And we’re back! We’re into our second episode of Unforgotten series 4, we don’t know much but we’ve got our team already hard at work so let’s get to it. Rolling into Unforgotten S4 E1.2 with the inestimable Nicola Walker and the awesomesauce Sanjeev Bhaskar after the break!

Okay! To recap, our intrepid crack team of police led by DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker!!) and DI Sunil ‘Sunny’ Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) have rustled up a dead body tentatively identified as Matthew Kieran Walsh. The body was somewhat disassembled for the presumed purpose of obscuring identity, but it was stored by a dead former copper, former drunk driver Dan Fogerty. The Cold Case police team thinks the night Dan was pulled over for his Driving Under the Influence offense was also the night he and four others had just earned their police badges, and maybe had Matthew stuffed in their boot.

We’ve got an abundance of suspects, including ‘legitimate’ businessman Dean Barton (Andy Nyman), up from the streets Ram Sidhu (Phaldut Sharma), hectored Liz Baildon (Susan Lynch), and oddly detached Fiona Grayson (Liz White). Everyone has significant others, of course, and much to lose. An air of pervasive sadness hangs over our group.

We open in the pub with Cassie and Sunny interviewing the copper who pulled Dan Fogerty over back in 1990 (I’m having a bit of a nightmare about that, the date of death is around 1990, but the freezer the body was found in wasn’t manufactured until 1998, so where did the body sit for 8 years?? As likely as not, I’ve gotten that wrong and I’m freaking myself out for no good reason), trying to glean more detail about the other four occupants of Dan’s vehicle that night. He remembers an Asian lad (perhaps Ram Sidhu) and a sensible woman (Liz or Fiona), that’s it.

Cassie is all gas no brakes, running ahead but Sunny is calmer as he usually is, weighing out the information. They don’t even know for sure that Matthew Kieran Walsh was dead in the boot of Dan’s car at that time, but Cassie’s already got half the police force pre-indicted in her mind.

We’re going to call that “passion.”

Like waking up her son Adam Stuart (Jassa Ahluwalia) at 7:14 am because he needs a job, damnit!

And forgetting her boyfriend John Bentley (Alastair MacKenzie) has rather a big something to do today. She asks: does she seem angry all the time? Not ALL the time. Maybe it just feels that way. I usually feel sad all the time, I think anger is sometimes that, but with energy.

Ram and his wife Anna Sidhu (Clare Calbraith) are dancing around a difficult talk, rather: he is. She’s 46 and pregnant with her first child, there may be some birth defects in the baby-to-be but he’s having difficulty meeting that challenge head on. Things don’t get better for him as he drives in to work, he’ll be answering a harassment charge later in the day.

Fiona Grayson is having her own strained day, she tells husband Geoff Tomlinson (Daniel Flynn) that she’ll be going for a run, he tells the receptionist at her work, which seems to freak her out.

Liz Baildon is applying for something, she’s got a snappy police outfit and an extremely supportive fiancee Janet (Amanda Douge).

DS Murray Boulting (Jordan Long) of the raspy voice has been looking into the victim’s family tree, he left behind a son named Jerome Walsh (James Craze) but not much else left of our troubled family.

Jerome does not seem too fussed to hear about his father being found, he has little reaction at all. Let’s just say that’s not usually the response Cassie gets from a family member of a long-lost relative.

I suppose we could look at it as a reminder: live your life so that your child prioritizes the news of your death over completing a plumbing job.

DC Jake Collier (Lewis Reeves) leads a large team of policepersons going through the rest of Dan Forgerty’s things as Sunny reviews the original MisPers case file,  Dean Barton purchases a burner phone and Fiona does NOT go for a run. Who is Dean going to call? Who ISN’T Dean going to call, with his untraceable phone and hankering for illegal dispatching?

Liz is knocked down in a brief but shocking daylight carjacking, I can’t think why she ran up at the carjacker with nothing but her 100 pound self and a bike helmet. Maybe it’s that police training. She’s also got a nightmare of a mother to deal with, a wee carjacker with a club probably seems like aces after dealing with Eileen Baildon (Sheila Hancock).

Instead of Fiona going for a run, she secretly…places flowers at her dad’s grave. Her dad and her dad’s dad were coppers, hm, her dad died in 1991. I wonder if the timing means anything.

Woooo Sunny finds names in arresting copper’s notebook; we’ve got Dean, Fiona and Liz! Liz was the sensible one and the only still-working police person, from what I can see.

Cassie leads a productive briefing, they’re all very happy she’s back. And she’s happy to be back.

She was on leave for a number of months and would have happily retired on medical leave but the British police are like the mafia: just when you think you’re out…

And I’m a big liar, Ram is also a working copper and by that I mean he is DCI Ram Sidhu, same rank as Cassie and in trouble for allegedly cuddling a junior named Lucy Myers. Ram seemed scared when he learned of the charge, but he’s all cold offense in front of Chief Constable Robin (Charles Dale). He’ll charge racism if the young lady goes ahead with her allegations.

Chief Constable Robin and I are quite taken aback by that; the type of strong reaction that absolutely makes you think the lady in question was telling the truth. Neither his white boss nor I have had to deal with systemic racism, however, although I’ve experienced the sharp end of sexism.

Liz makes it to her job interview, it seems to be as public relations? For the police? I don’t know, but she feels very strongly about the work she does with the police and her role in shaping public perception of them.

Cassie talks with Jerome about his dad, it makes sense that he wouldn’t feel any emotional connection to his dad as he never met him or his grandparents. Grandparents are usually good for filling in the blanks about one’s parentage, but Matthew’s parents had died, just as Jerome’s mum did too, when he was 7. Theirs was a chaotic life full of addiction, Jerome doesn’t want that infecting his life now. He does offer to provide a DNA sample and look for information about his uncle Clive, who was the last person to see his dad alive.

Familial connections run throughout the show, Ram meets with his brother Bal (Ronny Jhutti) for a drink and to plot his revenge on (what sounds like) another racist attack, not just “two pissed people getting it slightly wrong.” He has a huge chip on his shoulder, he sees everything as a fight and now I see him pushing the arresting officer to let Robert Fogerty go on his DUI. When everything is a battle, you’re always coming out shooting. He goes for drinks alone at a posh bar instead of home to his wife, who calls and calls.

Cassie is having family problems of her own, her dad Martin Hughes (Peter Egan) has decided to change his will previously favouring his grandchildren to now support his girlfriend Jenny (Janet Dibley) of 18 months who’s a piece of work. Martin has rapid-onset Alzheimer’s, it’s a very difficult time for him. He looks the same, but is easily angered and forgets things.

Cassie suggests that her son Adam take his grandpa out for a beer to discuss things, maybe he could find out what Jenny’s after! That’s…not a good idea, thinks John and I, but that makes Cassie angry as does air these days at home. Alzheimers is hard on everyone.

I thought Liz lived with her nightmare of a mother and carer Eugenia (Mina Andala) but she has her own place with Janet and her own Aga stove. Dreamy. She gets a late night call from Eileen, who’s found out she’s applied for the top job in policing. This alarms Liz greatly, especially when her mother keeps saying she has “balls of steel.”

Have any of you seen Wentworth? There’s a solution for that problem…

Hey, John got the mystery job he applied for, yay! That means that they’ll have to sell up and move, though, which triggers the equity question ongoing right now. Cassie dodges the decision, leaving John frustrated and concerned.

Speaking of dodging, Ram didn’t even go home after the bar, he slept in the backroom of his family’s shop, which is where his wife finds him in the morning, an hour before her blood test to find out about birth defects in their baby. He goes to work to find out that Lucy Myers will be filing a formal complaint after all. Late that night he looks her up on one of his team’s computers, surely so it can’t be traced back to him. He’s the same rank as Cassie, I’m having a hard time not comparing them. I can’t see Cassie doing any of that shite.

Dean has a busy day driving to Paris to recover a van full of server parts that fell off the back of a truck. He’s about as inconspicuous as a purple giraffe, his family can tell he’s up to shenanigans but the border guards just wave him through.

The unusual thing is…I think Felix has something on our Dean. I don’t think he’s just a shady air conditioning business owner, I think there is some connection he would actually like to sever to the underworld. But you know, if they can use you, why would they let you go?

Sunny and Cassie get all four names from the records clerk, it seems our Liz Baildon is still a very big wig, up for the top job as it were.

It’s just that…Cassie is very annoyed with police and top brass insisting she come back to work for three months to achieve her 30 years for her pension, Sunny carefully asks if she might be looking to make a point here? Maybe?

It might also be to quiet down all the noise caused by all the other cases clamouring in her head.

Sunny is always gentle.

Just then, DS Fran interrupts with news from a previously unrecorded witness, she saw Matthew the night he disappeared, being chased by someone…Asian.

I know they mean Ram Sidhu, it’s just not at all what I associate here in Canada with Asian so it’s confusing initially. However, whenever anyone says Asian, the camera swings to catch Sunny’s reaction, so that’s helpful. Honestly.

The news has the story of Matthew’s body being discovered and the details, all four of our suspects watch silently. Ram and Fiona have poker faces, but Dean looks about to cry and Liz drops all the tea. Her partner rushes over to soothe her, that tells me Janet knows about the death of Matthew Walsh.

Until next time, everyone! Cheers and rubber buckets, love.