Things turn nasty for Burnside when he tries to catch a male rapist turned murderer.

PC Smith is working undercover as a bodyguard for a South African drug importer named Tony Rourke. Rourke offers Smith a contract to kidnap and torture a senior police officer to find the location of a police informer they need kept quiet.

Northumbria Police arrest one 'Frank Bentley' with a boot full of drugs and a handgun, after a high speed car chase through Newcastle. 'Bentley' and his 'lawyer' Liz McAuley are actually DCI Frank Burnside and DS Liz Rawton on an undercover assignment to investigate corrupt CID officers in Newcastle.

Burnside and Rawton's cover is nearly blown due to Rawton's family connections in Newcastle.

Ch. Insp. Conway and a team of Sun Hill officers undergo riot simulation training at the Met's training depot in Hounslow. Meanwhile, DC Glaze goes undercover at the Cockroft Estate and discovers two rival families battling for control of the estate, and stockpiling weapons for a showdown.

Ch. Supt. Brownlow is implicated in an insurance fraud. PC Hollis investigates suspicious events at a crematorium.

Insp. Monroe has trouble dealing with a gang of boy-racers who are harassing and intimidating an elderly couple. When the old man dies after an altercation with the gang, Monroe is urged by Brownlow to show 'zero tolerance' to the youths. PC Smith gets close to a nurse at the St Hughs Nurses Home while investigating reports of a stalker in the area.

Ch. Insp. Conway encounters the "Sun Hill Angels" at a function, an escort service which DS Boulton believes is also dealing in drugs. Their investigation and sting operation against the Angels goes wrong when Conway's 'escort' turns out to be an undercover reporter, conducting her own sting on a senior police officer.

PC Sam Harker infiltrates a group of animal rights activists, whose leader is suspected to be planning some terrorist action. Harker takes part in some protests and animal liberation actions, and begins to sympathise with the cause.

DS Beech investigates an assault on a drug dealer, and uncovers a corrupt officer.

PC Jim Carver returns to duty after undergoing treatment for his alcoholism. Unfortunately for him, he is paired with PC Dale Smith and their first case involves alcohol.

DC Danny Glaze sees a man set alight on the Larkmead Estate, and becomes determined to solve the case.

Investigating a young boy's disappearance, DC Rod Skase takes a career-ending shortcut when he encourages a witness to implicate a man he considers to be the main suspect.

DI Deakin and DS Beech take part in an high stakes poker match.

Sgt. Boyden and PC Worrell arrest a man dealing drugs to schoolchildren, but DS Beech needs to use the man's mother as a witness against a major villain.

Insp. Monroe's daughter is arrested for shoplifting.

PC Worrell goes undercover as a prostitute after a punter is assaulted and robbed.

PC Quinnan volunteers to work with the community centre on the Jasmine Allen estate, where he was stabbed, but DS Boulton threatens to undermine the initiative in his pursuit of a suspected drug dealer.

PC Quinnan disobeys orders to find a missing youth as the police face an uphill struggle to gain control of the Jasmine Allen estate.

PC Quinnan and DS Boulton agree to set aside their differences to nail Mick Glover, but the strain of the case starts to disrupt Quinnan's domestic life.

Eddie Santini tries to convince his lover, Jess Orton, to set him up with some drug dealers – he wants out of Sun Hill, and DS Timpney, his friend in Area Drugs, has promised him a place in the squad if Santini can get him evidence on them. However, before he has the chance, the Ortons' club is firebombed, and Santini is shocked when one of the officers assigned by AMIP to investigate the explosion is his old nemesis, DS Rosie Fox. Fox is convinced that Santini is linked to the events in question, but her AMIP DCI, Richard Pallister, believes otherwise. When Santini manages to locate Jess Orton, he persuades her to make a false confession to bombing the club in order to gain the trust of the suspected drug dealers.

Santini is determined to find out if Jess Orton has grassed on him, and when he breaks into her home to challenge her, he causes her to fatally fall down the stairs. Fox is ordered off the case by DCI Pallister and warned that if her actions directly resulted in her death, then she could be facing criminal charges. Vicky plugs DS Timpney for information, suspicious that Santini may not be telling the whole truth. Desperate to conceal his involvement with the Ortons, Santini and Fox find themselves captured by Sherman and Ferguson, and facing possible execution. Fox believes she has a confession for Orton's murder and is attacked by Santini, but after their rescue, it's Santini's girlfriend Hagen who nails him for the murder.

Santini goes on trial at the Old Bailey accused of the murder of Jessica Orton, but tries to talk to CIB and implicate Quinnan and Rawton. A prison guard tells Santini that Sherman's drugs charges are being dropped in favour of conspiracy to murder Santini and Fox, who turns up dead in her hotel room after an apparent suicide. With Ferguson executed and Timpney taken on side by Sherman's heavies, Santini's trial starts falling apart. Hagen is discredited by her Sun Hill colleagues when she lies under oath and breaks down in the witness box after being caught out. With Santini found not guilty, he is warned by his recently released cellmate that he is in grave danger from Sherman's heavies.

PC Vicky Hagen goes undercover as a driver for Alison Spencer, the manager of a string of massage parlours in Sun Hill. As Hagen gradually earns Spencer's trust, she becomes privy to more of Alison's schemes.

New DC Mickey Webb rankles Sgt. Ackland with his attitude towards the case of violent prison escapee Craig Ronson. As the injuries pile up in an already short-staffed uniform relief, Ronson is finally captured on the Jasmine Allen estate, and Webb realises he's been playing them from the start.

DC Holmes investigates a suspected money-launderer named Terry Jowit, who is wanted by police in Scotland. Holmes discovers a cheque in Jowit's mail from an antiques dealer, which leads her to suspect that he buys expensive antiques with 'dirty money' as a means of laundering it. What Holmes doesn't count on is antique dealer Judy Ryan having a tape of DS Beech accepting a bribe, and Beech will do anything to keep it a secret.

Ch. Supt. Brownlow and Ch. Supt. Mannion are on the panel for a Metropolitan Police hearing against a PC who is charged with disobeying a direct order which resulted in the serious injury of another officer. Mannion is easily convinced of the constable's guilt, but Brownlow isn't so sure.

DC Lennox carries out an unofficial investigation on behalf of a friend, to the consternation of his colleagues.

Sgt. Boyden, DC Proctor and PC Hagen hit the streets of Sun Hill in the station's new "Crime Car", an unmarked rapid-response vehicle introduced as one of the Chief Super's initiatives. Borough Commander Mannion springs a surprise visit on Sun Hill, which unfortunately coincides with an electrical fault in CAD, a wrongful arrest by Proctor, and the impoundment and eventual destruction of the Crime Car.

A man is found beaten up behind a club belonging to Vince Carter. Was he beaten up for selling drugs on the club which Vince tries to keep clean? A young woman is hit by a car which doesn't stop, but a blind witness claims it was a 4x4 that hit her deliberately. DS Boulton doubts him until they find the 4x4 burnt out. The young woman is the daughter of Carter's accountant. Is there a link? DS Stanton makes a TV appeal for witnesses to the beating. Shortly after the young man is attacked in the hospital. Claire rushes over but someone in a 4x4 tries to run her off the road and rolls her car.

The relationship between DS Boulton and DS Stanton heats up, but Stanton is really working for the CIB investigating corruption at Sun Hill.

PC Smith has to decide between his loyalty to his colleagues in the job, and his old squad mates in the army.

Ch. Insp. Conway jumps at the chance of helping Sixties pop idol Sadie Tyler. He tries to catch an obsessive fan, alleged to have stolen the draft of her autobiography, but his personal feelings get in the way of his professional judgement.

PC Tony Stamp has been brought in as a driver for the Flying Squad, as they investigate the abduction of a bank manager and his family.

A Barton Street PC is stabbed when he pursues two robbery suspects into Sun Hill. A black youth, identified as Mark Okin, is found bashed and unconscious at about the same time. PC Jim Carver is assigned to the Okin family in his new role as Family Liaison Officer, but further investigation by CID makes Mark a suspect in PC Brennan's stabbing. Carver is horrified when DS Daly wants him to use his position of trust with the Okin family to collect evidence against Mark.

An outbreak of street robberies leads to stop-and-search (or stop-and-talk) being resumed. Filling in for the borough commander, Ch. Supt. Brownlow angers his officers with his comments in a TV interview, and takes to the streets with Ch. Insp. Conway to make amends by leading from the front.

DS Stanton investigates DS Beech's involvement with a credit card fraudster.

DC Webb investigates an assault but is rather taken with the victim's beautiful wife.

Operation Trident is called in after a drug-related murder by Yardie street gangs. An overzealous cabbie brings a suspect, who is found to be connected to Leroy Jones, and PC Rickman is sent undercover to contact Jones.

To finance Leroy Jones' buy-in to the Bronte drug-dealing syndicate, PC Rickman accompanies Jones and his gang to rob a bank. Rumours begin to circulate round the relief that Rickman has "gone native".

Rickman emerges from her undercover assignment and briefs Trident. PC Harker fears Rickman and Leroy Jones have fallen in love.

DS Stanton and DS Boulton night together at a hotel is ruined when Sun Hill officers arrive to investigate an assault and robbery. When DS Beech finds out about her and Boulton's affair, Stanton ends the relationship.

PC Smith has to deliver a baby in the street. Worried about the mother's condition, he investigates her background, and discovers a history of prostitution and drug abuse.

PCs Klein and Hagen are called to a stabbing at a shopping centre, and find themselves on the trail of a Rwandan war criminal.

DC Proctor, under pressure over his poor performance, decides to trap a burglar to avoid being transferred from Sun Hill.

DC Lennox has to decide where his loyaltes lie when he sees his wife visit a suspect's home.

PC Smith carries out the wrongful arrest of a drugs rehabilitation worker for possession of illegal substances, and is forced to confront his racial prejudice.

DCs Glaze and Holmes investigate the apparent suicide of a local councillor and uncover a plot to pervert the course of justice by ensuring that massage parlours with links to the local freemasons' lodge are not raided.

Ch. Insp. Conway is astounded when an elderly man (and former police officer) turns up at the station with a suitcase containing half a million pounds, which he claims he found on the street. As P.C. Rickman counts the money, Conway decides to do some digging, as surely no-one could be that honest.

Sgt. Cryer is angry at DC Webb's couldn't-care-less attitude towards a body found on a roundabout, so sets about identifying the man himself.

Sgt. Ackland adopts a new "virtual" identity to trap a sinister cyberstalker who is dating and attacking women.

Sgt. Boyden goes undercover at an illegal poker game to catch a man impersonating him to confiscate the winnings.

PC Smith takes a young Chinese boy under his wing, after the disappearance of his parents.

PC Smith gets closer to Tim Tze as the search for his parents continues. DI Deakin discovers that the family's restaurant has been put up for sale and uncovers details of an extramarital affair.

PC Smith and Tim Tze are abducted by a money-laundering gang.

A terrified young woman fears that she has become the victim of a stalker. But as PC Polly Page investigates the case she finds that she too is being drawn into a nightmare world of unseen terror.

As her friendship with stalking victim Emma Roberts develops, PC Polly Page is determined to find the stalker and starts to believe that he might be closer than she thought.

PC Page learns what it's like to be a victim of crime as the crazed stalker targets her, making nuisance calls and breaking into her flat. DC Lennox and DC Glaze focus their investigation on Emma Roberts's boss, and discover he had an intriguing visitor in prison.

DC Lennox is stung by comments about his physical fitness and determines to beat Ch. Supt. Brownlow at squash, as soon as he has arrested a villain from his past. PC Page reaches out to PC Quinnan after her stalking experience, but he rebuffs her.

Probationary PCs Ben Hayward and Roz Clarke arrive for their first day at Sun Hill, and are subjected to a series of wind-ups by the relief.

PCs Hayward and Clarke try to redeem themselves after a disastrous first day, and decide to exact revenge on the wind-up merchants on the relief.

PC Carver stops a driver who appears a little the worse for wear – former DS Ted Roach. He opens up and says he is after a villain from his past, and rekindles his relationship with a former informant.

Former DS Ted Roach, now working as a private investigator, helps Sun Hill CID nail local villain Mickey Owen.

DS Don Beech is bribed by 'businessman' Howard Fallon to find who hijacked one of his lorries. DS Geoff Daly is suspicious when Beech tries to get involved with the investigation.

Beech is alarmed when his mobile number is amongst the possessions of Rachel Booker, a dancer at one of Howard Fallon's clubs, when she is attacked.

Another dancer at Howard Fallon's club reveals a money laundering operation to DS Stanton and DS Boulton.

PC Sam Harker finds out that a 14-year-old boy has been sleeping with his foster mother. It's a dilemma, but Harker makes the painful decision to inform the Child Protection Team and the Social Services. DS Beech tries to get Boulton and Stanton on his side, while they try to find Lynette, their witness against Howard Fallon.

DS Stanton and DS Boulton locate Lynette, their key witness against Howard Fallon, who orders Beech to stop her from testifying. Beech reaches out to Boulton to persuade him to give up Lynette, with tragic consequences.

The death of a colleague deeply affects Don Beech, prompting him to take the biggest gamble of his life.

The corrupt DS Don Beech turns himself in to CIB to bargain with Det Supt Hodges, despite DS Stanton's pleas.

CIB sweep into Sun Hill and suspend the entire CID with immediate effect. As the disgraced detectives are interviewed to establish their connection to Don Beech, DCI Meadows hurriedly calls in some favours at Scotland Yard.

The future of Sun Hill CID hangs in the balance; Stanton, meanwhile, is on a personal mission to catch Beech.

The new CID team arrives at Sun Hill, along with the new Superintendent, Tom Chandler. DCI Meadows is facing a disciplinary hearing, but is ordered to lead a racial harassment investigation which has a personal aspect for him.

Under pressure from the new superintendent to solve the Freeley murder case, DCI Meadows questions the prime suspects, and takes some risky shortcuts to keep his relationship with Helen Freeley secret.

PCs Klein and Quinnan finds the body of a man who has died of a heart attack in a car. Quinnan tries to deliver the man's effects to his wife, which includes a gift for the man's mistress.

DC Glaze and PC McCann end up at loggerheads over each other's attitudes to policing when they work together to investigate a drugs case. A heated conversation and a brush with death for Glaze during the London Carnival inspire both officers to change their ways.

DC Spears and PC Smith are taken hostage when an armed bank raid goes terribly wrong.

PC Smith is suspected of having racist or personal motives when he fails to respond to an urgent assistance call from PC McCann, who is badly beaten by a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads.

PC Klein spends all night DJing at a local nightclub, and lies to Sgt Cryer when he skips work the next day. Klein's career is on the line when Cryer finds out what really happened, and two witnesses in an extortion case accuse Klein of using drugs at the club the night before.

A post-match fight is being arranged between two rival gangs of football fans, and Sun Hill is the venue.

Two young girls are trapped in a house fire, and end up in hospital in a critical condition. When the fire brigade turns up evidence of arson, DCI Meadows is assigned to lead the investigation, with DCs Webb and Spears.

A raid on a brothel uncovers several illegal immigrants from Croatia forced to work as prostitutes.

A series of brutal beatings reveals a turf war between two rival gangs of cigarette smugglers, and PC Klein is abducted by the McBride gang when he tries to buy a mixing desk.

Klein is missing from morning parade, and is later found injured in a crashed van belonging to the McBride cigarette smuggling gang. DS McAllister is determined to prove that Klein is corrupt and involved with the gang.

Reg Hollis organises the Sun Hill Christmas party, but Debbie McAllister ruins his plans forcing him to find another venue. A fight breaks out, and Dave Quinnan and Polly Page end up in bed together.

PCs Quinnan and Page are acting suspiciously, and try to rekindle their affair without their colleagues noticing.