4/5

Jackie Hart (35) is a Family Liason Officer solving cases by winning the trust of those caught up in the nightmare of serious crime and murder.

Police guidelines: The primary function of a Family Liaison Officer is that of an investigator. In performing this role the officer will support the family, but will also gather relevant information and intelligence.

The crimes, mainly murders, are presented as mysteries which Jackie solves in the whodunit tradition where events and characters never turn out to be what they at first appear. Jackie makes frequent use of VOI in the form of an audiolog to confide her thoughts and suspicions.

Police guidelines: The Contact Log will be used to record details of contact with family members and other parties connected to the family.

Jackie is a serving copper, not a social worker, working as part of an active team of investigating CID officers .. but because she works in liason she gets closer to the people involved in the crime, closer to the raw emotions and is able to investigate in a way her colleagues can't - combining empathy and intuition with the keen observation of a clever detective.

And this is what defines the series - other officers are kept to the far periphery as we focus intimately on Jackie and those she is both supporting and suspecting, in stories which feel more like sensitive character studies than police procedurals.

Jackie ..... Meera Syal
Gillian ..... Niamh Cusack
Peter ..... Mathew Marsh
Michael ..... Ollie Barbieri

The producer is Clive Brill, and this is a Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4. Show less