Heartbeat

- Season 18

(2008)

Criminals have kidnapped Seargeant Miller's daughter Cheryl and threaten to kill her if he doesn't do what they say. And under no circumstances is he to tell anybody. But both Alf Ventress and PC Mason soon suspect that something is wrong. Protesters demonstrate against the French politician Michel Dubois who is at a conference in the area. He is said to have been a Nazi collaborator during the war and Special Branch fears there may be an attempt on his life during the conference and asks the police for backup. The gunman may be the mysterious Frenchman staying at the...

The old crook Albert Hallows - also known as "The Professor" or just "Prof" - has escaped from prison and returns to Aidensfield. He has a score to settle with the police - they arrested him for organizing burglary on a big scale in the village. He also tricks Bill and Mickey, 2 local boys, into helping him. There is a big charity dinner dance and Joyce Jowett is representing the council together with Oscar Blaketon. Or at least that was her idea. But Oscar is away on a golfing trip, so Dawn "persuades" Geoff Younger to go in his place. She promises to teach him ...

It comes as quite a shock to Carol Cassidy, who is an orphan, when one of her childhood friends turns up in Aidensfield claiming that she not only has found Carol's mother, but brought her along too. Barbara Gresham is a young, single mother of a new-born baby. She has been abandoned by the father of the baby and finds it hard to cope with her life. Nurse Cassidy and PC Mason tries to help her, but maybe in vain. Hermione Worthington reports her dog Hercules missing and Sergeant Miller promises her that the police will make every effort to find it. But finding chief ...

A stranger collapses on the lawn of Ashfordly Hall. He is called Mickey Todd and has been beaten up pretty badly, but is very reluctant to talk to the police. Later Nurse Cassidy sees a pregnant, young woman in the village, who also shows all the signs of a thorough beating, and patches her up. Is she the victim of the same assailant? At least she belongs to the same group of traveling hippies as he does. PC Wetherby is doing some private investigating of his own and discovers that his wife is having an affair. He takes it out on Lord Ashfordly's game keeper Frank ...

The police had a tip-off and searches the home of Big Frank Batley. His wife Tina claims that one of the police officers has stolen 400 pounds during the search and the money is found in DS Dawson's car.Convinced of her innocence PC Mason risks his career in an attempt to prove it. A lady in another village has died and specifically requested that Bernie Scripps handles her funeral although there are other undertakers much closer to her home. He is shocked to find out that she was an old girlfriend of his and the love of his life - and that they have a daughter Bernie...

Les Hepplewhite is the leader of a brass band. He has high hopes for the band to regain the Wallace Cup at the upcoming contest. The same has Bill Bugde the leader of a competing band. But there is more behind their enmity than just rivalry over a trophy and the police has to step in when several members of Hepplewhite's band end up in hospital with food poisoning. Dawn is completely swept off her feet by Jonny Leigh who pulls up at Bernie's garage for some petrol. He invites her to move with him to Paris, but the other villagers think things are happening too fast ...

Bob Berisford was a haulage contractor who was involved in a bit of smuggling to keep the company from going bust. After his death his partner in crime Frank Carter wants to continue the arrangement and pays Bob's widow Evelyn a visit. When she refuses her life is threatened. Nurse Cassidy hears about the threats and asks PC Mason to look into it. Soon there is a lot to look into, but he doesn't get much help from Evelyn Berisford who is much too scared to talk. Tomasz Bukowski has come all the way from Poland to Aidensfield to look for a woman he fell in love with ...

Three children are exploring the garden of a sinister, old house near Aidensfield when the youngest of them, Peter, suddenly disappears. The whole village takes part in the search. The police concentrate their efforts around a mysterious van that Gina saw racing by just as the two elder kids pass her and PC Wetherby in the street; the police fear the boy has been kidnapped. Luckily he is soon found in a well near the old house, and a major rescue operation is launched. The rescue draws nationwide attention and soon Aidensfield is invaded by journalists from all over ...

A group of Taoist monks is stranded in Aidensfield when their bus breaks down on the way to a Taoist monastery near Middlesbrough. But their presence is a thorn in the side of Councillor Jowett who tries to raise a united front against them. Things don't get better when one of the monks is very ill and is taken to hospital. People fear he suffers from TB, which notorious burglar Terry "Non Stick" Tinniswood supposedly also died of the very same morning. Tinniswood's widow Rosie is especially nervous, because her two children Julie and Eddie were in the monks' bus ...

A cat burglar is causing the police endless worry. He is targeting the wealthy houses of the area, and PC Mason suspects the window cleaner Tommy Hugget who has form, but his wife Betty gives him an alibi. However Mason is convinced that they are hiding something. Major Giles MacLean makes quite an impression on Carol Cassidy when he asks her for directions to Ashforly Hall. The major is on his way to his regiment reunion i Edinburgh and takes his lordship up on his offer to stay a couple of nights. But he too is the victim of the cat burglar. Aunt Peggy is outraged ...

DS Dawson and PC Mason go to Australia to find out what happened to Rosie. They are joined by Carol Cassidy who wants to search for her brother whom she has never met. Dawson and Mason locate Rosie's and Mick's last employer Mrs. Patterson. She sacked the young couple after Mick beat up Rosie in a row, and nobody has seen the young girl after she left town on the bus the following day. But Mason has a feeling that not everybody is telling everything they know. Back in Aidensfield Sergeant Miller has some questions for Mick who is still in the area. Meanwhile Carol ...

The search for Rosie continues. Mick MacDonald is no longer a suspect since PC Mason and DS Dawson have discovered that another young blonde woman - like Rosie - has disappeared in the area. All of a sudden, Carol Cassidy - also a blonde - has disappeared too. And to top it all, a stranger turns up in the town asking for her.

The teacher Jim Osgood is an advocate for iron discipline at the school in Ashfordly and does not abstain from corporal punishment. PC Mason gets involved when Osgood treats the pupil Gary Bell so rough he ends up in hospital. But Mason's hands are tied because neither the boy nor his parents will make a complaint. Furthermore Osgood attacks his colleague Wendy Kelshaw for rejecting him and intimidates her into silence. Oscar, Alf and Bernie are organizing a trip to London for the entire village. But Aunt Peggy is short of cash and sees no reason to go. Things do not ...

A car crashes on the road to Aidensfield. The driver Ellen Ferguson is badly injured while her husband and daughter get off with only minor bruises. PC Mason is sure that she was speeding, but her husband Lennie denies that. But there might be more behind it than that because Nurse Cassidy notices at mysterious man who frightens the daughter Trudi. Shortly after another stranger turns up at the hospital asking for Ellen Ferguson. Only he calls her Phillips and not Ferguson. David wins some money and uses them to buy an old Jeep which Bernie will help him restore. But ...

There is counterfeit money in circulation in Aidensfield - and lots of them. The money was made by a gang run by Jim Bly, but neither Bly nor his girlfriend Ruthie Abbott were ever captured, and DS Dawson thinks they may be in the area. Sergeant Miller gets a surprise visit from his wife. Her train broke down just outside Ashfordly and now she has been left stranded. But the good sergeant is none too pleased to see her. Especially not after she has been caught shoplifting. And she is not making things easier for him. Bernie reads in the newspaper that his big idol ...

When the attractive newcomer Vivienne Mackay is murdered suspicion falls on the backward George Ashton. Normally he wouldn't hurt a fly, but he got mad at her when she pushed him accidentally. But also her fiancée Dominick Billingham is in the picture since he had a row with her at the Aidensfield Arms the night before. PC Mason also has to take care of her son Scott, because Mason's mother was murdered too. Dawns cousin Vince intends to sell hot dogs and leaves his van in her care for a couple of days. Thus he will miss the Ashfordly Cup final which draws a lot of ...

Harry Brown has an accident when the steering gear of his tractor fails. PC Mason suspects sabotage, but Brown does not want any fuss. As a matter of fact he just wants the police to forget it ever happened. And with good reason too because Brown is not very popular with the other sheep farmers and most of them have it in for him. Old Mrs. Brooks has died and Aunt Peggy's solicitor Ronnie Smethers is the executor of her estate. Aunt Peggy offers her services to clear the house - at a reasonable charge, of course. Not surprisingly, she can't help picking out the good ...

The Ashfordly police, and especially PC Mason, are asked to assist DI Turner from the serious crime squad investigating a series of very violent robberies in the area. One of DS Dawson's informants points the finger at Steve Dempsey. When Mason and Dawson check out Dempsey, they are spotted by Dawn, who is on a girls' night out with her friends. When she gets home, she does not hesitate to talk about seeing Mason and Dawson. Division has found out that Dawson had an affair with an unnamed police officer, and she has been put forcibly back in uniform. Mason does not ...

Vic and Eileen Needham have a violent row, and she makes a complaint against him for destroying some of her family heirloom. She also files for divorce. And that is just the beginning. Particularly with Eileen's solicitor Sylvia Swinton on the war path. Wars have been more peaceful than that. Stan Bickle pays Aunt Peggy a visit. He brings along his daughter Josie. The two women do not get along very well. Especially not after Josie begins to make passes at David and threatens Aunt Peggys influence on him.

There has been three break-ins within a week already and the fourth item on the burglars' "shopping list" is the Aidensfield Arms. Nothing but money was taken, and the police are without a clue until Aunt Peggy and other old people receive an anonymous envelope with 20 pounds each. Money that comes from the break-ins. Furthermore Carol Cassidy saw a car in Aidensfield at the time of the break-in at the pub with a man and a woman in it. PC Mason readily admits that he was the man, but to Carol's great annoyance he does not say anything about who the woman was. Douglas ...

PC Younger arrests a tramp Ewart Martin, but when he puts him in the nick Martin immediately recognizes his old war buddy Sergeant Miller who is none too pleased to see him. Among Martin's things, Younger finds a business card from Leslie Rumbold, an insurance agent who was shot dead on his doorstep the same morning. Has the old tramp anything to do with the murder? Or is the perpetrator Ross Tillman, a farmer who has threatened Rumbold with his life? Another clue may be a photograph that PC Mason finds at Rumbold's office. Alf Ventress moves in at the Aidensfield ...

An unidentified man is found badly injured by the roadside near Aidensfield and PC Mason thinks he was assaulted. A complaint about a van blocking the way in Back Lane leads not only to the identity of the unknown man, but also to a load of condemned meat which has now disappeared. And soon they have the first case of salmonella poisoning. Aunt Peggy is asked to keep an eye on a mansion for three weeks. And being Aunt Peggy she cannot see why she should not make a little extra money on it herself and do some bed and breakfast in posh surroundings. Her first customer ...

Safe breakers break in at Adams Brothers. One of them accidentally activates the alarm just as PC Mason passes on his motorbike. They manage to get away, but the next day their driver is found floating around dead in Whitby harbour. Is this the revenge of his accomplices for leaving them when the alarm went off or...? PC Mason also suspects it was an inside job because there was an exceptionally large amount of money in the safe. Meanwhile the rest of the gang stays comfortably at the Aidensfield Arms planning how to get another crack at the safe. It is Dawn's ...

A mysterious man steals David's taxi (and his breakfast), but he does not get very far. Bernie recognizes the car and refuses to give him some petrol. The taxi robber is soon apprehended. He has obviously been in a fight because his face is bruised, and he claims he cannot remember who he is. While Nurse Cassidy takes care of his injuries, PC Mason is called out to assist Sergeant Miller. A dead woman has been found at the foot of a rock, and Miller agrees with PC Mason that the two cases are connected. Alf Ventress and Oscar Blaketon are planning a camping trip to ...