Honest, powerful and true to life, SCOTT & BAILEY is a refreshing take on crime drama. Rachel Bailey (Suranne Jones) and Janet Scott (Lesley Sharp) are detectives with Manchester Metropolitan Police’s prestigious Murder Investigation Team. Rachel is energetic, impulsive, and bold. Janet is subtle, reliable and a diplomatic thinker with a wry sense of humor, which makes her the perfect foil for Rachel.
“What I love most about Suranne Jones’ and Lesley Sharp’s detectives, is that unlike Morse, Horatio Caine, Hercule Poirot and their ilk, for Rachel Bailey and Janet Scott being a detective is just a job” - Mirror
Each episode sees Rachel and Janet deal with serious crimes that are both challenging and emotionally difficult as well as cope with their own complex personal lives. Stories for this series include the brutal murders of two men, months apart. Can Rachel and Janet discover the connection between them?
Episode One repeats Thursday, August 14, 2014 at 10 p.m. - When Rachel’s estranged brother Dom (Liam Boyle) turns up on her doorstep, she doesn’t have the heart to turn him away. But he has a lot to prove if he’s going to stay. Janet has a guest too; her mum Dorothy is living with her and Adrian, after an operation. But Dorothy winds Adrian up, and it’s not long before he’s packing his bags.
When a murder suspect turns violent, DC Kevin Lumb (Ben Batt) leaps to Rachel’s defense, but his moment of glory is short-lived when sexy traffic cop Sean (Sean Maguire) swoops in and steals his thunder. Sean and Rachel haven’t seen each other for years, but the chemistry’s as strong as ever.
In part one of a two-part crime story a badly burned body has turned up in remote woodland, and Gill (Amelia Bullmore) has the unenviable task of making an appeal to the public. A few days later another charred body is discovered. Syndicate 9 find themselves working alongside the formidable DCI Julie Dodson (Pippa Haywood).
The team start to realize that their victims weren’t just murdered, but were tortured too. They make an arrest, but when their prime suspect’s brother is brutally murdered, it becomes clear that their investigation has just scratched the surface.
Episode Two repeats Thursday, September 4, 2014 at 10 p.m. - Rachel wakes up to find sexy, charismatic Sean in bed with her. He’s delighted. She’s wondering whether that wasn’t the best idea.
Janet wants to keep her split with Adrian secret, and with Dorothy’s help, manages to juggle the girls’ needs with the demands of her job. But at Rachel’s birthday celebrations, Taisie tells DS Andy Roper (Nicholas Gleaves) the news - he’s amazed and hurt that she hasn’t told him.
Having arrested four people for the series of brutal murders, the team face a wall of silence. But the Major Incident Team’s calm interview techniques prevail, and the shocking truth emerges; in the sad, mindless, drug and alcohol infested world the murderers inhabit, the horrific crimes occurred as a result of a £5 debt over a dog.
Episode Three repeats Thursday, September 11, 2014 at 10 p.m. - Rachel discovers Dom renting himself out for sex, in her flat. She goes ballistic, but is heartbroken to realize this is how he’s got by in prison. Rachel urges Dom to get an HIV test.
Gill tells Rachel that the CPS are not going to charge Nick Savage with her attempted murder. Both women are appalled and Rachel questions her instincts, wondering how she can have been in love with such a man.
Jeremy Leach, an infamous serial killer imprisoned thirteen years ago for the rape and murder of four women, is claiming he’s innocent. Another woman has been raped and murdered using Leach’s exact M.O. so is the real murderer still out there?
Because Gill helped catch Leach thirteen years ago when she worked for the National Crime Faculty, she is brought in to advise on the new killing, and takes Rachel with her.
Episode Four repeats Thursday, September 25, 2014 at 10 p.m. - Dom’s HIV test is negative, but in his euphoria he does something stupid that jeopardizes Rachel’s sergeant’s exam.
Sean continues to make Rachel smile. He thinks they should accept that they’re destined to be together, and get married, but she’s not convinced. Janet has been persuaded to give it a whirl with Andy, but now she’s having regrets. She decides to tell Andy that it isn’t what she wants, but he’s finding it hard to accept.
When 8 year old Dylan Nichol’s body turns up, it’s clear he’s been the victim of a paedophile. But this killer is a plausible, deeply deceitful man who consciously puts himself at the heart of the investigation and at the heart of the vulnerable family whose child he has cruelly violated.
Episode Five repeats Thursday, October 2, 2014 at 10 p.m. - Angry and upset about missing her sergeant’s exam, and about Nick Savage not being charged with her attempted murder, Rachel gets drunk with Janet. Dom is appalled at seeing his sister so vulnerable.
Sean tells Rachel he’s booked the registry office, and even though she’s still saying no, Sean’s relentless cheerfulness does make her smile. Andy insists he’s prepared to give Janet all the time and space she needs, but when she gets home, he’s there, ingratiating himself with her mother and Elise. Janet tells him she finds his behavior weird and will tell Gill if he doesn’t leave her alone.
Janet finally faces the interview with Geoff Hastings, and learns much more than she bargained for, while Rachel and the rest of the team investigate the brutal, racially motivated murder of a 21 year-old taxi driver.
Episode Six repeats Thursday, October 9, 2014 at 10 p.m. - Sean has a surprise for Rachel – he wants her to meet his son! Haydn is eight years old and a chip off the old block. Rachel can think of nothing worse.
Andy accuses Janet of having ‘had him on’. Janet is sorry, it wasn’t her intention, but the atmosphere between them has been noticed by Gill and she’s worried that it could affect the team.
A woman with a green face and head, dressed in a sexy policewoman’s outfit, turns up dead in a field. Gill makes the assumption that the killer is a lover. The only trouble is Susie Bishop had more lovers than most people have hot dinners. Which one of them will it be? And why has she got a green face?
Episode Seven repeats Thursday, October 16, 2014 at 10 p.m. - Sean has another surprise for Rachel. He’s seen her mum, who he says would love to see Rachel. But Rachel has spent years trying not to think about her mum and feels ambushed. When Sean shows Rachel some old family photos, she starts to realize that being a mother of three at her age might be harder than she’d ever imagined.
Unable to accept that Janet has ended their affair, Andy punishes her by keeping her out of the heart of the investigation. When Janet rebels, Andy’s anger is palpable, and the ensuing row is personal and exposing. Gill tells Andy that he has a duty to tell Janet why he has reacted so badly.
When Leon Foster turns up dead, with a bullet hole in his head, it looks at first like a typical gang killing. But the discovery that Leon has been sexually mutilated, raises suspicions that this was a domestic murder. When lines of inquiry take Janet and Rachel into a world of baby mothers and line-ups, they’re shocked by what these girls consider to be normal or even flattering behavior.
Episode Eight repeats Thursday, October 23, 2014 at 10 p.m. - Hung-over from a hen night, Rachel’s day goes from bad to worse when DCI Julie Dodson arrives at the station to tell her that Nick Savage has been brutally assaulted and that she’s top of the list of suspects. Scared, and unable to recall the events of the previous night, Rachel is struggling to convince even herself that she didn’t do it.
Having thought she’d made her peace with Andy, Janet is shocked to discover that he’s given her misinformation, resulting in Gill missing an appointment with the Coroner. Unable to get to the bottom of who is messing her around, a furious and heartbroken Gill tells Janet and Andy that one of them will have to leave the syndicate.
When Gill first meets Margaret Selwyn, it’s to tell her that her husband’s death was accidental – he slipped in the bath and banged his head. But when Margaret’s two daughters tell Janet that their mother often talked of her plans to kill their dad, Gill is forced to re-investigate the case.
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