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, while Janet is subtle, reliable and a diplomatic thinker with a wry sense of humor, which makes her the perfect foil for Rachel. 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.
“SCOTT & BAILEY is back, which is cause for great rejoicing... This is a beautifully engineered programme: it’s both pleasingly sudsy and deliciously grisly, but manages to transcend both the soap and detective genres” - Telegraph
After the murder of Rachel’s ex-boyfriend Nick Savage in Season Two, Season Three reveals how Rachel finally managed to prove she was innocent and keep her job. She’s also now married to new boyfriend Sean (Sean Maguire). But did she go through with the wedding for the right reasons?
She also has the added stress of having her runaway mum back in her life again. Janet fails to patch things up with husband Adrian and they decide to divorce, but how will Janet cope when Adrian starts dating?
For the first time, this series follows one crime story across the eight episodes. Nicola Walker (LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX, SPOOKS) stars in a tale of murder and deception that pushes Scott, Bailey and the team to their limits.
Episode One airs Thursday, October 30 at 10 p.m. - Called to the home of an elderly couple who haven't been seen for a while, Janet discovers Eunice Bevan's severed head at the bottom of the stairs, her body at the top, and her husband Joe in bed, emaciated and barely able to speak. Meanwhile, the detective puts her house on the market, admitting her relationship with Ade is over, and three months in to Rachel's marriage to traffic cop Sean, she's starting to feel a little claustrophobic.
Episode Two airs Thursday, November 6 at 10 p.m. - In a retrospective episode set immediately after the events of series two, Rachel faces further accusations of masterminding the fatal attack on ex-lover Nick and finds comfort in the arms of ever-faithful Sean, agreeing to marry him. Amid the wedding celebrations, Janet and Ade admit defeat and decide to split up for good, while DCI Gill Murray (Amelia Bullmore) is duty bound to take action when she catches Pete in a compromising position. The detectives also investigate the case of a businessman suspected of murdering a tramp.
Episode Three airs Thursday, November 13 at 10 p.m. - The detectives investigate the murder of a wealthy man whose double life left him vulnerable to exploitation. Away from work, Rachel's recent moment of indiscretion threatens to come back to haunt her when a confused Sean takes a phone call from her one-night stand, and after Ade is pushed into living with his girlfriend on a permanent basis, Janet asks her mother to move in.
Episode Four airs Thursday, November 20 at 10 p.m. - Troubled saleswoman Helen, whose mother was murdered back in episode one, turns up on Janet's doorstep with information that takes the investigation in a completely different direction - paving the way for the formidable Det. Supt. Julie Dodson (Pippa Haywood) to be called in. Meanwhile, new recruit Sgt. Rob Waddington (Danny Miller) arrives on the scene - putting Janet's nose out of joint as she is demoted back down to constable.
Episode Five airs Thursday, November 27 at 10 p.m. - Having realized her marriage is a mistake, Rachel is still staying at Janet's and making excuses for her absence, but Sean isn't prepared to accept that things have gone so wrong, so quickly. Meanwhile, the investigation into Joe Bevan continues as the body count rises and the team faces the mammoth task of identifying the victims and determining the order in which they were murdered.
Episode Six airs Thursday, December 18 at 10 p.m. - When Janet gets called in to Gill’s office to explain a cheeky email that she’s sent to Rob, she’s adamant that it wasn’t from her, and mortified that Rob will think it is - especially since she’s already embarrassed him in a moment of madness. But if Janet thought this was the worst the day could throw at her, she couldn’t be more wrong.
The story of the week involves the suspicious death of care home resident Gerald French. When daughter Catherine raises concerns about the level of care her father had been receiving, Scott and Bailey are sent in to investigate. And when cripplingly shy trainee, Rosie, is discovered slapping a resident, she is devastated to find that her charismatic mentor doesn’t have her best interests at heart.
Episode Seven airs Thursday, January 8 at 10 p.m. (updated) - Rachel is shocked when Janet walks in on her and Kev in the bedroom, and is forced to acknowledge that her chaotic life is affecting her work. Meanwhile, Syndicate 9 are left reeling at the identity of the mole in the team, and when a body is found in Oldham town center, the detective duo discover that a spate of street robberies may lead them to the killer.
Episode Eight airs Thursday, January 8 at 11 p.m. (updated) - With their friendship in tatters, the lack of communication between Rachel and Janet is making even the simplest of tasks difficult, and it takes a call about Gill's possible abduction to reunite them as a team. The duo soon have Gill's car in their sights and identify the kidnapper, but discover they are heading for a notorious suicide location. Can the detectives get to their boss in time?
A Red production for ITV. This season originally aired in 2013.
Season Four will premiere on Thursday, January 15, 2015 at 10 p.m.
SCOTT & BAILEY (UK fan page) is on Facebook.
