Our Friends in the North

Berger has been placed in a mental institution, where he is visited by Chief Inspector Roy Johnson and continues to proclaim that the Met is corrupt. After Johnson tells him that he is not senior enough to start an investigation into the allegations, Berger hangs himself. Mary has married Tosker and is bringing up their one-year-old son in a newly built high-rise council flat on Willow Lane that was pushed for by Austin Donohue, together with the construction developer John Edwards. The cafe Geordie worked in has been shut down, leading him to seek work with a Soho porn baron, Benny Barratt. It soon becomes clear that Barratt is in collusion with the police, using Geordie to bribe Detective Chief Inspector John Salway and Commander Harold Chapple. Nicky is continuing as an assistant to Donohue, but has grown incredibly disillusioned with his work and is suspicious of Donohue's deals with John Edwards. He is also finding it very difficult to remain friends with Mary, whose marriage to Tosker is collapsing under the strain of Tosker's one-night stands his suspicion of Nicky. Despite this, Mary soon falls pregnant again. Geordie is introduced to Julia, Benny Barratt's mistress, and immediately falls in love with her. Nicky finally walks out on Donohue, chastising him for failing to fulfil his promises and for accepting bribes from John Edwards to build high-rise housing of very poor quality. Nicky takes with him incriminating information which details Donohue's corrupt dealings with Edwards.