Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman is back heading up her team of retired detectives, Jack Halford, Brian Lane and Gerry Standing, who don’t always do things by the book, but always get results. Series 8 sees the team under analysis from a psychologist, conducting a study on older men in the workplace – could the boys actually be trailblazers in office teamwork? They are also drawn into a world of immigration loopholes and Albanian gangs after they investigate an apparent crucifixion, and get mixed up in murky East London drug rapes and diamond smuggling. In their personal lives, the team is facing more problems as Sandra’s estranged mother appears on the scene, causing no end of tense exchanges. Even more complicated is the reappearance of one of Sandra’s old flames, DCI James Larson. With a lot of unfinished business, will she let her heart rule her head in this case?