BBC's New Tricks returns this summer with a new 'old dog'
The Metropolitan Police Service’s Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS) is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes – or ‘Cold Case’. While the upcoming series of New Tricks will, sadly, be the last for long time regular ‘old dogs’, Amanda Redman and Alun Armstrong, there’s a new ‘old dog in town’ for series ten. Nicholas Lyndhurst (Only Fools and Horses, Goodnight Sweetheart, After You’ve Gone, Rock & Chips) joins the UCOS for the tenth series as former copper, Dan Griffin. Word is that Lyndhurst will join the cast about half-way through the new series replacing Alun Armstrong (DI Brian Lane). Amanda Redman (DS Sarah Pullman) will also exit towards the end of the upcoming series to be replaced by a new female boss.
While nothing has been leaked as of yet with regards to a storyline for series ten, P1 New Tricks fans will no doubt remember the original ‘final’ episode of series nine where Gerry Standing (Dennis Waterman) and Steve McAndrew (Denis Lawson), who replaced James Bolam last year, head to Glasgow, where a new UCOS section is being set up. Seems as though police in Scotland want to set up their own version of UCOS and Gerry is just the man to tell them all about it. While in Scotland, the pair of ‘old dogs’ end up unofficially investigating the 1993 murder of a bookie which leads to the discovery of a child abuse scandal in a care home spanning two decades. The episode ends with Gerry admitting, “Scotland is beginning to grow on me.” UK viewers will remember the episode as being the one that was postponed a week from its original transmission in the wake of the Jimmy Savile investigation.
Principle filming began last Fall in Gibraltar where the series will kick off with a special two-part opening episode this Summer when BBC One begins transmitting, tentatively. Look for series ten to air in the States on public television stations in early 2014.
