Giles and Roger are patrolling the M5 in one of the STs and find themselves playing catchup with a car which has slammed past them at over a ton. Blues and twos have no effect, so they call in assistance. Some way behind, Mike and Chris are playing catch-up, also with a camera crew in the car. The bandit car exits the motorway onto a dual carriageway, but still doesn’t get any slower. Fortunately local traffic units also haven’t got any slower and there are enough available to pull off a tactical stop. The driver, once apprehended, is eager to make a phone call, but instead has to make do with being sat in a police car in handcuffs. His excuse for his speed is that he was rushing to get home – which is quite remarkable given he was heading West but apparently lives in Kent. Mike and Chris have caught up by this time and take over from the other units, with Chris and Giles escorting him to the nick. Implausible though his reason for his driving is, it turns out that it’s the only one they’re going to get.

We rejoin Gareth and Finn, who give us a rather nice piece to camera. Finn is an experienced dog, having been on the job for two years. Introductions over, Gareth is called in to apprehend two guys who are apparently somewhat sozzled, but also – more worryingly – armed with weapons, including an axe. This is too dangerous for Finn to be involved with, so Gareth’s on his own when he spots two possible suspects, one of whom has dropped something. One drops when ordered to, but the other doesn’t, and a movement towards his back pocket looks menacing enough to prompt Gareth to use his captor spray. Gareth has also orange buttoned the call, so help arrives pretty quickly. A search of the area quickly reveals a knife handle in a bin, with the blade nearby, not to mention a small hatchet. Being fired up on vodka, the unco-operative suspect continues not to co-operate back at the nick, requiring five officers to calm things down.

Party time in Exmouth, as it’s New Year’s Eve. The TAG team are doing what they do when they’re not bashing doors in: public order. The riot gear has been left behind, and they’re joining in the party mood, surrounded by Vikings, cavewomen and a tiny Darth Vader. Things are largely congenial as the year turns, but the alcohol is flowing and eventually tempers are lost here and there as two schoolgirls fight, and Dennis the Menace is asked to take himself home while watched by a pair of man-sized rabbits. I'm not making this up, you know.

Things are altogether less congenial the following morning, and the TAG are back in their riot gear. There’s been an assault in the Dartmouth suburbs, and the suspect is refusing to come out of his house. A knife has allegedly been brandished, and the waiting game begins as officers wait to see whether there actually is one. Eventually, the suspect emerges, swigging from a bottle of something, but the officers are instead rushed by his partner, who is escorted away, protesting. The suspect, however, complies without a fight and is arrested for ABH with no one damaged, except for peoples’ eardrums once the suspect is in the van and starts shouting obscenities.

The M5. About lunchtime. Chris and Mike are behind a vehicle which has dinged their ANPR with a drugs marker, so they head in to stop it. The driver pulls over without quibble, and they question a man who has, it seems, no shoes. What he does have, however, is a rather large wodge of cash in his back pocket which is, he claims, to be used to pay bills for his mother. He hasn’t printed an ATM receipt, which is unfortunate as he can’t prove he’s got it from a bank. A search of the car reveals a small stash of cannabis in the door pocket, yet more – and a grinder or two – under the passenger seat, a wallet with lots and lots of cards in it and, most damningly of all, lots of plastic boxes full of herbal in the boot. Once arrested, the suspect protests extensively about the handcuffs, claiming that he can’t have his shoulders pulled back as far as they are. As he’s been caught with a ridiculously large amount of cannabis, handcuffs are staying on for the moment – even though the driver now appears to have sent Mike to Coventry. Matters are then not improved by the discovery of a lock knife, a pool cue and a nasty 10,000vt cattle prod. Shocking.

Another day, another lunchtime. Mark and Taff are on patrol in Exeter and spot a parked car which doesn’t look particularly roadworthy, so they park up and wait for it to move. Their journey is held up briefly at some traffic lights, but not so briefly that Taff can’t nab a spot of free nosh being handed out by the staff of a nearby café. Snack obtained, they go on to stop the vehicle and give it the once over. One of the front tyres is down to the cords. Mark is also rather concerned about the passenger who seems a little bit dodgy in the pupils department. It’s been a while since his last spliff, however, with just a smidge of green stuff lurking in the footwell; though the only coke in the vehicle is the fizzy stuff. There is also a set of scales, which, it turns out, the driver uses to weigh up his own stuff. It’s clear they’re not dealers however, so they get a drugs warning. And a fine for the tyre.

Another day, another town, another mealtime. It’s teatime in Tiverton and Taff is now with Chris. They’re behind a car at a burger drive-through place as they saw the driver screeching around the corner at the entrance to the car park almost on two wheels. It’s also got an out of date tax disc – though this is actually because the driver has forgotten to put in the new one. This is not, however, sufficient and therefore a £60 fine ensues, accompanied by the usual stern lecture about young drivers and body bags. That’s one expensive burger stop…