Contents |
| Series | Senior Detective Sergeant |
Junior Detective Sergeant |
Detective Inspector | Senior Crown Prosecutor |
Junior Crown Prosecutor |
Director of London Crown Prosecution Service |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ronnie Brooks (Bradley Walsh) |
Matt Devlin (Jamie Bamber) |
Natalie Chandler (Harriet Walter) |
James Steel (Ben Daniels) |
Alesha Phillips (Freema Agyeman) |
George Castle (Bill Paterson) |
| 2 | ||||||
| 3 | ||||||
| 4 | ||||||
| 5 | Jacob Thorne (Dominic Rowan) |
Henry Sharpe (Peter Davison) |
||||
| 6 | Sam Casey (Paul Nicholls) |
Lively and loveable, Ronnie Brooks is the man you'd want to give your daughter away if you were indisposed. Ronnie adores his job. He's a copper's copper. A reminder of another era of London policing; an era Ronnie's determined to keep going. He knows every nook and cranny of the city. When he's off duty, he can be found playing snooker, or watching West Ham (he's been a season ticket holder for 35 years).
Anglican by upbringing, Ronnie's a humanist by experience. A proper old-school East End gentleman who understands the complexities of life and death. Ronnie uses his laconic wit to cover the reality of too many dead bodies and disappointments. A recovering alcoholic, Ronnie drank his way through two marriages and the distancing of two daughters. Although he typically shrugs it off, Ronnie's feelings of guilt are transparent. He now lives alone.
His genuine insight into the human condition makes him a brilliant interrogator and reader of people. He is socially liberal, a man of great tolerance: but he's also a realist about life. Ronnie's a force for good - and everyone who has ever worked with him adores him. He loves working with Matt. Ronnie sees Matt as a bit of a surrogate son, best friend and confidante.
Ronnie Brooks would appear to be based on the character Lennie Briscoe from the original Law & Order series.[1] Both characters have two ex-wives, are estranged from their daughters & are recovering alcoholics.
A headstrong young officer with a strong sense of justice. Sam was brought in to investigate the shooting of DS Matt Devlin and chooses to stay on as DS Ronnie Brooks's new partner.
In the episode "Dawn Till Dusk," it's revealed that he has a son.
Brooks and Casey's boss - Her job is to push her detectives, making sure they stay within the lines of propriety and to play devil's advocate to their investigations. Chandler is a great boss and a good people person. She leaves no uncertainty about who is in charge but she's fiercely loyal to Ronnie and Sam. As a working mum, Natalie knows how to motivate and how to discipline them and is always fair and focused.
Chandler also brings a sympathy and softer side to her detectives, considering their families even when they don't. Despite maintaining her emotionality, Chandler will be the one bastion of objectivity when all others cannot. She's able to be dispassionate when all around her are losing their heads.
Natalie has a huge heart and is extraordinarily empathetic - but she knows how and when to switch that off, for the good of the job and for the benefit of good, impartial police work.
Jacob Thorne grew up an only child on a farm and was sent to boarding school at a young age. His working class background plays a major role in his competitiveness and moralistic views of right and wrong. He is aggressive in the courtroom, and butts heads at times with Alesha, but he recognises her strengths and has demonstrated significant trust in her. He is fiercely intelligent and performs well at his job, and had to work hard to get where he is. He is also something of a player. Jake can be unpredictable, and keeps his private life very much to himself. While this tends to keep Alesha guessing, they work very well together.
The young, beautiful and compassionate Alesha works as a Junior Crown Prosecutor on the Crown Prosecution Service, and works closely alongside James Steel and later Jake Thorne as their assistant, bridging the gap between the police and the CPS.
Phillips grew up on a council estate in Hackney, with her single mother and attended university on scholarships and hard work. After being rejected from four different law firms, Phillips became worried about whether it was because of her credentials, or because she was a black woman from a poor neighbourhood. Definitively on the side of the disadvantaged and the underdog, her background gives her an insight into how legal issues play out at street level. Unlike James, Alesha understands that desperate circumstances can shape people's lives and that the truth is murky, complex and sometimes unhelpful. Phillips brings the empathy and shades of gray to her working relationships with Steel and Thorne. Alesha's mission is to give a voice to the disenfranchised, the people who are rarely heard. She's not afraid to speak her mind, even when it gets her in trouble. She has a ferocious intellect, allied with enormous passion.
While Phillips works as a crown prosecutor, because she trained as a solicitor, her title is "solicitor advocate"; as such, she doesn't wear the wig, because she didn't train as a barrister.
Down-to-earth Henry Sharpe rules his team with a fair and firm hand. Henry has a very clear understanding of the psychology of offending behaviour and the foundations, pressures and lifestyle choices that lead to a life of crime. He takes a very broad view when looking at a case but ultimately he always acts in the public interest, a voice for the victim, and does what's best for the public, not the offender and is in a position of power and trust for a good reason. Henry brings real warmth with him and has a history with Jake - as his mentor - which makes him a bit of a father figure.
DS Ronnie Brooks' younger and more impulsive partner, friend, and surrogate son. He sincerely looks up to Brooks but takes a more aggressive and black-and-white stand on their cases. Matt is from an Irish-Catholic family in Kilburn. Cheeky and charming, Matt's policing instinct is second to none. In equal parts a force to be reckoned with and a good-looking playboy, Matt brings energy and optimism to the partnership.
Devlin has a romanticized idea of policing and absolutely loves his job and believes in what he does. Despite rejecting the "absolutism" of his upbringing, he still has a black-and-white view of the law: people are either innocent or guilty. Hardworking, efficient and thorough, Matt has a traditional view of the law: but he'll also push past the rule of procedure when he feels his cause is just. He has little sympathy for people who commit crimes, whatever their circumstances might have been.
Inseparable for five years, Matt and Ronnie are mischievous when they are together: each recognises the twinkle in the other's eye and they're known at the station as Morecambe and Wise.
Matt is gunned down in a drive-by shooting at the end of "Deal"; he dies a hero, pushing Alesha Phillips and 12-year old witness Kaden Blake out of harm's way. The following episode, "Survivor's Guilt," deals with bringing his killer to justice.
James Steel is the senior crown prosecutor and partner of Alesha Phillips. He is a born barrister: clear, precise and focused. James's mission is to discover the truth of each case by sifting through the conflicting realities of witnesses, victims and suspects to make sure justice is done.
Prior to his eight years with the CPS, Steel was a defence barrister; but the coincidence of a three-time rapist's case, who James successfully defended even though he felt sure his client was lying, and the birth of his first child changed his outlook on life, and after that day, he promised himself he'd never help a guilty man go free again. He then defected to the Crown Prosecution Service. He has wizened with age and his ability as a CPS Officer has grown with experience.
James is principled and decent and refuses to compromise. He takes the law personally and lives his cases 24 hours a day - a reason his marriage was short-lived as his new passion for the other side of the law consumed his life, alienating him from his family until his wife left for Edinburgh with his son, so his work now fills the hole that his family left.
James resigns at the end of the "Skeletons" episode from the Crown Prosecution Service.
The former Director of London Crown Prosecution Service Castle ran his office with an iron hand, keeping the pressure on Steel and Phillips, of whom he was fiercely protective. His office is respite for James and Alesha from the front lines of the legal wars with the defence.
Castle is a shrewd political operator with a brilliant understanding of how the legal ramifications of a case go beyond the innocence or guilt of a particular defendant. George plied his trade as an independent barrister - working both prosecution and defence cases - before being snapped up by the CPS in 1990 when he was at the top of his profession. He is driven by a sense of justice and it was considered a coup for the CPS to get him.
George Castle has recently been appointed Director of Public Prosecutions, with Henry Sharpe taking over the job as Director of London Crown Prosecution Service.