Fragile Relations (20 Sep. 2004)

The arson murder of a socially-conscious mullah in Manchester's Pakistani community stirs simmering racial tensions.

Director:

Pip Broughton

Writers:

Matthew Hall, Cath Staincliffe (creator)

Stars:

Caroline Quentin, Ian Kelsey, Paul Loughran

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Caroline Quentin	...	DCI Janine Lewis
Ian Kelsey	...	DI Richard Mayne
Paul Loughran	...	DS Butchers
Nicholas Murchie	...	DS Shap
David Schofield	...	DCS Hackett
Joe Tucker	...	Pete Lewis
Sushil Chudasama	...	Shaz Chowdhary
Roshan Seth	...	Jameel Khan
Daniel Ryan	...	Barry Peters
Renu Setna	...	Iman Farzad
Harmage Singh Kalirai	...	Khalid Khan
Tariq Jordan	...	Wahid Khan
Steve Evets	...	Mark Clayton
Suraj Dass	...	Rizwan Hussein
Geoff Breton	...	Michael Lewis

Storyline

The arson murder of Ali Raffiq, a mullah and social activist in Manchester's Pakistani community, is viewed initially as a hate crime by the police. DCI Lewis and her team enlist the help of Shaz Chowdhary, a community relations liaison, and although the evidence initially points to Mark Clayton, head of the local Britons First party, Lewis comes to increasingly feel that trail of the murderer will lead them into the Muslim community.

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Plot Keywords:

arson | mullah | red herring | suspect | police lineup | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 September 2004 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Granada Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min 89 min 66 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Baby daughter Caroline is played by a pair of boy twins, Benjamin and Dan Robinson.

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Quotes

Pete Lewis: Mom, we're not having sex! She doesn't want to. It isn't the Seventies!

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Connections

References Columbo (1971)

User Reviews

The community can be both a lever and a trap

Here, Manchester explodes with another social problem, that of the large Moslem Pakistani community. It all spins around a mosque and a young mullah who is assassinated. You double this side of the problem with the militancy of a racist party and its leader and you have an explosive situation and some would like to excuse the lack of a real inquiry with the danger of this explosive social, religious and ethnic situation. The film shows how the English have set up a local police corps entirely composed of members of the community to do the police work in this community, and one of the members of that unit will be the interface between the Manchester criminal unit and the mosque officials and community and that's how the truth will finally come up and out, how too the female Inspector will be able to enter the inner circle of the mosque without creating any resentment.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines