The BEST episodes directed by Martyn Friend

Creative Problem Solving
star
8.01
134 votes

#1 - Creative Problem Solving

New Tricks - Season 2 - Episode 5

Attractive widow and probate assessor Elise Allen asks Halford to find the rightful owner of a large, uncut red diamond, worth £15 million. She found the rare jewel in a flat rented by John Newman who died in 1982.

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Mind The Bugs Don't Bite
star
8.00
36 votes

#2 - Mind The Bugs Don't Bite

Afterlife - Season 2 - Episode 6

With the household being taken over, Alison is unable carry on, and gives into her mother's spirit. Robert decides to contact the psychic's estranged father, who Alison is reluctant to talk to. But sooner or later, she has to deal with her own past, and the death of her mother.

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It Smells of Books
star
7.93
123 votes

#3 - It Smells of Books

New Tricks - Season 7 - Episode 2

Brian finds the library card of cold case victim Dr Richard Symes, leading him to reinvestigate the death of the professor, who died after falling from the roof of his college three years previously. Sandra and Gerry interview Symes' widow, who believes principal Jeremy Ventham drove her husband to suicide following a conflict over teaching methods.

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Coming Out Ball
star
7.92
121 votes

#4 - Coming Out Ball

New Tricks - Season 7 - Episode 8

When 18-year-old debutante Barbara Linden-Warner disappeared without trace 27 years ago, the assumption at the time was that she had been kidnapped and her father, a wealthy British arms manufacturer, paid a ransom for her return. When new evidence emerges about her last movements, the indication is that she may still be alive.

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Sleeping With The Dead
star
7.89
36 votes

#5 - Sleeping With The Dead

Afterlife - Season 1 - Episode 5

Sandra Petch is petrified and thinks that her flat is haunted, but when Alison comes round to try and help she witnesses the terrifying tableau of a man smothering his wife to death. Robert is curious and the three spend the night there, waiting to see what will happen. As Alison falls asleep, she enters a nightmare where she relives the last moments of the murdered woman's life.

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A Body of Work (2)
star
7.86
208 votes

#6 - A Body of Work (2)

Silent Witness - Season 10 - Episode 6

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The War Against Drugs
star
7.83
126 votes

#7 - The War Against Drugs

New Tricks - Season 6 - Episode 1

Brian Lane enters rehab to treat his alcoholism, but the rest of the team soon join him.

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Mirrorball
star
7.79
43 votes

#8 - Mirrorball

Afterlife - Season 2 - Episode 5

A woman called Gemma comes to Alison, asking for her help, after her best friend was killed by a ghost. Alison is sure Gemma knows more about the spirit than she is letting on. But Alison has other things to worry about - her mother's spirit is still around and still cleaning. In the mean time, Robert comes clean to Jude about his tumour.

Misdirection
star
7.78
36 votes

#9 - Misdirection

Afterlife - Season 1 - Episode 4

On the first day of her new job at an old people's home, Alison finds a photo of Robert's dead son Josh, belonging to his mother, Jenny, and realises that Josh steered her towards the job in another attempt to make some kind of emotional contact with his father. Alison befriends fellow nurse Connor, who is being tormented by the ghost of a former patient, who jumped to her death from a window because he wouldn't help her die peacefully.

Blood Is Thicker Than Water
star
7.72
123 votes

#10 - Blood Is Thicker Than Water

New Tricks - Season 6 - Episode 7

UCOS reinvestigate a high-profile riverboat disaster on the Thames after a new witness comes forward claiming the collision was the result of sabotage, rather than an accident. But the case means putting DAC Strickland's wealthy sailing chums under the investigation spotlight; what better motivation could the team have?

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Dead Peasants' Society
star
7.67
6 votes

#11 - Dead Peasants' Society

The Last Detective - Season 4 - Episode 5

Members of a secretive gentlemen's club are dying in mysterious circumstances.

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The Naming of the Dead
star
7.64
22 votes

#12 - The Naming of the Dead

Rebus - Season 4 - Episode 3

An unidentified body is found at the Macintosh House Hotel, venue for the World Trade Summit. Later, the body of a Scottish Executive minister is found beneath Edinburgh Castle. Rebus investigates, but soon finds himself at loggerheads with the commander of SO12, in charge of security for the summit.

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Your Hand In Mine
star
7.62
39 votes

#13 - Your Hand In Mine

Afterlife - Season 2 - Episode 4

Alison visits a woman who starts exhibiting symptoms of the disease that her fiance's first wife was killed by, and realises that she is possessed by the dead woman's spirit. Meanwhile, Robert's sudden scepticism baffles Alison, who is unaware of his fatal illness.

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Black and Blue
star
7.51
104 votes

#14 - Black and Blue

Rebus - Season 1 - Episode 1

The first of the REBUS programmes introduces the Scottish Detective Inspector John Rebus as he untangles the various strands of the interwoven web of criminal intrigues from Leith, Edinburgh to Aberdeen and Glasgow and points between. A serial killer of young women of the past, known as 'The Preacher' appears to have a copycat murderer dubbed 'The Disciple', who is repeating the modus operandi. But is it 'The Preacher' who has returned to continue his work of death? Or it is truly another serial killer at work? Intermingled with the workings of the CID Edinburgh to solve these problems, Rebus is pulled off the case to pursue a strange death of what appears to be unintentional suicide. This strand of the web takes Rebus through more suicides, murders, drug trafficking, money laundering, exposure of dirty cops and questionable liasons between a couple of the suspects. The stressed out Rebus manages to reach the center of the web and skillfully gets the tangles sorted out in this fast

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A Body of Work (1)
star
7.37
216 votes

#15 - A Body of Work (1)

Silent Witness - Season 10 - Episode 5

Harry's ex-girlfriend, Penny Harris, is found dead after an unusual car accident. Nikki takes on the case – which initially looks like suicide – while DCI Ambrose learns that Penny may have been having an affair. Nikki's post mortem produces a devastating revelation for Harry. Leo works on the elaborately staged apparent suicide of conceptual artist Jimmy Triangle. An anonymous video puts art critic Seth Jewell in the frame. But Leo isn't convinced and he starts to realise that this death is an artwork in its own right.

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Picking it Up
star
7.33
33 votes

#16 - Picking it Up

Bergerac - Season 1 - Episode 1

Jersey detective Jim Bergerac returns from a recuperation leave to find his job in jeopardy and a colleague killed during an investigation into international gun sales to South Africa.

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Campaign For Silence
star
7.00
16 votes

#17 - Campaign For Silence

Bergerac - Season 1 - Episode 4

A retired Army major and former POW receives death threats, and sees his ghostwriter killed, when he tries to publish his memoirs of the Korean War.

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Rumpole and the Bright Seraphim
star
6.90
41 votes

#18 - Rumpole and the Bright Seraphim

Rumpole of the Bailey - Season 4 - Episode 5

Rumpole travels to West Germany to defend a British soldier facing a court-martial charged with the murder of his sergeant.

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Rumpole and the Reform of Joby Jonson
star
6.43
7 votes

#19 - Rumpole and the Reform of Joby Jonson

Rumpole of the Bailey - Season 7 - Episode 4

Rumpole defends a teenager charged with stealing from old people. Curiously, Rumpole's own apartment is promptly broken into and documents are stolen. Erskine-Brown is in the running again to 'take silk' (become a Queen's Counsel) but the word around the Inns of Court is that he does not have enough 'bottom' and will not make the grade. Phyllida launches a campaign in support of Claude, but can she pull it off?

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