Taggart

8:30pm – Friday, July 8 on ABC1

Stabbed in a dark alley of Glasgow city centre, a busker desperately tries to drag himself to help but dies amongst a swarm of shocked pedestrians. With footprints and the victim’s dog’s bloody paws contaminating the site, the crime scene is a nightmare for forensic pathologist Duncan Clark (Davood Ghadmi), and for DCI Burke (Alex Norton) and his team.

With no clear suspect the team track down CCTV footage which reveals two prominent local figures present in the area of the stabbing – gangster Benny ‘Baby Doc’ Docherty (Niall Greig Fulton) and Clark Donovan (Steven Pacey), Head of Appropriations at the City Council.

Vital evidence for the investigation turns up in the hands of art students Annie (Lorna Craig) and Mickey (Jamie Quinn) who were photographing the alley at the time of the murder for a college project. DS Mita Rahim (Anneika Rose) talks to the students hoping the pictures will bring to light what really happened on the evening of the stabbing. Frustratingly, the essential shots from the time of the murder have been stolen from their dark room, but DCI Burke is convinced this is more than just a coincidence…

Meanwhile, DI Ross’s personal life is spiralling out of control. Deep in debt from gambling, and assisting a rehabilitating drug addict in his home, he finds himself at the mercy of Baby Doc. As the hunt for a suspect persists, Robbie’s life comes under investigation by DCI Atkins from Professional Standards, and he’s removed from the case.

Heading up the investigation falls to the newly promoted DI Jackie Reid but Chief Super Campbell (Siobhan Redmond) warns her to tread very cautiously.

However, when Clark Donovan is caught trying to blackmail Mickey for the ‘missing’ photographs Reid has no choice but to intervene, with tragic consequences…

8:30pm – Friday, July 1 on ABC1

An unidentified dead body is discovered next to a motorway underpass. DCI Burke (Alex Norton) is immediately suspicious as it appears the man’s body has been dressed and moved from the initial crime scene. The hunt is on to find out who dumped the body…

When Julie Cash (Vivienne Harvey) arrives at the station to report her husband, Noel, missing, it becomes apparent that his is the body lying in the mortuary. Duncan Clark (Davood Ghadmi) reveals from his examinations that Noel, with a heavily bruised and battered torso, had clearly been involved in a bare knuckle fight prior to his death.

As the investigation unfolds it appears that Noel was living a lie; indulging in the dark world of illegal gambling, lap dancing and fighting. DS Reid (Blythe Duff) comes across internet footage revealing that Noel was competing in a cage fight the night before his death. Knowing that he walked away from the fight alive, the team track his final steps to uncover who killed him.

DI Ross (John Michie) and Jackie go undercover on the case, but how far will they go to convince McGreevy (Robert Cavanagh), the fight club owner, that they’re a happy couple.

Meanwhile, Ross has to face up to some home truths of his own, and make a decision affecting the rest of his career…

8:30pm – Friday, June 24 on ABC1

DCI Matt Burke (Alex Norton), DS Jackie Reid (Blythe Duff) and DI Robbie Ross (John Michie) are called out to a block of flats after a uniform PC stumbles upon a deeply shocking scene. Tucked under their sheets, three children are found lying dead in their bedroom, whilst another is fighting for his life. The discovery is more disturbing still when the children’s father is found hanged in the bathroom.

Diagnosed as clinically depressed, Pete Ferguson, the children’s father, is the primary suspect believed to have killed his children and then himself.

However, with no witnesses and surviving child Callum unconscious in hospital, Burke and the team are adamant they will get to the bottom of who is to blame for the horrendous deaths.

Duncan Clark (Davood Ghadmi) reveals from his forensic examinations that Pete’s death preceded the children. With Pete eliminated as a suspect, the team must find a new lead to take them to the murderer.

Investigations get underway, but once Callum wakes up from his hospital bed, alongside his devastated mother Louise (Neve McIntosh), the whole story becomes more sinister and takes a sickening twist…

Meanwhile, after years of being a slave to her job, Jackie contemplates her future.

8:30pm – Friday, June 17 on ABC1

Arriving in Glasgow for a fresh start, the Mamood family are distraught to learn their son, Farid Mamood, has been murdered; doused in petrol, set alight and left to burn to death.

As investigations get underway, DCI Matt Burke (Alex Norton), DS Jackie Reid (Blythe Duff) and DI Robbie Ross (John Michie) initially believe the murder may be racially motivated as this is a multi-ethnic community with plenty of tension and antagonism amongst various groups.

Keeping an eagle eye on Burke is DC Mita Rahim (Anneika Rose), a multi-lingual DC from the Diversity Unit who DS Karen Campbell (Siobhan Redmond) has brought in to assist the team on the murder inquiry. Resistant to Rahim’s involvement on the case, tensions in the team mount as they venture to uncover more clues.

Initial enquiries lead to two possible suspects; Yusi, Farid’s brother, and ex-soldier William Geddes. Geddes is very opinionated about his feeling towards the Mamood family and their arrival in his local area. Both suspects were seen near the crime scene, along with Farid’s cousin, Soheil, who is married to Geddes’ sister. Each provides a different alibi as to their whereabouts on the evening of the murder, but one of them must be lying…

Hesitant to believe it may have been a race attack, Ross and Burke pursue all clues but believe the Mamoods are hiding information. Their instincts are justified when local drug baron Keenan enters the frame and it becomes clear that the case is far more complex than they had originally suspected.

8:30pm – Friday, June 3 on ABC1

A mutilated body is discovered in a vacant warehouse. The victim has been brutally tortured prior to death – his skin slashed by a Stanley knife blade and fingers crushed by pliers. The crime scene looks very clean, pointing to a gangland killing.

The cause of death was two nail-gun shots to the brain and some lettering scratched into the victim’s skin – spelling a.d.a.s.t.r. Blood beneath his fingernails indicates this was self-inflicted.

The gangland theory is short-lived however, as the body is identified as that of newly qualified doctor Scott Clarkson. DS Jackie Reid (Blythe Duff) and DI Robbie Ross (John Michie) talk to fellow junior doctor Lucy Boyd on her shift in A & E. Lucy is evasive, and no real help.

A frustrated DCI Matt Burke (Alex Norton) is heartened by the arrival of an ex-colleague from the Met. DI Casey (Reece Dinsdale) was his prot�g� in Special Branch – the best of the best. He and fellow Met officer Muldoon are investigating a similar murder and are keen to compare notes. Burke is confident that Casey can help them crack the case.

Ross and Reid re-interview Lucy. It transpires that Lucy, Scott and pharmacist, Gordon Watt, have been manufacturing ecstasy to pay off their student debt.

Now under arrest, Lucy admits that Scott was selling the drugs.

When Lucy is found hanged in her cell, the case takes a further sinister turn.

As Robbie and Jackie finally crack the pre-mortem clue, it becomes glaringly apparent that Mike Casey may not be all he seems.

Trejo signs with Sons of Anarchy

Danny Trejo has signed on for a role on the fourth season of biker drama Sons of Anarchy. The actor, who featured recently in action flick Machete, will appear in a multi-episode arc on the show’s upcoming season.

South Park spoofs Royal wedding

South Park has spoofed the Royal wedding for an upcoming episode. Entitled ‘Royal Pudding’, the episode is set in Canada and features Canadian royals who bear a striking resemblance to those who took part in the actual Royal wedding.

Chuck close to season renewal

Comedy-drama series Chuck is said to be close to a fifth season renewal by NBC. It is understood the series will return for 13 more episodes later this year.

Taggart axed after 28 years

Long-running Scottish crime-drama Taggart has been axed by ITV in the UK after almost 28 years on the screen. However, the series may still live on if another channel picks up the production.

Ferrell honoured with top comedy award

Will Ferrell is set to be honoured with one of the most prestigious prizes in American comedy, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humour. Ferrell will join the likes of Tina Fey, Bill Cosby, Whoopi Goldberg and Steve Martin in receiving the award.

9:15pm – Saturday, February 6 on ABC1

Taggart’s characteristic dry wit comes to the fore during tonight’s investigation into the murders of two ‘bible bashers’.

The team’s ‘gallows humour’ helps them get through a particularly gruesome crime when a father and his son are found murdered with bibles at their sides and a passage from Corinthians highlighted in blood.

Drawn into the world of a strict religious sect are team Taggart: – DS Jackie Reid (Blythe Duff), DI Robbie Ross (John Michie), DCI Matt Burke (Alex Norton) and DC Stuart Fraser (Colin McCredie).

The congregation’s reluctance to co-operate with the investigative team also draws the ire of DCI Burke.

As the secretive flock close ranks, refusing to speak to anyone from the ‘secular’ world, Burke gives the group’s leader, James Hardie (Sandy Morton), a tongue lashing.

Meanwhile, DS Jackie Reid (Blythe Duff), begins an investigation into the disappearance of the daughter of an old friend, Eileen Mulray (Rachel Ogilvy).

When the body of a young woman is found, links begin to appear between the evangelical church and the woman’s death.

But the team ‘go down like a bucket of cold sick’ when they return to the sect’s church hall to question its leader.

They have to find a way to break the community’s code of silence before the killer executes their own peculiar brand of justice!

9:15pm – Saturday, January 30 on ABC1

The glorious city of Glasgow has always offered a unique backdrop to the enduring British crime drama Taggart – and it plays another key role in tonight’s gritty episode when urban renewal creates tension among local residents.

On the Allerdykes Estate a local community watch member is doing his usual early morning rounds, checking that no damage has been done during the night.

Allerdykes is a model of regeneration – this is the new Glasgow – freshly painted, double-glazed, clean and tidy streets. Politicians queue up to have their pictures taken on the estate.

The greatest symbol of Allerdykes’ restoration lies at its heart, a small park, once a meeting place for lowlifes and junkies, now a play park for children and a garden enjoyed by the whole community.

Trouble is, this morning a pair of legs dangle back and forth from a steel frame and man with a chain swing wrapped around his head hangs dead.

Team Taggart – DS Jackie Reid (Blythe Duff), DI Robbie Ross (John Michie), DCI Matt Burke (Alex Norton) and DC Stuart Fraser (Colin McCredie) – investigate.

Suspects include jealous members of the local community watch committee, a resentful father and son who were booted out of the rejuvenated estate, and the local hero – a youth worker with strong motives who is concealing a violent past. It turns out DS Jackie Reid has a soft spot for the youth worker even though DCI Matt Burke suspects his ambitions to become the committee chairman. DCI Burke even accuses DS Reid of getting in a bit of a flap and going ‘all teenage’ over the red-headed Harry Wallace (Phil McKee)!

9:25pm – Saturday, December 5 on ABC1

Preparations are underway for a new mining museum in the ex-mining community of Garsden on the outskirts of Glasgow. The museum will be on the site of a long disused coal mine, closed twenty-five years ago, just before the great miners’ strike. The old mine shaft will be the central attraction. But when they open up the shaft, skeletons are found inside. Who were they? How did they get there? How did they die, and were they murdered.

As Burke and the team investigate the case, ghosts from the past come back to haunt the Garsden community and long-buried resentments are re-kindled.

9:25pm – Saturday, November 28 on ABC1

Polish migrant-worker Zbigniew Lisowski is found shot on the building site where he worked as a security guard. Only hours later, the body of hotel receptionist Kate Booth is found with strikingly similar gunshot wounds. When investigation reveals that Kate is also Polish, the team must consider whether a racially motivated killer is at large.