List of DCI Banks episodes

An officer is killed while responding to a domestic disturbance call. His partner subdues the killer, Marcus Payne, but Payne ends up in a coma. When DCI Banks investigates the grisly scene, he discovers it's the home of a serial rapist and murderer. The victims of four open cases are buried in the cellar. The fifth is missing and may still be alive, and Banks is haunted by the desire to find her. DS Annie Cabbot is investigating for Professional Standards the apparently extreme assault on Marcus Payne, who has died from his injuries. Banks suspects Payne's wife Lucy is complicit in the murders, while Cabbot must prove that the second officer used excessive force. When Lucy's true identity is revealed, it complicates the case, but does not deter Banks from his goal.

Two bodies are found after a fatal fire on two narrow boats. Police suspect arson, and the discovery of a forged Turner landscape leads DCI Banks and DS Cabbot to connect the victims to an art forgery scam. Cabbot becomes involved with art expert Mark Keane, who is assisting with the investigation. Banks, meanwhile, suspects that Patrick Aspern, father of one of the victims, is deliberately withholding vital information. A third victim is discovered and Banks, the subject of a possible complaint by the Asperns, is determined to identify the man behind the art forgery scam. Cabbot's relationship with Keane makes her a target for the killer, with nearly disastrous consequences.

DCI Banks assigns DS Cabbot as Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) on a case involving the mutilated body of a woman found on the Yorkshire moors, while he investigates the murder of teenager Hayley Daniels, whose body has been found in a storage room in a dark alleyway. Cabbot discovers that her victim was Lucy Payne. When their colleague DC Templeton's body is discovered in the same alleyway, killed in the same way as Lucy, Cabbot becomes convinced that the murders are connected. The suspect in the Daniels murder case is cleared, so Banks must establish how the real killer was able to avoid detection.

A man commits an armed robbery and is then brutally murdered. Meanwhile, DCI Banks' boss, Chief Superintendent Rydell wants Banks to find and bring home his runaway teenage daughter, Emily. DS Cabbot becomes convinced the robbery was staged. Banks shepherds Emily away from criminal Barry Clough in London and returns her to her family, but he's shocked when she turns up dead shortly afterward, appearing as though she's been brutally beaten. Inquiries seem to reveal a connection between the two murders, and Banks and Cabbot come to suspect one of their team may be implicated in a criminal conspiracy.

With DS Annie Cabbot about to take maternity leave, no-nonsense DI Helen Morton joins the team. A disturbing late-night message from his estranged brother Roy leads DCI Banks to go in search of him, without telling anyone. Meanwhile, DI Morton quickly alienates her colleagues with her tactless style at a murder scene, then makes matters worse by finding evidence linking Banks to the dead woman and speculating he could be a suspect. Banks delves deeper into Roy's life and uncovers questionable business transactions and associates. When Alan breaks the news to his parents that Roy has been murdered, they plead with him to find their son's killer. Defying Morton, Banks returns to Eastvale CID and attempts to lead both investigations. He and DI Morton become convinced the key to cracking both cases lies with a woman being treated at a family planning clinic.

Frustrated that a number of cases have been knocked back by the CPS, DCI Banks and his team are called on to investigate the murder of teenager Ellie Clayton, daughter of a high-profile Internet entrepreneur. The victim's background and the suggestion she may have been raped quickly make the incident the subject of media speculation, and strong evidence implicates a local theatre director who ran a drama workshop Ellie attended the night she was killed. Banks believes he's found his man, but DI Morton suspects her colleague isn't seeing the bigger picture. When the trial against theatre director Owen Pearce collapses, Banks and the team are forced to rebuild the case with entirely new evidence. As a new suspect for Ellie's murder comes to light, a second girl is found dead in similar circumstances, and she is soon identified as Becca Smith, Ellie's best friend.

A strange man and woman turn up on the doorstep of Kyle Heath, an eleven-year-old local school boy, claiming to be social workers having received a report of abuse against the child. As they make the decision to take the child from his mother's custody, little does she know that the man and the woman are in fact sinister child abductors, who have no connection to social services whatsoever. A search for the missing boy soon gets underway, but the discovery of a large quantity of drugs underneath the floorboards of his living room reveals some rather dark and sinister secrets. DI Morton suspects that the child's abduction, however, was planned by his own mother to extort money. The boy's headteacher soon becomes prime suspect when evidence reveals he was with the boy the night after he disappeared. Meanwhile, Banks' attempt to protect Annie from the emotions of the case draw them closer together.

The body of journalist Matt Barber, found in a chalet deep within the hills of a remote village, connect Banks to the death of John Gaunt, a guitarist for a band known as 'The Crystal Kiss', who died during the 1980s. His band-mate, and best friend, Martin Hareford, was sent to prison on the grounds of manslaughter, serving five years for Gaunt's death. Banks finds himself not only investigating Matt Barber's death, but re-opening the Gaunt case in order to identify the potential cover-up which is threatening to hide the truth behind Barber's death. As he finds himself raking over bad memories for those involved, DI Morton finds herself suspicious of Barber's father Jack, who was the investigating officer in the Gaunt case, who extracted a confession from Martin Hareford. However, when the files reveal the confession has disappeared, DI Morton suspects that Jack has more to do with his son's death than he is letting on.

Club DJ Richard Martin is run off the road and subsequently shot in the head, leaving the perpetrators to dispose of his body and his car, as well as the gun used in the shooting. When the gun turns up in the bedroom of Erin Doyle, the daughter of Banks' long-term neighbours, Banks decides to act quietly to remove the gun without fuss. However, DI Morton overrules him, forcing him to follow procedure, organizing a full-blown raid which results in Erin's father, Peter Doyle, being tasered resulting in a heart attack. As Banks, Blackstone and Lang investigate Martin's death, Annie is forced to conduct an official investigation into Helen's actions, an investigation which threatens to destroy Banks' team. As the team identify Jaff Kitson as the possible murderer, Erin reveals that Jaff's new girlfriend is none other than Banks' daughter, Tracy. Banks has to decide between his family loyalties, his moral actions and the hope of a relationship with Annie in order to secure the safety of his daughter. But which will he choose?