The team investigates the death of promising young poet Sean Doherty, who’s body was found burnt to a crisp inside the scrap yard of a heroin dealer. It’s a tricky case, with motives seemingly a plenty for wanting Sean dead, and the team tackles the murky and unexpectedly complicated world of poetry.

About

The seventh episode of series nine of New Tricks, ‘Dead Poets’ aired 8th October 2012 on BBC One. The series was created by Roy Mitchell and Nigel McCrery and this episode was written by Marston Bloom and directed by Philip John.

It stars Denis Lawson as ‘Steve McAndrew’, Alun Armstrong as ‘Brian Lane’, Amanda Redman as ‘Sandra Pullman’ and Dennis Waterman as ‘Gerry Standing’. Guest starring this episode are Susan Jameson as ‘Esther Lane’, James Murray as ‘Luke Oswald’ and Simone Lahbib as ‘Sarah Powell’.

Availability: Available for purchase in the UK on DVD and digitally. Episodes also occasionally pop up on iPlayer, and television reruns are common—be aware that broadcast reruns are often cut down to fit in the hour timeslot with advertisements. Also available on DVD and digitally in the US.

Dead Poets

Gerry and Sandra are in a prison, interviewing Mehtin Topal over the death of Sean Doherty some years prior. Sean’s body was found burnt to a crisp in Topal’s scrap yard, but Topal had an alibi for the night of the murder—or he did, anyway. That alibi has now been broken.

Doherty was a poet; the most exciting talent of his generation. How he ended up dead in a scrap yard belonging to a heroin smuggler has always been a bit of a mystery. Sandra and Steve go to visit his sister, who runs a cab business. She’s twelve years older than he was, and they were never close. Her husband Owen has a very low opinion of Sean, claims he pissed off everyone he knew, and gives them a long list of people who might have wanted Sean dead. He highlights one name in particular: Gorkan Ozil.

Gerry and Brian pay a visit to Luke Oswald, Sean’s old flatmate, who has become a very successful poet. He claims Sean was a free spirit, who no one can pin down. He’s slightly evasive though, not giving them much, and when they ask about Ozil, he seems to recognise the name.

The UCOS team decide their best bet is to try to track down Ozil. They don’t have much luck. Whilst digging into that though, Steve discovers that Sean’s brother in law was convicted of GBH against one of Topal’s men. Steve and Sandra go to speak to Owen again, and he admits that he knows more than he initially let on: but strongly denies having anything to do with Sean’s death.

Lacking leads, Gerry and Brian speak to Sean’s old tutor, Sarah Powell. She paints a very different picture of him than everyone else. Yes, he had an appetite for life and experience, but it fed directly into his work; he was focussed on finding the truth of experience for his poetry.

Sandra and Steve interview Topal in prison again, as they now have evidence of a connection between him and Sean. Topal admits—finally—that Sean worked for him, but places the blame for his death on Owen’s feet. Sean got Owen into trouble, so Owen had good reason to want Sean gone. They drag Owen in for questioning, and he says he has an alibi for that night—he was at a football match, and afterwards, at the pub with his mates. The team can’t prove that alibi, and he eventually coughs up the genuine one: the woman he was with that night. She backs up his story.

Brian and Powell attend one of Oswald’s poetry readings. She recognises a couple of his lines as ones Sean had used previously. But she doesn’t know if they were Sean’s originally—poets borrow from each other all the time. She also confesses that she was romantically involved with Sean, but ended it before his death.

Brian now believes Oswald did it. Gerry doesn’t believe that anyone would ever kill over some stolen lines of poetry. But they can’t interrogate Oswald about it, as he’s disappeared off writing and his agent doesn’t know where he’s gone. She doesn’t think much to the plagiarism allegation though. So the team are still looking for a motive. Steve and Gerry think it has to be something related to the gang; Brian insists the motive is in the poetry.

The next day, Steve and Sandra go back to Oswald’s agent. Oswald has not reappeared. They also quiz her about the relationship she had with Sean—a physical affair that she claims was Sean rebounding from Powell.

“Misery memoirs of balloon breasted celebrities pay for all this. Poets bring prestige.”

Steve is put in charge of searching through the agency’s records: Sandra wants to know if Doherty or Oswald was represented first. There’s a lot of paper to look through. Steve looks increasingly bedraggled as he goes through it all. He finally discovers the paperwork; the agency rejected Oswald in 2001, and then made an offer of representation six months later—only weeks after Doherty was killed.

At Oswald’s reading, he turns up all a shambles, and reads an emotional tribute to Sean. Still, with the evidence uncovered, the team bring him in for questioning. He respected Sean, loved him—there was no reason for him to kill him. And from a purely pragmatic view, he’d have been better off killing Sean for his poetry years later, when he’d had the chance to build up a full body of work. But he’s still evasive about his disappearances and uncooperative, but the team believe that he wouldn’t have killed Sean.

Still clueless, the team go down the pub. Before they get too settled, they’re interrupted: Sarah Powell believes she’s being stalked. Someone followed her home. She asks Brian to stay with her, to help her feel safe. She’s been going back over Sean’s poetry, looking for some clue as to what happened to him, wondering if the answer is there. Brian offers her his copy of Liminal Lakes, Oswald’s book. Something in it vastly changes her behaviour, and she asks Brian to leave.

The following morning, Steve has found something on the CCTV footage of Powell’s walk home. Her stalker? Sean Doherty. He’s still alive. And when the team break the good news to everyone involved in the case, well, no one is as surprised as they should be. The body that was found in Topal’s scrap yard? That would be where Gourkan Ozil got to.

The team return to Powell’s flat, but no one answers. She’s skipped work for the day. Sufficiently concerned about her safety, Sandra orders Steve to break into Powell’s flat. Inside, there’s no sign of her. The team split up to try and track her down. Gerry’s on phone records, Steve’s on CCTV, and Brian? Brian is searching for the message Powell found in the poetry. Gerry’s the one who has the first success; Powell’s phone was last registered near a specific road junction in Sussex. Brian realises he’s looking in the wrong book—if Doherty was feeding Oswald poetry, the clue will be in Oswald’s latest book. He realises that they must all be in a cottage in Sussex, the cottage that Yates once rented, where Doherty previously took Powell.

At the cottage, they initially only find Oswald, who denies knowing anything and wants to be left alone to write. Eventually, Doherty and Powell show their faces; they’ve been at the cottage all along. All three are dragged back to the station to questioning. Oswald, in one more act of devotion, confesses to the murder of Ozil—which forces Doherty to confess. He killed Ozil—but Ozil was torturing him. One punch was all it took. And he’s been hiding ever since.

Verdict

It’s an episode all about poetry and fragile masculinity—mostly Gerry’s—is on display everywhere. From Gerry’s original declaration that he’s allergic to poetry to his and Brian’s obvious confusion as they struggle to understand the depth of the platonic love between Oswald and Doherty, there’s clear discomfort on display. These are not men who would ever use the word love about another man, even if it did accurately describe their (platonic) feelings. Gerry only reconciles himself to poetry when he realises it can be an effective way to woo women.

The moment where Brian woos Esther by reading Andrew Marvel to her though, is absolutely fabulous. For all that Brian is clearly an absolute nightmare to live with, Esther also plainly adores him, and it’s always good to see that.

When the team learns of Powell and Doherty’s relationship, Steve’s reaction is particularly interesting. He says that they should have seized the chance and gone for it, regardless of the large age gap between them. Steve is a romantic at heart, who throws himself into relationships with perhaps a little less caution than he should. And while we haven’t met his long-distance girlfriend yet—that’s coming up—you probably won’t be surprised if I tell you she’s significantly younger than Steve. He’s letting personal experience cloud his judgement a little, I think.

Steve’s personal patience is sorely tested by Brian this episode. This time, it only results in one very amusing, very Scottish message, but… well, let’s just say that Steve doesn’t always have such a grip on his temper.

Also, Steve’s shady tactics finally come in useful this episode! He’s certainly surprised when Sandra authorises him to break into Powell’s flat—given the telling off he got last time he did so, it’s no surprise—but he’s still got his lockpicks with him and ready to go. And he’s in in seconds—hasn’t lost a jot of those skills.

All in all? This isn’t one of my favourites, or particularly memorable, but it’s solid enough.

Next time

The team investigates the death of Max Klein, a former Stasi agent who came to the UK to find his long lost daughter. Did his murky past catch up to him, or was it something rather closer to home? All that and more next time on New Tricks: Blue Flower