Written by Arthur McKenzie, Directed by Richard Holthouse

Knowing PC Young’s eventual fate, it’s difficult not to look back at any episodes which featured him strongly with a keen eye to see how his character was developed. Even this early on it looks like the essential building blocks were in place – Young is keen to be a member of the team, but seems destined to always be something of an outsider (tolerated at best by the others).

The episode opens chummily enough, with Young, Loxton, Stamp and Garfield playing cards. But Young’s decision to pocket his winnings and walk away without giving the others a chance to win their money back creates a sour mood. So Stamp and Garfield, working today in CAD, elect to send Young on every tedious job they can find (Loxton, pounding another beat, heartily approves of this).

If Stamp and Garfield’s animus towards Young seems fairly light-hearted, then the same can’t be said of Loxton. Indeed, Attitudes enables the viewer to see how two very different coppers – Loxton and Young – operate. Loxton is obnoxious throughout (this tone is established straight away – he seems amused when handing out a summons for a fairly minor parking offence. Others might have let the man off with a warning, but Loxton seems to enjoy this feeling of petty power).

Young has to deal with the trauma of discovering a dead body (albeit an old man who died peacefully in bed). Luckily by this point he’s joined by Bob Cryer – the safest pair of hands imaginable – who walks the younger man through every stage and is patient throughout.

Bob does later give Young a talking-to (telling him to never play cards on his relief again) but that’s nothing to the both barrels he aims in Loxton’s direction. Loxton seems pretty unaffected after Cryer’s had his say though, so only time will tell if he settles down. At the moment, Loxton very much occupies the “bad boy” place in the relief previously held by the likes of Litten and Ramsey.

Throw in a comic subplot concerning June’s well meaning attempt to look after Cryer’s flowers (an anniversary present for his wife) which ends in disaster when she accidently places them in a bucket of bleach rather than water, and you’ve got one of the strongest episodes from this period.

Guest-star wise, there’s a brief appearance by Liz Gebhardt (Please Sir!, The Fenn Street Gang) as a distraught motorist who knocks over and fatally injures a dog. Young has to put the suffering canine out of his misery, which is another indication that he’s having a far from perfect day.