This Sunday night ITV series from LWT followed the professional and turbulent personal lives of Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise officers in their efforts to tackle international black-market operations, including drug trafficking, people smuggling and the illegal import of contraband into the UK (including firearms, alcohol, tobacco, gold and endangered exotic animals).
Based primarily in London (the City and South team) and at Heathrow Airport, the show featured a rotating ensemble cast.
Over its six-year-run, only three core characters appeared in every series: Diane Ralston (Caroline Lee-Johnson), Barry Christie (Steve Toussaint) and Jim Scudmore (Trevor Byfield).
The format of the show changed considerably over the years. Early episodes featured multi-layered, concurrent storylines with overarching plots running across several episodes.
Later, there were a few distinct, multi-part cases per series, and finally, the weekly episodes contained entirely standalone stories.
The series was cancelled following a severe drop in viewing figures during the fifth (and final) series.
Diane Ralston
Caroline Lee-Johnson Barry Christie
Steve Toussaint Jim Scudmore
Trevor Byfield George Andreotti
Enzo Squillino Jr. Kevin Butcher
Andrew Dunn Bill Adams
Malcolm Storry Arnie Rheinhardt
Marston Bloom Jo Chadwick
Tracy Whitwell Alex Murray
Daniel Brown Tommy Maddern
Ian Burfield George Webster
Anthony Valentine Jake Munro
Daniel O’Grady Katherine Roberts
Alex Kingston Lynn Hickson
Sarah Malin Eddie Davies
Lenny McLean David Archer
Eric Allan
