A maverick undercover detective operates in the morally ambiguous territory where policing and crime intersect.
Detective Inspector Mick Raynor (Leslie Grantham) is a brilliant but disgraced cop serving a prison sentence. He is covertly released and recruited into a clandestine unit that reports directly to Commander Oakwood (Robert Stephens). Operating under the call sign “99-1,” Raynor is given a new identity and tasked with infiltrating high-level criminal organisations. His methods are unorthodox and often illegal, forcing him to walk a fine line between law enforcement and criminality.
In the second series, following Oakwood’s departure, Raynor reports to the more circumspect Commander Stone (Frances Tomelty) and works alongside fellow undercover officer DC Liz Hulley (Adie Allen).
As a vehicle for Leslie Grantham, fresh from his success in EastEnders, 99-1 was constructed to capitalise on his established persona. The character of Mick Raynor was essentially a harder, state-sanctioned version of “Dirty Den” Watts: a cynical operator comfortable in the criminal underworld.
The series rejected the conventions of the standard police procedural, instead offering a downbeat and frequently violent vision of modern crime. Its central theme was the moral cost of undercover work, with Raynor constantly in danger of losing his identity to the criminals he pursued. The programme’s tone was bleak, its outlook cynical, and it remains a key example of the tougher, more adult crime dramas that emerged on British television in the 1990s.
Broadcast: ITV, 14 Episodes, 5 January 1994 – 23 February 1995
Devised by: Barbara Cox, Steve Clark-Hall, Terry Johnson
Executive Producer: Archie Tait
Co-producer: Barbara Cox
Producer: Steve Clark-Hall
Main Cast: Leslie Grantham (Mick Raynor), Robert Stephens (Commander Oakwood), Frances Tomelty (Commander Stone), Adie Allen (DC Liz Hulley), Niall Buggy (Elbow), Danny Webb (Gerry McCarthy), Gwyneth Strong (Charlotte), Andrew Tiernan (Billy Pink)
