The BEST episodes of The Thin Blue Line
Every episode of The Thin Blue Line ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Thin Blue Line!
The Thin Blue Line is about the everday goings on at Gasforth police station. A small town station led by Inspector Raymond Fowler (Atkinson), who is coping with his failing relationship with his girlfriend of 10 years, Police receptionist Patricia Dawkins. Meanwhile, the ineptness of his own colleagues as well as the equally brainless C.I.D division means that life at Gasforth never goes quite as smoothly as planned. Starting in 1995 (Season 1) and ending in 1996 (Season 2) this 14 episode Ben Elton comedy gets you drawn in and laughing for ages, truly a classic for the video shelf!
#1 - Yuletide Spirit
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/26/1995
Goody buys Fowler a puncture repair kit and Habib some lingerie, but accidentally gives them the wrong presents, and matters are made more complicated when Dawkins believes the lingerie is a gift for her from Fowler.
#2 - The Green Eyed Monster
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/23/1996
Inspector Fowler proposes to Sergeant Dawkins so as to help his chances for promotion, but his lack of sensitivity during the proposal prompts her to leave him instead. Fowler tries to find a new woman, but loses his interest when he hears that Dawkins is now with someone called "Toby."
#3 - Alternative Culture
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 12/5/1996
Constable Habib finds her younger sister holding drugs during a drug raid in a rave club, and hides the drugs to protect her, but she is discovered and charged for withholding evidence. Fowler, unhappy with the injustice, does his best to protect Habib.
#4 - Come on You Blues
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/12/1996
Gasforth Football Club is about to play Premiership team Chelsea, and Mayoress Wickham orders Fowler and his officers to personally see to it that nothing goes wrong in exchange for her recommending him for an MBE. However, things get complicated when the football players get up to no good.
#5 - Ism Ism Ism
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/21/1996
Dawkins discovers circumstantial evidence of a domestically abused wife, Grim applies to join the Todgers, and Mayoress Christabel Wickham informs Fowler of the presence of an illegal immigrant in Gasforth. Fowler apparently solves the crimes, but soon realises that they seemed a little too easy.
#6 - Court in the Act
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/14/1996
Grim and Boyle enlist the help of Fowler and his officers to search the home of a suspected drug-dealer, and Goody finds the drugs in the kitchen. But the too-obvious location, Boyle's discretion and Grim's uncomfortableness lead Fowler to believe something is going on behind the arrest.
#7 - Honey Trap
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/27/1995
After Fowler drunkenly admits to having kissed Habib during a pub quiz match, Dawkins begins to suspect the two of having an affair behind her back when Grim enlists Fowler and Habib's help in catching a criminal via entrapment.
#8 - Rag Week
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 12/4/1995
It's Rag Week in Gasforth, and Fowler and his men are frequently disturbed by teenagers in scary masks – that is until a bank robbery by three men in rag masks occurs while Dawkins is there, leaving it uncertain whether or not the robbery is genuine.
#9 - The Queen's Birthday Present
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/13/1995
It is the tenth anniversary of Fowler and Dawkins' relationship, but Fowler manages to forget, being instead more concerned with the Queen's Official Birthday.
#10 - Night Shift
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/11/1995
Pestered by his ex-wife, Fowler reluctantly agrees to let his son Bill stay with him and Dawkins for a fortnight. When Dawkins overhears Bill making love to his girlfriend in the bedroom, she becomes envious and attempts to talk Fowler into going to see a sex therapist. Guest appearance by Sheila Gish.
#11 - Kids Today
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/18/1995
Fowler and Grim clash over their views of handling juvenile troublemakers so they decide to take them on a retreat. Further tension arises when Goody punches a teenage skinhead for racially abusing Habib and is subsequently charged for assault.
#12 - Fly on the Wall
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/28/1996
Fowler receives a letter from the BBC, who then come and make a fly on the wall documentary about Gasforth Police Station. Unfortunately, Grim convinces the officers, sans Fowler, that they are all going to become international television stars, prompting them all to undergo many changes to look "nice for the telly" and end up making fools of themselves in front of the cameramen until a farmer enters the station with a gun.
#13 - Fire and Terror
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/20/1995
Habib falls for a fireman named Gary, much to Goody's jealousy, while Fowler finds himself pestered frequently by a man who claims to have committed impossible, solved or extremely historical crimes, much to DI Grim's amusement, until a terrorist begins making threats that cause Special Branch to become involved.
#14 - Road Rage
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/19/1996
Sergeant Dawkins leaves for a break with some nature-loving activists, but during this time, they get into a feud with the police for their extreme methods, forcing Dawkins to choose between their arrogant leader, Stallion, or Fowler.