To Be A Somebody (Series 2)

Written by: Jimmy McGovern

Produced by: Paul Abbott

Directed by: Tim Fywell

Originally Screened: 10/10/94 (Part 1), 17/10/94 (Part 2), 24/10/94 (Part 3)

Albie Kinsella is a Liverpudlian factory worker and football supporter who is overcome by anger after the death of his father, not helped by his estrangement from his wife and young daughter. After a disagreement with an asian shopkeeper over the price of a packet of tea bags and a newspaper, he goes home and shaves his head - later returning to the shop where he murders the shopkeeper with an army bayonet. He later goes on to kill a University professor and threatens a reporter, Claire Moody, who had previously worked for The Sun newspaper. As the police investigation begins, Fitz (who is no longer working with the police) is becoming increasingly depressed - he loses a £3,000 bet on a horse race, has a suspected heart attack during Mark's birthday party, and is still at loggerheads with Judith over his various addictions. DCI Bilborough is reluctantly forced to rehire Fitz in the end, who comes to the realisation that Albie is hell bent on revenge for the disaster at the Hillsborough football stadium in 1989 in which 96 people died. But he isn't exactly welcomed back with open arms, due to the remaining tension between him and Bilborough over Nigel Cassidy and Penhaligon's anger over the abandoned holiday. 

As Fitz begins to settle back into his work again, Judith leaves him once more - what seems for good this time - taking Katie and most of the furniture with her. Beck later interviews Albie after one of his neighbours mentions that he has recently shaved his head. But Albie fobs Beck off by showing his father's hospital letters for chemotherapy sessions, passing them off as his own. Albie later tracks down Bilborough at his local supermarket then leads him to his home when he stabs him. Dying, Bilborough radios his colleagues with a description which confirms Albie's identity - with Beck suddenly realising that he has already interviewed him and ruled him out as a suspect. Still reeling from the shock of Bilborough's death, Fitz, Penhaligon, Beck and the newly appointed DCI Wise manage to track down Albie at the next Liverpool match where Beck catches Albie and inflicts upon him a brutal beating. Fitz and Albie finally come to face to face in the interview room where Albie reveals his motives and anger over Hillsborough and the loss of his father, but he remains adamant that he "wants revenge" and that more deaths are inevitable. Fitz manages to stop the bomb that Albie had posted addressed to the Manchester police, but it seems even Fitz is too late to prevent Albie's act of revenge against Claire Moody and her place of work.

The Unofficial Guide To Cracker 1999-2006

(http://www.crackertv.co.uk)