the BBC to announce that Series 12 would be the last.
21
22	[[https://uktvplay.co.uk/shows/new-tricks/watch-online All episodes are available to stream via UKTV Play]] (as the name suggests, it's UK only).
23
24	----
25	!!Provides examples of:
26	* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in "London Underground". The one they end up investigating is actually the Fleet River, which has been paved over and turned into a sewer: the lore associated with the Fleet being central to the case they are investigating.
27	* AbusiveParents: "The English Defence" showed that even on his deathbed Robbie[= McAndrew=] has nothing but hatred for Steve, even though Steve is the one who arranged his medical care, and spends all his free time with him. It's later revealed his father would beat him for trivial reasons, such as dropping crumbs, and may hold some responsibility for the death of his mother. This is especially harsh considering Robbie has nothing but praise for Steve's sister, Alice, even though she hates him as much as Steve does, and refuses to visit him.
28	* TheAce: Danny. Knows martial arts, well read in just about everything, combines work with taking care of his disabled daughter, able to work out how to play football by reading the rule book and just applying basic physics. You name it, he can do it... [[spoiler: Unless what you name is "asking a woman out", but luckily for him Professor Kennedy can read between the lines.]]
29	* ActorAllusion:
30	** Jack Halford is played by James Bolam, who played Jack ''Ford'' in ''Series/WhenTheBoatComesIn''.
31	** There have been a few ''Franchise/StarWars'' references since Denis Lawson joined the cast.
32	* TheAllegedCar: Gerry's Triumph Stag. He keeps claiming it's a classic, but it is notoriously unreliable and when any other team member rides in it, they are always dubious as to whether it will get them to their destination.
33	* AmicableExes: Gerry and his ex-wives, to the point of hooking up every so often. Also, they have been seen dining together - not just Gerry and one ex, but Gerry and ''all'' his exes, who seem to get on with each other very well.
34	* AppealToObscurity: In "The Fame Game", Steve is interviewing an agent who specializes in celebrity lookalikes, and who bemoans that reality television has made celebrities ten a penny:
35	-->'''Agent:''' Who wants a lookalike when you can have Joey Essex?\
36	'''Steve:''' Who?\
37	'''Agent:''' Exactly.
38	* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Dan astonishes everyone with his mad skills in the neighbourhood 5-a-side football tournament, but he falls for the goalie throwing a dummy. It turns out he hasn't seen a single match in his life, he was just applying "basic physics".
39	* BadassFamily: Gerry's extended paternal family are more or less confirmed to be this in Season 6 episode "Meat is Murder" wherein it's revealed that his father, uncle and cousins and other Smithfield Market stallholders launched a CurbStompBattle revenge attack on a loan shark who had tried to force Gerry into becoming a DirtyCop and they won. The cousins involved remember this rather fondly, unnerving Jack in the process.
40	* BackstoryOfTheDay: Gerry seems to go back and forth between having a phobia of deeply wooded areas and not. He is afraid in "17 Years of Nothing" and "Into the Woods", but seems perfectly at home in "Wicca Work" (at least until his bad tea trip).
41	* BecomingTheMask: In the episode "Only The Brave" it turns out the murderer was [[spoiler:Reverse Mole Knowles]] who had gone native in the gang he was sent in to investigate.
42	* BeefBandage: In "The Curate's Egg", Fiona holds a slab of beef wellington on Danny's eye after he is punched by her father.
43	* BenevolentBoss: Strickland's grown into this role over time; having started as something of a politically-minded PointyHairedBoss he's gradually earned the respect of the team and vice versa. He eventually gets a DayInTheLimelight in the 9th season episode "Part of a Whole" where he proves himself to be ''seriously'' badass.
44	* BewareTheNiceOnes: Jack, whilst normally a pleasant, gentle sort of fellow, possesses a sharp and sometimes violent temper if someone (usually a murderer or corrupt cop) has ''really'' managed to annoy him. His interrogation of a phony psychic in one episode is conducted almost entirely in calm, reasonable tones, but it's extraordinarily evident that he is beyond outraged by the nature of the crime; watching the scene will send ''shivers down your spine''. Similarly, Brian is normally just a little bit awkward, but becomes more than a little bit scary when he hasn't been taking his medication.
45	* BewareTheSillyOnes: As detailed above in BadassFamily: Gerry's cousins [[ThoseTwoGuys Sid and Barry]] and the other Lestades come across as a goofy WackyWaysideTribe at first with the joke about the names ending in "-ry" with exception of [[OddNameOut Sid]] but they are ultimately revealed to [[TheDreaded be feared]] as Gerry threatens [[FatBastard Vernon "Mouthful" Murnaghan]] [[ShameIfSomethingHappened with exposure as a mole for loan shark Danny Paye in Smithfield to them]] unless he spills the beans on how he made his fortune.
46	* BillBillJunkBill: In the pilot, Jack sorts through the list of potential UCOS candidates Sandra has been given and delivers one of these speeches. Most of the candidates are dead. The rest...
47	-->'''Jack:''' ''(Throwing down the candidates' photos, one at a time)'' Dead... dead... as good as... alive, but he bores for England... retired, but currently under investigation by the CPS[[note]] Crown Prosecution Service, in the USA the equivalent would be the District Attorney or their office[[/note]]... ditto the DTI[[note]] Department of Trade and Industry[[/note]]... dead... alive, but don't leave him with your kids... retired sick - well, insane, really... dead... dead... [[NoodleIncident would be if I got hold of him]].
48	* BigEater: Sandra is the junk food queen. Kebabs, curry, fried chicken, bacon, pastries... and if the others can't finish, she'll have their leftovers.
49	* BigSecret: There are usually three or four of these per episode, invariably complicating the murder investigation.
50	* BlessedWithSuck: It's established that Brian's remarkable photographic instant-recall memory and outstanding abilities as a detective and forensic investigator are the direct result of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and a manic depression that, if he doesn't take his medication, leaves him with crippling, obsessive paranoia and at the best of times renders him an anti-social pedant. He is also a recovered alcoholic.
51	* TheBoxingEpisode: In "Gloves Off", the gun used to murder a talented young boxer 11 years ago surfaces in an armed robbery and UCOS is drawn into the darker side of professional boxing.
52	* BrokenPedestal: Sandra initially believed that her father, Detective Inspector Gordon Arthur Pullman, died of a heart attack in 1975. It turns out that he committed suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning as Jack was about to arrest him for attempting to cover up killing a small-time pimp. This drives a wedge between her and Jack for a time and her father's legacy continues to haunt her.
53	* BrotherSisterIncest: A case occurs in [[spoiler:"Couldn't Organise One"]], although here it turns out to provide an alibi for the murder.
54	* ButIReadABookAboutIt: Dan is widely read and has a lot of esoteric knowledge. But this trope really comes into play when he demonstrates mad skills at five-a-side football despite never having seen a match. He explains that when he learned they were going to be playing, he read several books on the subjects and the rest was "basic physics".
55	* ButtMonkey: Gerry's role, especially in later seasons, was to be the comedy relief and the butt of any joke going. He still gets plenty of moments reminding us that age has barely dampened his tough guy persona though.
56	* BystanderSyndrome:
57	** At the end of the pilot, the final arrest occurs at a dinner the villain is hosting, which results in a punch-up between the villain's family and friends and the cops, with everyone pitching in...except for one bloke, presumably not ''that'' fond of the villain, who just calmly finishes his meal with the chaos going on around him and walks out when everyone's gone, blithely muttering 'very nice' to the main characters as he leaves.
58	** In the same scene, Jack, Brian and Gerry -- having caused the fight in the first place -- decide discretion is the better part of valour and stand back to let the actual coppers take care of things, offering a running commentary all the while.
59	--->'''Gerry:''' ''(As Bevan gets knocked down)'' Same old glass jaw!\
60	'''Jack:''' ''(As Bevan climbs to his feet and punches his assailant)'' You see, he's not fully following through... ''(Mimes a punch.)''\
61	'''Brian:''' ''(As Bevan gets knocked down again)'' He's carrying too much weight.\
62	''(They duck out of the way as the police drag several people out of the room, the violence continuing apace.)''\
63	'''Brian:''' ''(As Sandra knocks down one of the villain's family)'' Aw, good effort.\
64	'''Gerry:''' ''(As Sandra keeps throwing punches)'' Dunno about you, but she's making me very excited.
65	* CarryingACake: The end of "The Curate's Egg" sees Steve arriving at the office with a fancy gateau (as part of an EscalatingWar between the team members involving pastries). Dan deliberately shuts the door in Steve's face, so Steve winds up wearing the gateau all over his chest.
66	* CastingGag: Dennis Waterman playing an old-fashioned copper is an obvious nod to his famous role as George Carter in ''Series/TheSweeney''.
67	* CelebrityImpersonator: In "The Fame Game", the boys’ investigations take them to a lookalike agency, where their top two acts were found dead in an apparent double suicide 13 years ago.
68	* ChainedToABed: The VictimOfTheWeek in "Prodigal Sons" was chained to a bed in what was supposed to be an act of publication humiliation, but turned into murder when the killer entered with a VorpalPillow.
69	* CharacterNameAlias: In "A Death in the Family", a witness gives the fake name of 'George Boole'. Brian recognises this as the name of a famous mathematician (the inventor of Boolean logic) and reasons that only another mathematician would have picked that name as a spur-of-the-moment alias.
70	* TheCharmer: Gerry.
71	* ChocolateBaby: Plays a role in the solution to "The Curate's Egg". A Polish woman had an affair with [[spoiler: the black son of the vicar]]. When she became pregnant, she married her boyfriend, hoping [[spoiler:the baby would be white]] and she could claim it was his. The baby was not white.
72	* CircusEpisode: In "Big Topped", the UCOS team face the challenge of explaining the death of a circus ringmaster who burned to death in his caravan, leaving only his feet behind.
73	* CoffinContraband: In "Life Expectancy", the murder weapon -- a marble bust -- was buried in a grave underneath a coffin.
74	* ColdReading: Used by a fake psychic in "Dead Man Talking". Brian brilliantly turns the tables on him by doing his own SherlockScan and revealing all kinds of things the psychic would rather have kept secret.
75	* ComingOutToSpouse: One episode dealt with a football (soccer) player who was trying to plant a story about him having an affair with a model in the press to avoid having to come out as gay. When he went to tell his wife that there was going to be a story in the tabloids about him, her reply was "is it about you being gay...".
76	* ConspiracyTheorist: Brian turns into one of these if he comes off his anti-depressants, although he has shades of this even when he's on them (indeed, at least once he came off them because he was convinced modern medicine was a conspiracy); most notably in one episode where the team are investigating the suspicious death of a prominent 1970s trade unionist, Brian — himself a member of the Police Union during his service — becomes convinced that he's being observed.
77	* ConstructiveBodyDisposal:
78	** Discussed. Whilst they never could prove it, it is a known fact that LondonGangster Ricky Hanson, Jack Halford's {{Archenemy}}, murdered his younger brother for screwing up a big deal Ricky had been working on. It's speculated whenever the matter is brought up that Hanson buried the body underneath a new motorway.
79	** In "The Last Laugh", whilst searching for two student activists who went missing in the 1980s, it eventually transpires that Hanson himself killed them both after being tipped off they had infiltrated the neo-Nazi group the Twenty Fours, which he was using as a front for his drug ring. To dispose of the bodies, Hanson had the group's founder use his construction company to bury them under a conservatory they were building.
80	** The victim in Last Man Standing was disposed of this way. His discovery sets off to the case.
81	* ContinuityNod: One case involves the team investigating a fictional brewers and pub chain called Felspar's, whose quality of beer and hospitality has noticeably declined, a few episodes later Gerry and Brian are in a cheerless pub and offhandedly mention they can't expect anything good because it's a Felspar's.
82	* ConvenientPhotograph: In "The Wolf of Wallbrook", UCOS reopen the case of 32-year old Charlie Hayes, a stock market trader, who fell to his death, a presumed suicide, from his office building near Tower Bridge in 1989 when a blow up photograph in a retrospective art exhibition reveals a background figure who pushed him.
83	* ConveyorBeltOfDoom: Gerry is almost dragged into a chopping machine when his jacket snags on a conveyor belt in "Dark Chocolate".
84	* CopsNeedTheVigilante: The retired cops sometimes take advantage of the fact that they are no longer official police to do things they could not do if they were still on the force. While they can still expect official censure, it will generally be light if their actions result in an arrest.
85	* CowboysAndIndians: A flashback in "The Rock" had two British boys and their Spanish friend in Gibraltar during UsefulNotes/TheFalklandsWar playing "Brits & Argies' in an old fort. The Spanish boy complained because he always had to play the Argentinians.
86	* CrazyPeoplePlayChess: In "The English Defence", UCOS investigates the cold murder of a freelance translator who was a chess master. When it starts to look like it may have been chess that got her killed, they start to look at her rivals. One was a physicist with a genius IQ who lost multiple games to her and became obsessed with defeating her. He finally defeated her in the last match she played before her murder. When the team reveal he cheated in this game, he suffers a complete breakdown.
87	* CreepySouvenir: The season 8 finale involves a serial killer who [[spoiler:keeps body parts in VHS cassette boxes, with labels like "Goldfinger" for the fingers]].
88	* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: In one episode, Brian becomes convinced that [=MI5=] might have investigated him (and that he had his career held back as a result) when he finds out that his wife was involved with some activists who were investigated. At the end of the episode, an irate Halford brings him his file and confirms that he was indeed being observed. [[spoiler: [[DoubleSubversion They concluded that he wasn't a threat]], which leaves Brian slightly offended.]]
89	* CutHimselfShaving: In "The Curate's Egg'', Steve asks Dan how he got his black eye. Dan claims, somewhat unconvincingly, that he 'walked into a door' to cover up the fact that he his girlfriend's mother hit him with a ladle after he got in a fight with her father (ItMakesSenseInContext).
90	* DaChief:
91	** Sandra and her superior officers.
92	** Sasha takes the role after Sandra leaves.
93	* DangerTakesABackSeat: In "Only The Brave" one of the gang members tries this on Sandra with a gun, [[spoiler: but she breaks his nose instead]].
94	* DarkerAndEdgier: The majority of episodes written by Julian Simpson fall into this category, avoiding the usual geriatric antics and veering towards more serious (and violent) cases, which usually focus on conspiracies of some kind.
95	* DeadpanSnarker: Each member of UCOS has their moments.
96	-->'''Gerry:''' So, Ricky Hanson... mate of yours?\
97	'''Jack:''' Biggest murdering, thieving, lying piece of morally-bankrupt shite I've ever laid eyes on.\
98	'''Brian:''' Oh. Nothing personal then.
99	* DeadLineNews: The victim in one episode was a radio shock-jock who burned to death live on air.
100	* DeadMansChest: In "The Little Brother", a trail of clues leads Brian to [[spoiler: a woman's body inside a box in a storage unit]].
101	* DeadPersonImpersonation: In "The Fame Game", a celebrity impersonator conspired with the wife of the celebrity to [[spoiler:murder the celebrity and the impersonator's wife. The impersonator then took over the celebrity's life]].
102	* DeathByFallingOver:
103	** The BodyOfTheWeek in "In Vino Veritas" hit his head on some barrels during a struggle with his killer. Another person later staged a FieryCoverUp, which further muddied the way in which he died.
104	** The 'falling down the stairs' version happens in "The Queen's Speech".
105	** In "Into the Woods", [[spoiler: a shove during an argument impaled the VictimOfTheWeek on a sharp tree branch.]]
106	* DeathSeeker:[[spoiler: Jack]] confesses that he is sometimes this, when explaining [[spoiler: why he doesn't want an award for bravery when he knows he was really just trying to get killed.]]
107	* DefectiveDetective: Brian, as mentioned above. To a lesser extent, the others as well: Jack most obviously with his grieving for his late wife Mary, but Gerry has to deal with borderline addictions to gambling and cigarettes (although he can control his booze, oddly enough) and a lingering reputation for corruption, and Sandra has to cope with being a workaholic with no social life and the lingering memory of her father's suicide.
108	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Brian's life has been very full since his retirement: grandchildren, gardening, football, swimming, day trips, gardening, car, pets, dogs, the wife... did he mention gardening?
109	* DidYouJustHaveSex: The boys have this reaction when Sasha enters the office with a spring in her step in "The Lottery Curse". Leads to a SideBet about whether she did or not.
110	* DirtyCop: A number throughout the series. "Last Man Standing" is loaded with them, and the threat of being exposed is almost certainly the motive for to the main case.
111	* TheDogWasTheMastermind: In "Ghosts", the murderer in a 60 year old murder case turns out to be [[spoiler:another resident of the nursing home where the wife of the victim now lives, who Gerry interviewed once to gain information about the wife]].
112	* DoItYourselfThemeTune: That's Dennis Waterman singing the tune.
113	* DotingGrandparent: Though he was shocked about discovering his daughter Paula was pregnant and intended to be a single mum to her child, Gerry unashamedly adores his grandson Gerry Junior; Brian and Esther become a pair with the news that they've become grandparents in their last series as regulars.
114	* EarAche: In a flashback in "Last Man Standing -Part One", a young Gerry Standing is forced to watch as a LondonGangster cuts the ear off a rival.
115	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The early seasons are more comical, lampooning pop-psych efficiency initiatives and bureaucracy-speak within the police hierarchy. The characters' backstories take a while to be set in stone, too - Gerry claims never to have been in the Vice Squad (he was) and Brian claims to have grandchildren and a car (he has neither.) The first season gives the team a boss (Bevan) and a support person (Clarke), who are switched for Strickland as boss and no support person in season 2 to the show's end.
116	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Brian and Gerry each get one in the TerribleIntervieweesMontage in the pilot:
117	** On learning Pullman's name, Brian immediately rattles off her entire career history without prompting. When discussing his personal life after retirement, he disinterestedly rattles off a number of leisure pursuits he clearly couldn't care less about, only to immediately perk up when the subject returns back to working in the police force once again. We instantly get his obsessive attention to detail and his complete lack of a functional personal life outside of the job.
118	** On seeing an ashtray, Gerry immediately tries to light up, and gets petulant when told he can't. Upon realising who Pullman is, he eagerly brings up her OldShame shooting incident in order to piss her off. He's ruled by his vices, irreverent and disrespectful to authority.
119	* EurekaMoment:
120	** Brian is sometimes given to these.
121	** Parodied with a subversion in one episode when Gerry sees someone he recognises in an old 1980s video about a peace protest. We're lead to assume that he's just had a sudden breakthrough about the case... until he proudly announces "I ''had'' her!"
122	** Jack has one when Brian and Gerry show up to his guest lecture on serial killers in "Where There's Smoke" from Series 7. When he tells the audience that [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Nilsen Dennis Nilsen]] was Britain's most prolific serial killer after Harold Shipman, Brian whispers to Gerry that [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_George_Peter_Lee Peter Dinsdale]] killed nearly twice as many people as Nilsen;[[note]]Nilsen was convicted of murdering 12 people between 1978 and 1983 but may have killed as many as 15 people; Dinsdale was a serial arsonist who was responsible for the deaths of 26 people between 1972 and 1979 in eleven fires, most of which the police had not initially viewed as suspicious.[[/note]] Jack overhears this exchange and begins arguing with Brian that Dinsdale doesn't count as he was convicted of manslaughter, not murder. As he explains that Dinsdale, as a serial arsonist, was more interested in setting fires than killing, he realises that this is likely also true of the perpetrator of the nightclub fire UCOS are investigating.
123	* ExactWords: in “Wicca Work”, a suspect says that the victim’s death “had nothing to do with his being a WHITE witch.” He wasn’t”, it takes a while for the team to pick up that this was not in the Hollywood sense.
124	* ExternalCombustion: At the end of "Last Man Standing - Part Two", [[spoiler:Gerry]] is seemingly killed by a car bomb. [[spoiler:The explosion was actually used to fake his death to allow him to disappear into witness protection.]]
125	* ExtremelyColdCase: Although the entire purpose of the UCOS team is to investigate cold cases, they cover new ground in "A Death in the Family" when Stephen Fisher of [=MI5=] asks them to investigate a murder that took place 160 years ago.
126	* FieryCoverUp: In "In Vino Veritas", UCOS investigate the murder of a pub landlord who died in a fire at his pub. The landlord's dire financial situation led the police at the time to mark the fire down as suspected arson and his death as suicide. However, the landlord was murdered and the fire [[spoiler:was started by his brother (who was not the murderer) to cover up evidence of other crimes that would have come to light if there was an investigation]].
127	* FirefighterArsonist: "Where There's Smoke" sees the team reinvestigating the 1996 Union Club fire that killed four people including its owner. As the owner was a member of a particularly notorious crime family, everyone assumed it to be an assassination attack, but as they later realise after dealing with several other fires, each set off with simple yet precise homemade firebombs that use an incendiary timing device same as what started the Union Club fire, it was in fact a random attack by a serial arsonist. Said serial arsonist is eventually revealed to be none other than [[spoiler: the highly respected retired Metropolitan Fire Brigade fire investigator who investigated the fire]], their interest inspiring him to come out of retirement. The team even discuss a case of several Brazilian firefighters who were caught doing the same during their confrontation.
128	* FinallyFoundTheBody:. A number of cases start like this, Where a random body or body of a missing person is found, and UCOS is put on the case.
129	** In "London Underground", the finding of a body helps solve the case, by confirming a theory about the main crimes being investigated.
130	* {{Fingore}}: In "Trust Me", Jack slams an ex-copper's hand in an oven door and holds the door shut to get him to talk.
131	* FirstNameBasis: Played with in the season 2 finale.
132	-->'''Strickland:''' Professor Mears...\
133	'''Mears:''' Call me Reynard.\
134	'''Brian:''' I thought your name was Ian?\
135	'''Mears:''' ''(Makes a face)'' I don't like "Ian".
136	* FoodSlap: In "Lottery Curse", Fiona dumps a drink over Danny's head after she finds out he bet on whether Sasha had sex.
137	* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Sandra is choleric, Gerry is sanguine, Brian is melancholic, and Jack is phlegmatic.
138	* FramingTheGuiltyParty: In the pilot movie, [[spoiler: DCI Lovett framed Roddy Ringer for the murder of Anna Dubrovski because he couldn't prove that Ringer had earlier killed Willie Sefton, and was certain that Ringer had killed Anna. Ironically, it turns out the evidence he used to frame Ringer (his shoes, which Lovett smeared with Anna's blood) ''did'' have Sefton's blood on them, so the frameup was unnecessary]].
139	* FreshClue: An "Old-School" detective states he knew someone was a suspect when he saw that a cat was sleeping on the still-warm hood of their car, disproving their account of not having driven it. Subverted when it turns out that was just bullshit he made up to justify his hunch, and that all the team knew that was a widely used justification in [[UsefulNotes/ScotlandYard The Met]] during the '70s.
140	* FreudianTrio: ''Ice Age''
141	** TheKirk: Gerry
142	** TheMcCoy: Jack
143	** TheSpock: Brian
144	* GenderBlenderName: Ted Case's partner is named 'Pat'. [[spoiler:Because Ted is a StraightGay, the others do not realise that Pat is a man until he accompanies Ted to an official function]].
145	* GeniusBruiser: Dan Griffin is a big man who's kept up to date with hand to hand combat classes, to the point he can overpower a man half his age with only two moves. He's also a walking encyclopedia of knowledge, takes over as the group's new [[TheSmartGuy smart guy]] and is even able to speak Latin.
146	* GilliganCut: Happens a few times.
147	** In Season 4, Ducking and Diving:
148	-->'''Gerry:''' Martin Viner turns out to be, Michael Dudley! (Makes a bet with Jack and Brian)
149	--> Picture shown of Michael Dudley, who is white. Cut to a diving club, where the team meets Viner.
150	-->'''Sandra:''' Martin Viner? (Viner turns around, is black)
151	** Season 10, The Rock
152	-->'''Gerry:''' Imagine being a cold case officer out here. You'd be bored out of your mind.
153	-->Cuts to somewhat high speed motorboat chase, where the team meats said cold case officer.
154	* GivingThemTheStrip: In "Dark Chocolate", Gerry escapes the ConveyorBeltOfDoom by taking off his jacket.
155	* GolfClubbing: The VictimOfTheWeek in "Good Work Rewarded" was 10 year old boy killed with a golf club on a golf course.
156	* GrammarCorrectionGag: In "Good Morning Lemmings", Brian wastes an entire morning attempting to compose the perfect 140 character tweet, which eventually causes an exasperated Jack to snap:
157	-->'''Jack:''' Brian, I can summarise what you've achieved this morning in precisely six characters: SOD ALL!"\
158	'''Brian:''' Seven. You forgot the space.
159	* GraveMarkingScene: Jack still speaks to his wife Mary's memorial in his garden, seeking her help with solving cases.
160	* HappilyMarried: Jack and Mary Halford were very much this before Mary's tragic death. Brian and Esther Lane, despite Brian's mental health and drink related issues and his lapses into paranoia and obsessive nature it's obvious Esther is still very much in love with him and Brian is devoted to her. Gerry subverts this by being thrice married and divorced but all three ex-spouses and him are AmicableExes and frequently socialise together as a result.
161	* HeadTiltinglyKinky: In "Cry Me a River", UCOS are watching a porn video starring the victim of the cold case they have just reopened. Sandra, Gerry and Steve all tilt their heads to the side in unison just as new member Dan walks through the door behind them.
162	* HeinousnessRetcon: In season 4's "Casualty", Ricky Hanson breaks into a hospital and incapacitates a nurse while trying to kill Jack. When he goes on trial in season 5's "Spare Parts", though, the assault of the nurse is never mentioned, enabling Hanson to claim he was only there to talk to Jack and get off due to lack of impartial witnesses.
163	* HiddenDepths: In his first appearance, Strickland appears to be just a PointyHairedBoss, but while he gradually grew into more of a BenevolentBoss over time there were some hints that he was more of a "real" cop than he first appeared. In particular, the episode opens involving him winning an award for what appeared to be a PR fluff operation involving a junior cricket team, only for it to be revealed that it was ''actually'' a cover for a major drug bust that smashed a powerful organised crime ring.
164	* HumanSacrifice: The team thinks one may have happened in "London Underground". The other police think this is ridiculous.
165	-->'''Hancock''': Human Sacrifice. In the 1970's?\
166	'''Danny''': Yes.\
167	'''Hancock''': In London?\
168	'''Danny''': Yes.\
169	'''Hancock''': Bollocks
170	* HypnoFool: We don't know exactly what Gerry was hypnotized into doing any time he heard the music of Gerry Rafferty, but it is apparently something pretty shocking to judge from the reactions of the rest of the team.
171	* ICallItVera: Brian calls his prized bicycle "Matilda".
172	* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: One of the 'murders' in "The Rock" turns out to have been an accident caused by [[spoiler:a boy stealing a gun from his father and using it to play soldier]].
173	* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: George Cole, Dennis Waterman's co-star in ''Series/{{Minder}}'', guest-starred in "Powerhouse". Sadly, Creator/JohnThaw died before the series was made, thus denying us the chance of seeing [[Series/TheSweeney Regan and Carter]] reunited.
174	* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Gerry is nicknamed "Last Man Standing", because of his refusal to take backhanders when his squad were paid off by a gangster.
175	* InfoDump: Brian often gives these about the background of a case, or sometimes the whole area of crime involved (such as cybercrime in "Body of Evidence").
176	* InnocentInnuendo: Brian often tends to wander into these.
177	* InsultBackfire: At the end of the pilot, Sandra refers to the boys as 'criminals'. They react with offence. She amends the insult to 'crooks'. ''This'', they can live with.
178	* InterserviceRivalry: When an old case crosses with a new case, most commonly due a murderer trying to cover their tracks, UCOS are supposed to hand the old case over to the people investigating the new case and back off. Needless to say they don't like doing this.
179	* IronicEcho: In the pilot, the deputy commissioner tries to shut down Jack when he approaches him for a warrant by smugly pointing out that he's not actually a police officer any more. At the end, when the same deputy commissioner is getting his arse kicked in the climactic punch-up and begs Jack for help, Jack -- who, with the others, his happily standing on the sidelines watching the chaos -- 'apologetically' points out that he's "not actually a police officer anymore, remember?"
180	* ItsPersonal: Jack was hell bent on bringing down crime boss Ricky Hanson, the man who murdered his wife. Jack actually tries to kill him with his car at one point, but only ends up hospitalising himself and the whole team. Exaggerated when Hanson takes the opportunity to try and smother him in his hospital bed (while [[KickTheDog rubbing his wife's death in his face]] no less) and ''still gets away with it'' due to having a ruthlessly efficient lawyer who destroys the case by referencing all of the team's flaws (including Jack's obsession with bringing Hanson down), to make them all seem like unreliable witnesses. The team celebrate with champagne when they finally bring him down in a later episode.
181	* JusticeByOtherLegalMeans: Happens in several episodes, where UCOS lacks enough evidence for the central crime. Some methods:
182	** One unprovable murder is enough to get tabloid rumors started, so a reporter is told about UCOS's findings to reveal without mentioning UCOS. The scandal will presumably damage the killer.
183	** A murder couldn't be proved after the main witness died. However, UCOS discovered information that would disinherit the murderer.
184	** Another murder couldn't be proved, but the killer had committed arson to cover evidence, which had resulted in another death, which was provable.
185	** A kidnapper got their victim to stay using stories with no physical force, so would be almost impossible to charge that way. But the case revealed they were using stolen money for income. When Sandra makes the arrest, the kidnapper goes from calm and collected to an asthma attack, not expecting this development.
186	* KickTheDog: Subversion / parody - in the pilot, Sandra - a decent person - is forced to shoot one that is attacking her, but the resulting public outcry completely derails her career and makes her a laughing stock ("You shoot ''one dog'' in this country...")
187	* KillAndReplace: In "The Fame Game", a celebrity impersonator conspired with the wife of the celebrity to [[spoiler:murder the celebrity and the impersonator's wife. The impersonator then took over the celebrity's life]].
188	* KillerOutfit: In "Dark Chocolate'', Gerry is almost killed when his sleeve snags on a ConveyorBeltODoom in the chocolate factory and it starts to drag him into a chopping machine. He manages to escape by [[GivingThemTheStrip taking off his jacket]].
189	* LawmanBaton:
190	** One episode has Jack trying to reconcile with an old friend who has never forgiven Jack for joining The Met and cites the massed baton charges employed by said force during the UK miner's strikes of the mid-80s.
191	** In "Last Man Standing", the VictimOfTheWeek was a DirtyCop who was Gerry's old boss. He was done in by a blow to the head from Gerry's truncheon, which was planted next to the body.
192	* LetterboxArson: In "Prodigal Sons", Sasha and Steve arrive at a suspect's flat only to discover it is on fire. It is later discovered was started by someone pouring acetone through the letterbox and setting it alight.
193	* LimaSyndrome: Combined with StockholmSyndrome in "Trust Me". Hannah Taylor was kidnapped by a young man with a grudge against her mother, a then-alcoholic doctor whom he blamed for his mother's death. After Paul talked with Hannah for a while, he came to his senses and decided to release her and go on the run, not even bothering to collect the ransom he'd asked for. But Hannah, who hated her mother as much as Paul did, chose to come with him. 13 years later they're HappilyMarried with a child.
194	* LineOfSightAlias: In "The Rock Part 1", Gerry arrives at a casino and finds Brian undertaking some unauthorised undercover work. Brian introduces Gerry as his business partner "Vince... Table". This provokes an incredulous "Your name's Vince Table?" from the suspect.
195	* LongRunners: The series ran for 13 years. One odd consequence of this is that as the 'closed past cases' tended to become more and more recent, UCOS began investigating crimes which took place ''after'' the series chronologically started.
196	* LostFoodGrievance: When somebody steals a sausage roll from Gerry's desk, he becomes obsessed with finding the thief.
197	* LotsaPeopleTryToDunIt: In "Life Expectancy", the team recover what they think is the weapon used in a fatal bludgeoning: a marble phrenology bust. After investigating, they finally get a suspect to confess that she struck down the victim with the bust. However, after this, forensics reveals that the fatal blow did not come from the bust, and the team realise that someone else had come along and finished the job.
198	* MarriedToTheJob: Sandra has sacrificed personal life in pursuit of a career.
199	* AMatchMadeInStockholm: In "Trust Me", Hannah Taylor was kidnapped by a young man with a grudge against her mother, a then-alcoholic doctor whom he blamed for his mother's death. After Paul talked with Hannah for a while, he came to his senses and decided to release her and go on the run, not even bothering to collect the ransom he'd asked for. But Hannah, who hated her mother as much as Paul did, chose to come with him. 13 years later they're HappilyMarried with a child.
200	* MenAreUncultured: The stereotype is played with. Gerry, who normally comes across as an unreconstructed 'real man', is a talented cook and a connoisseur of fine food, while Brian, the 'nerdy' one who enjoys tabletop strategy games, is conversely a SeriousBusiness football fan.
201	* TheMentor: Jack serves as this to Sandra, having been her boss on the murder squad.
202	* MistakenForGay: The boys come to the conclusion that Sandra is a lesbian after trailing her to a mysterious assignation with another woman in "1984". Sandra finds this hilarious and soon sets them right: the woman she was seeing was not her girlfriend, but her shrink.
203	* MistakenForThief: In one episode, a group of homeless people think Brian stole his coat from their friend and so they knock him out and steal it "back". Brian gets his coat back [[spoiler: but it got smelly, so his wife burned it. Brian buys an identical coat, which also smells bad]].
204	* MolotovCocktail:
205	** In "Painting on Loan", Jerry and Brian throw a Molotov cocktail while experimenting to work how a fire might have been started. Jerry comments on how he has always wanted to do this.
206	** A suspect uses one to try to torch the lock-up they think holds evidence against them in "Romans Ruined". However, it was a trap and UCOS was waiting for them.
207	* MonkeyMoralityPose: Brian, Gerry and Jack at the end of "Powerhouse".
208	* TheMourningAfter: Jack's wife may be dead, but he still considers himself very married.
209	* MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels: A visit to the Deaf husband of a murder victim prompts Gerry to try and brush up on his long-forgotten sign language skills. He tries to say "I want to practice my signing with you" to the sign language interpreter, but instead comes out with "I want to dig up my elephant with you."
210	* MyGreatestFailure: As well as the established dog incident for Sandra, Brian considers his lack of parenting and bonding with son Mark when he was growing up as his biggest failure, though it's clear Brian loves his son deeply and both Esther and Gerry remind him that when he was there he tried his best.
211	* NecroCam: Not as often as you'd think, though, especially given that most of the cases that are dealt with occurred up to 20 years ago and this isn't ''Series/WakingTheDead''. Then in season 11, it suddenly became OncePerEpisode.
212	* NeedAHandOrAHandJob: During a case that briefly took Brian into Soho, a lady of the night approached him asking if he 'had the time.' Misunderstandings ensued.
213	* NeverWinTheLottery: "Lottery Curse" uses the 'winning the lottery will ruin your life' version, with the team investigating the murder of a woman who was part of a winning lottery syndicate.
214	* NewOldFlame: Sandra acquires one in the form of DCI James Larson in "Object of Desire". This does not end well when James [[spoiler:turns out to be a DirtyCop]].
215	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Further murders during UCOS investigations are somewhat common, usually to cover up something from the original crime.
216	* NoBadgeNoProblem: Brian, Jack and Gerry are retired police officers and are usually pretty good at identifying themselves as such. However, they do work for the police department as investigators so they have the official authority to question people and access police records.
217	* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: [[spoiler:Brian is fired from UCOS for exposing the internal police corruption that led to the death of a suspect in Brian’s custody before he was forcibly retired from the police in the first place]].
218	* NoMedicationForMe: Averted, Brian never gets any better if he comes off his meds.
219	* NoodleIncident: Whatever Gerry did when he got hypnotized and Gerry Rafferty music was played.
220	* NotableNonSequitur: Played with. Generally, every apparently offhand comment of this type will turn out to be significant in ''some way'', but not necessarily one related to the case (for example, it might expose an unrelated and previously unmentioned other crime or secret the suspect is hiding).
221	* NotSoFakePropWeapon: In "Final Curtain", the UCOS team looks into the death of an actor who was shot dead during a performance of a play. The gun was loaded with blanks, but a piece of metal lodged in the barrel killed him. The death was originally ruled an accident, but new evidence makes the team reopen the case.
222	* NumberOneDime: Ted Case's lucky charm is [[PocketProtector a cigarette case that stopped a bullet]]. Although he tries to act calm, he goes into a panic when he loses it in the episode "Life Expectancy".
223	* ObfuscatingDisability: The killer of the week in "Magic Majestic" has pretended to be [[spoiler:confined for to a wheelchair]] for his entire adult life, referencing RealLife magician Chung Ling Soo. This allows him to [[spoiler:escape from custody at the end of the episode]].
224	* OfficeGolf: Jack, who is an avid golfer, does this while Sandra is away in "Good Work Rewarded". On learning that Sandra is returning sooner than they expected, the boys scramble to clean up the office before she gets back. Jack misses one of his golf balls, and Sandra trips over it on her return.
225	* OffTheWagon: In season five, following Jack's temporary disappearance and several bad experiences on cases, Brian resumes drinking, and attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings again. This causes his wife Esther to walk out and later force Brian into treatment.
226	* OffWithHisHead: The BodyOfTheWeek in "Romans Ruined" was a decapitated corpse found in a sandpit. UCOS gets involved when the murder weapon (a Roman sword) and the head are discovered years later. In a nod to realism, it is noted that it took several blows to remove the head.
227	* OldFashionedCopper: Jack, Brian and Gerry, although the writers [[LampshadeHanging hang a lampshade]] on the trope by having the characters gleefully excuse their actions with the (reasonable) justification that, technically, they aren't actually cops anymore.
228	** Played with at times; sometimes, the old-fashioned way of doing things makes things worse, and the new methods ''are'' the better ones, for their flaws.
229	** Danny has his moments, such as ignoring orders in order to investigate the death of a friend in "Breadcrumbs", but Steve is the master of this trope. His first couple of episodes alone had him stealing phones, setting off car alarms to cause distractions, and breaking into a suspect's house. Sandra was not impressed.
230	* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Sandra has been in charge of [=UCOS=] for nearly a decade after she was attacked in the press for shooting a dog in self defence, considered a dead-end job; the group in general has a reputation as a refuge for washed-up has been cops and officers. This despite the fact that they have put away crime lords, drug lords, serial arsonists and killers, corrupt police officers (including the [[MoleInCharge deputy commissioner]]), and numerous other high-level crime figures, basically putting the rest of the Met to shame several times over. Although it is played with, in that their hard work and achievements have been noted and rewarded several times over; Sandra has been offered 'better' jobs but [[StatusQuoIsGod for whatever reason]] has always chosen to stay with UCOS. Also, having been dumped out-of-the-way in the basement in the first series, each season has seen them be moved to increasingly nicer rooms before they reached their current, rather swish offices, suggesting that their overall reputation has gradually improved even if they do remain the butt of a few jokes.
231	* PacManFever: Averted, as Jack is seen playing ''Ghost Squad'' on the Wii and doing very well.
232	* PaintingTheMedium: One episode had Brian visiting a suspect in Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, in the midst of a mild psychotic episode of his own. These scenes included impossible details like characters changing actors between shots and background security monitors displaying mysterious closeups of faces.
233	* PapaWolf: Gerry's father [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Norman Lestade]] may not have seen eye to eye with his son for not [[GenerationXerox becoming a butcher like him]] but when Gerry was in serious trouble with loan shark Danny Paye in the 1970's as his nephew Barry states: [[ThickerThanWater "he's going to be buggered if he's going to let his son take a kicking from a jumped up, bullying little toerag like Danny"]] and Norman's solution to this? Personally lead a posse including [[SiblingTeam his brother]], [[BashBrothers Sid and Barry]] and [[TrueCompanions 30 others from Smithfield Market]] to confront Danny and his gang. [[CurbStompBattle It ended badly for Paye and his cronies.]]
234	* PeekABooCorpse:. Surprise discoveries of corpses happen occasionally, setting off cases.
235	* PhonyPsychic: Brian turns the tables on a fake psychic in "Dead Man Talking"; using [[SherlockScan cold reading techniques]] to reveal all kinds of incriminating information about him.
236	* PimpingTheOffspring:
237	** Revealed to be the crux of the investigation into the murder of young rising tennis star Alice Kemp in "Love Means Nothing in Tennis." [[spoiler:As it turns out her mother [[AbusiveParent Victoria]] was well aware that Alice's [[CreepyGymCoach coach]] had been molesting her for years but enabled it as she only cared about ensuring Alice became a star so that she could [[MealTicket live off her success]]. When Alice finally had enough of the abuse and made clear she was quitting tennis, [[OffingTheOffspring Victoria murdered her]]. Even worse, it's revealed Victoria is now putting Alice's younger sister through the exact same abuse to replace Alice, all for her own benefit]].
238	** "Wild Justice" features a reluctant version key to the case of the murder of the brilliant child oncologist Doctor Alistair Caldwell. [[spoiler:As it turns out Caldwell was a paedophile who regularly abused patients under his care, however, his wife and superior turned a blind eye due to him being one of the best oncologists in the country who's work was saving hundreds of lives, believing it to be the lesser evil.]]
239	* PocketProtector: Ted Case's lucky charm is a cigarette case that stopped a bullet and saved his life.(Or so he claims. Sasha keeps pointing out that the bullet went straight through the case and he spent months in hospital. Ted maintains that if the case hadn't slowed the round down, he's have died.) He goes into a mild panic when he loses it in "Life Expectancy".
240	* PointyHairedBoss: DAC Don Bevan from the pilot and season 1. He is an empty suit, obsessed with bureaucracy and management buzzwords, and his only interest in UCOS is how it can improve his media profile. His replacement DAC Robert Strickland initially plays with this, in that while showing some tendencies towards this at the start he actually is genuinely interested in making the squad a success, and gradually evolves into a genuinely BenevolentBoss.
241	* PoliticalOvercorrectness: Although they're not too bad for the most part, the boys can at times have difficulty adjusting to more modern ways of thinking about things like race, gender equality, etc., which can cause tension.
242	** Said word for word by Gerry (and Sandra) in the end of "Magic Majestic".
243	* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: "Glasgow UCOS" in Series 9.
244	* PunBasedTitle: Several episode titles, usually mixed with ShoutOut:
245	** "The Gentleman Vanishes" (series 8) to ''Film/TheLadyVanishes''.
246	** "The Girl Who Lived" (series 9) to ''Literature/HarryPotter''.
247	* PutOnABus: P.C Jon Clarke, the squad's uniformed IT officer-slash-gofer, disappears between Series 1 and Series 2.
248	* PyroManiac: In "Where There's Smoke", the team investigate the death of a LondonGangster in a suspicious pub fire. Initially convinced that the fire was set to kill the gangster, Brian realises that it is almost impossible to reliably start a fire in the method that the arsonist used unless you are very practiced. He discovers that the fire was actually the work of a serial arsonist, and the deaths were incidental. The serial arsonist turns out to be [[spoiler:a retired Metropolitan Fire Brigade fire investigator, who had responsibility for investigating his own arsons.]]
249	* RabidCop:
250	** The retired detectives have slightly CowboyCop attitudes compared to modern police methods and standards. So they see nothing wrong with creating a fake Rabid Cop scenario where the interrogator gets so insanely angry that he shoots the suspect's public defender lawyer. The 'lawyer' is another retired cop and the gun is a starter pistol.
251	** And occasionally they find themselves working alongside a real Rabid Cop, such as Frank Patterson in "The Fourth Man".
252	* RealMenCook: Chain-smoking, hard drinking OldFashionedCopper Gerry Standing is also a gourmet chef.
253	* RealStitchesForFakeSnitches: In the episode "Last Man Standing", Gerry tries to run a Dirty Cop working for a mob boss out of town by framing him for double-crossing the mob boss and warning him to leave or face the boss' wrath. The cop is too slow to run and gets killed by the boss.
254	* RealityIsUnrealistic: In real life, drowning victims tend not to struggle or cry out. As Brian puts it: drowning doesn't look like drowning.
255	* ReassignedToAntarctica: The premise of the series is that Sandra is sent to UCOS after shooting a dog during a hostage situation.
256	* RedBaron: Brian "Memory" Lane and Gerry "Last Man" Standing. The former because of his impressive memory ("Memory Lane"). The latter [[spoiler: was mockingly given to him by a mob boss, in both a straightforward[[note]]Because he was the only copper on the force who didn't take a bribe from him[[/note]] and [[{{irony}} ironic]][[note]]Because he was the [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished only officer who was accused of corruption as a result]][[/note]] manner).]]
257	* RedHerring: We are often given several suspects with apparently suspicious behaviour, but in a variation of the trope, they will usually all turn out to be hiding ''something'', just not necessarily something directly related to this week's case.
258	* RetiredBadass: Effectively the show for it, all the older cops while displaying different levels of frequency, have their moments reminding us that they still have it. The most prominent examples are Gerry, Steve and Ted.
259	* RevisitingTheColdCase: The premise of the series.
260	* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: In the episode "Last Man Standing", Gerry tries to run a DirtyCop working for a mob boss out of town by [[FramingTheGuiltyParty framing him]] for double-crossing the mob boss and [[TheMobBossIsScarier warning him to leave or face the boss' wrath]]. The cop is too slow to run and gets killed by the boss.
261	* RippedFromTheHeadlines:
262	** Especially in later series, many episodes are inspired by real crimes or types of crimes that have been in the news. For example, "Queen and Country" involves a civil servant misplacing a laptop with sensitive information, something which (as the episode itself notes) embarrassingly happened several times during UsefulNotes/GordonBrown's premiership.
263	** This is also true of episodes where the crime comes from a past era. The "Ice Cream Wars" episode in series 3 is, [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer surprisingly]], based on a true story from TheEighties--[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Cream_Wars albeit one that happened in Glasgow rather than London]].
264	* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Basically the reason [[spoiler:Brian was fired from UCOS. He found evidence that Anthony Kaye, the boy he was accused of killing in his custody, was actually killed by the negligence of the other arresting officers. Brian could have just passed the information on to the upper ranks, but he made the information public because he didn’t want it to get swept under the rug, tearfully insisting that Kaye’s mother deserved to know what happened to her son]].
265	* SecretlyDying: Jack leaves UCOS with one day’s notice when he learns that he has a terminal illness, but claims that he’s just decided to retire to France as he doesn’t want to make the team feel depressed.
266	* SharpDressedMan: While Gerry and Jack usually wear suits, their tastes are a little old-fashioned and dowdy. PC Clark, however, who saves up his pay to spend on designer clothing, is a fine example. Steve, too, dresses very smartly, as fits his playboy lifestyle.
267	* SherlockScan: Brian turns the tables on a fake psychic in "Dead Man Talking"; using cold reading techniques to reveal all kinds of incriminating information about him. Since taking an FBI course in reading body language, Danny has been playing with this too.
268	* ShipTease: Earlier episodes seemed to suggest some kind of potential relationship between Gerry and Sandra (which would have been RealLifeWritesThePlot, since the actors used to date in real life ''long'' ago), but this was gradually dropped. Nevertheless, over time the two went from being quite sharp with each other to becoming quite good friends.
269	* ShoutOut:
270	** Sandra described some of Gerry's dodgier actions as being "out of the ''Series/{{Life On Mars\|2006}}'' handbook". The two shows have often been compared by critics because their concepts can be viewed as mirror images (70s coppers back at work in the present vs modern copper in the 70s).
271	** Gerry's birthname Lestade is clearly based [[Literature/SherlockHolmes on a certain Lestrade]]
272	* ShownTheirWork: The backgrounds to many stories are very well researched, such as the cybercrime-themed series 9 episode "Body of Evidence".
273	* SideBet: The retired police make them somewhat often, usually about parts of a case.
274	* SlaveToPR: Sandra's bosses are very aware of the power of publicity and often saddles the team with pointless cases merely for the sake of favourable press. Averted for the team, they simply don't care as they are not technically policemen anymore.
275	* SlobsVersusSnobs: The original team display a divide between Jack (always polite and neatly-dressed) and Gerry (a flashily-dressed gourmet) as the Snobs and Brian (who takes his ratty old shoes off to air his bunions in public) as the Slob. Sandra fits in the middle - smartly dressed, but fond of messy takeaway foods.
276	* SmugSnake: Stephen Fisher, from Intelligence, or thereabouts.
277	-->'''Sandra:''' How did you get down here without an escort?\
278	'''Fisher:''' Oh, ''bless''.
279	* SoundtrackDissonance: Several episodes end on a sombre or even bleak note, which can make it a bit disorientating when Dennis Waterman suddenly starts singing "It's alright, it's okay, doesn't really matter if you're old and grey..." in a cheerful tone with the end credits. Later series introduced a more melancholy ending theme which would be played in such situations.
280	* StartsWithTheirFuneral: Subverted in the Series 2 premiere. The episode begins with an ominous funeral procession into a church attended by all the main characters, everyone making comments that would seem to suggest that Gerry has passed away off-screen... until Gerry pulls up in his car and runs towards them, flustered and apologising profusely. He's just very late to his grandson's christening and they've had to let the vicar perform a funeral while they waited.
281	* StealthInsult: While investigating a crime in a museum, Gerry wonders what it is like to spend every day surrounded by fossils. Sandra thinks she has an idea.
282	* StockholmSyndrome: Combined with LimaSyndrome in "Trust Me". Hannah Taylor was kidnapped by a young man with a grudge against her mother, a then-alcoholic doctor whom he blamed for his mother's death. After Paul talked with Hannah for a while, he came to his senses and decided to release her and go on the run, not even bothering to collect the ransom he'd asked for. But Hannah, who hated her mother as much as Paul did, chose to come with him. 13 years later they're HappilyMarried with a child.
283	* StraightGay: Ted, to the point where we've already known him for several episodes before the reveal.
284	* TheSummation: A neat little subversion occurred once, in which Gerry explained how a crime ''didn't'' occur.
285	* SurrogateSoliloquy: Jack will often discuss details of the current case he is working on with his wife's memorial stone.
286	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Averted with Steve replacing Jack, as they are very different characters. Less averted for Dan replacing Brian, as they are both TheSpock and have family issues (though different ones) and for Sasha replacing Sandra.
287	* TheSwearJar: The detectives install one for an early episode, which eventually allows them to go out for a nice meal on the town. Gerry's a bit aggrieved that he didn't get to choose, since he "put most of the bloody money in."
288	* TeacherStudentRomance: An affair between a teacher and a student plays a role in "The Queen's Speech". The student was looking for the teacher when she got killed. The teacher never told anyone about the affair to avoid trouble, and this may have hampered the original investigation.
289	* TeamChef: Gerry has frequently shown his cooking prowess by cooking well-liked and classy meals for family and his UCOS friends. [[FridgeBrilliance Given the reveal of his family being established and respected Smithfield Market butchers, his talent and intelligence for cooking and food makes sense.]]
290	* TellHimImNotSpeakingToHim: In "Ghosts", a spat between Gerry and Steve over a missing sausage roll escalates to the point where Gerry is refusing to acknowledge Steve's existence, and starts forwarding all of his comments to him through Sasha and Danny. Sasha and Danny are only too quick to point out how silly the whole thing is.
291	* TerribleIntervieweesMontage: Having been given no suitable candidates for UCOS by the Met, Sandra and Jack decide to advertise for the position, resulting in a parade of interviews that are over before they begin ("names" as given in the episode's end credits). Even Gerry makes a bad first impression:
292	-->'''Racist Ex-Detective:''' 'Morning. Oh, just before we start, this new unit... no blacks, obviously.\
293	'''Sandra:''' ''(at next interview)'' Now, you didn't officially retire, and yet I can't see any references to why you left the force. Why's that?\
294	'''Drunk Ex-Detective:''' ''(obviously three sheets to the wind)'' Absolutely no bloody idea. ''(cut to him staggering to the door, starting by heading to the wrong corner of the room)''\
295	'''Vicious Ex-Detective:''' Police and Criminal Evidence Acts? Mistake. I mean, being able to threaten, intimidate, and cause pain to a suspect are the chief weapons in a copper's armoury! Right?\
296	'''Scots Ex-Detective:''' ''(opens door, sees Sandra and Jack)'' Ah, ''shite''... ''(immediately leaves)''\
297	'''Woman Ex-Detective:''' ''(angry)'' I mean, I don't take no bloody crap from ''no-one! (Sandra and Jack are visibly unsettled)''\
298	'''Sandra:''' ''(at next interview, smiling as she closes a folder)'' Thanks so much for coming in, it's - it's obviously very valuable to have such a successful, high-ranking ex-officer applying for- ''(the interviewee suddenly [[HollywoodHeartAttack gasps and clutches his chest]]; cut to him sprawled on the floor as Jack tries pounding his chest to restart his heart)''\
299	''(after Brian's interview, we cut to Gerry sitting down)''\
300	'''Gerry:''' ''(holding a carton of cigarettes)'' Ahh... an ashtray!\
301	'''Jack:''' We'd rather you didn't.\
302	'''Gerry:''' ''(surprised)'' What's...\
303	'''Sandra:''' The squad will initially be quite small, concentrating solely on murder cases, and then, depending on the success of the operation, the unit may then be expanded to encompass other serious crimes, such as...\
304	'''Gerry:''' ''(smirks, to Jack)'' It's 'er, innit? ''(off Jack's confusion)'' Woof, woof, ''bang, bang! (mimes firing two guns)''
305	* ThatCameOutWrong: In "A Delicate Touch", Brian is attempting to subtly quiz Sandra about how much the team members are paid. He starts by asking "Are you fully cognizant of the size of my packet?" and the conversation goes downhill from there. Typical for Brian, he never realises exactly what it is he is saying.
306	* ThemeNaming:
307	** The writer named Jack, Brian and Gerry after the oldest spectator stand at his favourite football (soccer) club, West Bromwich Albion (Halford Lane Standing).
308	** Late in the series it turns out Gerry has relatives in the meat business. Their names? Barry, Harry, Gary, Mary, Larry, and [[OverlyLongGag Terry]].
309	* ThereWillBeToiletPaper: In "The Sins of the Father", Gerry is shown cutting himself while shaving multiple times. This shows how much the current case (which he has a personal stake in) is getting to him.
310	* ThisBearWasFramed: In an episode, a man broke into a zoo and was assumed to have fallen into a tiger enclosure and mauled to death by the tiger. When the tiger dies a few years later it is revealed that its death was caused by a piece of a knife that was stuck in its body since that night. The team reopens the case and finds that the man was killed elsewhere and the body dumped in the tiger cage which is when the tiger was stabbed. Not only was the tiger framed but it was also another victim.
311	** This episode was an almost scene for scene remake of a PerryMason episode, The Case of the Cowardly Lion
312	* ToyotaTripwire: Brian does this in "Good Morning Lemmings": opening the door of the surveillance van to flatten a fleeing suspect.
313	* UndercoverAsLovers: Sandra and Gerry sometimes pose as husband and wife when undercover.
314	* UnderdressedForTheOccasion: Inverted in "The Rock, Part 1". An increasingly unstable Brian steals a tuxedo from a hotel to infiltrate a casino and confront a suspect. However, he is the only one wearing wearing a tuxedo and sticks out like a sore thumb.
315	* VandalismBackfire: In one episode, Gerry has been having an escalating prank war with a colleague, which culminated in him welding said colleague's locker shut. They finally call the grudge off... until the colleague reveals that it wasn't his locker.
316	* VerbalJudo: Faced with a biker gang member threatening to shoot her in retaliation for what his gang members did to him for talking to the police, Sandra starts thinking out loud about the current case. After buying some time that way, she comes to some conclusions that cause the other to break down and lower the gun -- as the case was his father's murder -- and then punches him out [[OffhandBackhand in passing]] while he's angsting.
317	* VomitingCop: A severely hungover Gerry throws up after the team opens a fridge and discovers a head that has been in there for several years in "Romans Ruined".
318	* VorpalPillow: Used to kill the VictimOfTheWeek (who is ChainedToABed) in "Prodigal Sons".
319	* WarReenactors: In "Romans Ruined", the discovery of a Roman sword with blood on it leads UCOS into the world of Roman historical reenactment.
320	* WhamLine: A strong contender for the shortest Wham! line ever.
321	-->'''Strickland:''' Surrey ran the third sample through the National Criminal Database. And while they didn't find an exact match, it did flag up someone from the ACPO files with a very similar genetic profile... i.e., a direct and close relative.\
322	'''Sandra:''' Really? Who?\
323	'''Strickland:''' [[spoiler: You]].
324	* WellDoneDadGuy: Both Gerry and Brian go through this at different times in the series. A JustifiedTrope as due to their respective issues. Relations between the Lane men thaw and improve near the beginning of series 10 as Brian bows out of UCOS; Gerry is surprised that his eldest daughter Paula considered [[GoodParents him a great father as he always listened to her and encouraged her to think for herself]] relieving Gerry as he really believed he had stopped her achieving what she wanted in life. Paula tells him she is happy as a single mum to Gerry Junior.
325	* WellDoneSonGuy: After suffering physical and emotional abuse for years, Steve demands to know why his father hates him so much. His father refuses to give him a proper answer, though it may be partially due to Steve becoming a police officer rather than a docker. Made even more tragic by the fact that this is their last exchange before Robbie's death.
326	* WhatDidIDoLastNight: Happens to Gerry's son-in-law-to-be after his stag night in "The Queen's Speech". He wakes up on his couch looking considerably worse for wear and clutching a traffic cone covered in tinsel. This is entirely Gerry's fault as his friends had planned a fairly sedate evening, and Gerry decided he deserved a proper stag night.
327	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Gerry has a phobia about forests as a result of a childhood trauma.
328	* WrongInsultOffence: At the end of the pilot, Sandra refers to the boys as 'criminals'. They react with offence. She amends the insult to 'crooks'. ''This'', they can live with.

Context Series / NewTricks