The Vice (TV series)
| The Vice | |
|---|---|
Title card used for Series 1-4.
|
|
| Genre | Crime drama |
| Created by | Barry Simner Rob Pursey |
| Starring |
Ken Stott Caroline Catz David Harewood Marc Warren Rosie Marcel Tim Pigott-Smith Mel Raido Tamzin Malleson |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 28 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Stephen Smallwood |
| Running time | 60–120 mins (inc. advertisements) |
| Production company(s) | Carlton Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Picture format | 16:9 (also 4:3) |
| Original release | 4 January 1999 – 1 July 2003 |
The Vice is an ITV police drama about the Metropolitan Police Vice Unit, which ran for five series of varying lengths between 1999 and 2003. The main cast included Ken Stott, Caroline Catz and David Harewood, as well as Rosie Marcel, Marc Warren and Tim Pigott-Smith. The show experimented with different formats, two series of two-part, one-hour episodes; two series of ninety-minute episodes, and then a final series of self-contained one-hour episodes. The Portishead track "Sour Times" was used as the theme music to the show.
"Hooked", although often referred to as the first episode of series five, and broadcast in 2003 prior to the broadcast of series five, was officially classified as the last episode of series four as it featured the last appearance of Pat Chappel, and was filmed during the filming block of series four. It was also the last episode to be ninety-minutes long, before the transfer to one-hour episodes, and it was also the last time that the original title card and sequence were used.
The team are tasked with investigating an illegal gambling and prostitution den being run out of a pub, with Chappel and Cheryl posing as the thrill-seekers. However, when Chappel nearly blows his cover, he is unstablised to discover that the haunt that they are trying to investigate is frequented by former Vice officer Dougie. Chappel begins to use Dougie's connections to the gang operators as a way of gathering evidence, but when Dougie's level of enthusiasm - and hopes that his efforts may win him his job back in Vice - backfire, Chappel's hopes of using him to expose the illicit gambling and prostitution ring are left in tatters. When Dougie's cover is blown, he is subsequently killed.
When Chappel's former boss Frank Vickers is found lurking in the basement during a raid on a Soho brothel, it soon transpires that Chappel has a more-than-shady past involving a former prostitute, Jane, with whom he fell in love. Vickers is determined to stop at nothing to clear his name, and Chappel's life looks set to be blown apart when Vickers reveals some very sordid secrets to his colleagues in Vice. Chappel goes in search of Jane, and discovers that one of her friends, whom he was friendly with, disappeared some years previously and has never been found. When Chappel finds the body in the basement of the brothel, he becomes determined to prove Vickers' involvement in her death.
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Wikipedia