- After a bungled raid which kills an innocent man young DS Steve Arnott faces disgrace. However he is transferred to the anti-corruption squad, whose head, superintendent Ted Hastings, gives him a "very special case" to investigate - DCI Tony Gates, recently awarded a medal for heroic conduct but with a suspiciously high arrest rate. Hastings tries to get Gates on minor bribery charges, in vain, and is unaware that the married Gates has covered up a fatal hit-and-run by his lover, businesswoman Jackie Laverty. Meanwhile DC Kate Fleming joins Gates's team and tells Steve she is investigating him from the inside following the deaths of two drug dealers.—don @ minifie-1
- Police officer Steve Arnott supervises a raid intended to catch an Islamic terrorist intending to detonate a bomb. However, the strike team mistakenly enters the wrong apartment and shoots an innocent man dead. In the subsequent investigation Arnott refuses to cover up negligence in the planning and execution of the raid. Unable to work in his unit anymore, Arnott receives a transfer to AC-12, a unit tasked with uncovering police corruption where he is overseen by Superintendent Ted Hastings.
DCI Tony Gates has a romantic breakfast at a cafe with his girlfriend Jackie Laverty. During the meal he sees two men trying to mug a woman on the street outside and runs to her aide. After subduing the muggers the waitress from the cafe tells him that his meal is on the house. Shortly after, Gates is declared Officer of the Year. Hastings and Arnott attend the ceremony where Hastings explains that Gates is their next target. Gates runs a unit called TO-20 which deals with "big sexy" cases and has extraordinary clearance rates. Hastings thinks that Gates is "laddering", or improperly charging offenses in order to make his unit's statistics look good.
While at the ceremony, Gates gets a hysterical call from Jackie. When he arrives at her house she explains that she had been drinking with some friends that night and hit something on the way home. When Gates asks her what she hit she claims it was a dog. Gates is relieved until Jackie tells him that she had panicked and reported her car stolen. She then explains that she has had a previous conviction for drink driving and that another arrest will lead to jail time. Reluctantly, Gates fabricates physical evidence to corroborate her story about the stolen car.
The next day DC Kate Fleming, who works in the same squad room as TO-20 but is not part of the team, is interviewing a victim about two men who attacked him. When she writes up her findings her boss tells her to reclassify the crimes so that the statistics don't look so bad. Fleming watches as TO-20 sorts through cases which they might take, growing frustrated at the mundane work she has been assigned. DS Leah Janson informs Fleming that Gates has been officially reprimanded for having an all male squad and will be looking to hire a female officer soon. Janson expects it to be her.
As his unit reviews cases which it might take, Gates is startled to hear about a dead body found on the roadside in the area Jackie was driving the night before. He meets with Jackie and tells her to turn herself in and confess to the crime, noting that trying to cover up the hit and run will be worse than admitting to it. Later, Gates receives word that AC-12 has received a complaint against him. Hastings and Arnott arrive to conduct an interview and Arnott has a brief encounter with Kate Fleming. During the interview, Hastings reveals to Gates that the complaint is related to Gates' failure to report the free breakfast which he had receives earlier and implies that the complaintants are the muggers who Gates arrested. Hastings later admits to Arnott that this is a smoke screen meant to cover their real investigation. Arnott, however, argues that Gates might be posting legitimate statistics.
Jackie arrives at the police station and gives a statement to a civilian employee that coincides with her claim that the car was stolen. Gates later scolds her for refusing to follow the plan he suggested and putting him at risk. Gates then returns home to his wife and two daughters. Hastings and Arnott go a pub where they see Kate Fleming and her colleagues drinking. Arnott follows her and tries to initiate a conversation but she rebukes him for targeting Gates. After reviewing Gates record, Arnott approaches him and offers to try and get Hastings to back off.
Gates approaches Rita, the unit's civilian assistant and asks her to send any updates on the hit and run case directly to him. Fleming then meets with Gates and makes the case for her being added to TO-20. Gates invites her to come drinking with the unit. Gates is called back into AC-12 for an interview where Hastings informs him of the true scope of the laddering investigation. Afterwards Hasting upbraids Arnott for failure to dig into Gates' background and urges him to act like an anti-corruption officer.
Kate arrives at the pub for drinks and Gates introduces her to the rest of TO-20: Nige Morton, an older officer who walks with a cane, "Dot" Cotton a young white officer, and Deepak Kapoor an Asian officer. Together they all allow Gates to fill various demographic boxes for his unit. Hastings takes Arnott to the roof of AC-12 where he introduces him to Kate Fleming who is, in reality, an undercover AC-12 officer. She again tries to convince Arnott of the value of investigating Gates. The next day Arnott finds a piece of excrement on the drivers seat of his car. He angrily confronts Gates and informs him that he knows he's dirty. Afterwards, TO-20 begins a new case involving surveillance of drug dealers in a housing project. Gates informs Fleming that he's going to get her officially appointed to the squad.
Gates meets with Jackie and informs her that her case is being filed as an unsolved hit and run. Meanwhile, Arnott begins reviewing Gate's case files, including the hit and run case, for evidence of laddering. While surveiling the apartment at the center of their case Dot and Deepak, concerned about minimizing overtime, leave despite the next team not being there yet. The next morning they find the dealers who lived in the apartment tortured and murdered.
Rita, the civilian worker, informs Gates that an ID has been made on the hit and run victim. He is an accountant who had worked for Laverty Holdings, Jackie's company. Rita has also linked the hit and run with the report of Jackie's stolen car. Gates gets on her computer and deletes the files. Coincidentally at the same time Arnott is reviewing the file over at AC-12 and he notices the deletion.
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What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of A Disastrous Affair (2012) in Brazil?
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