In this episode, Cribb is dispatched to uncover a brutal underground fighting ring; when the boxers in this underground ring fail too many times, they’re apt to turn up dead. Cribb sends in a young constable undercover as a down on his luck boxer in order to ferret out the identity of the murderer. Barry Andrews is very good as the young constable who quickly gets in over his head. I also really liked the more callous side of Cribb that we see in this episode; he’s really quite cavalier, infuriatingly so by the end of the episode, about the danger he’s putting his undercover agent in. But the real star here is Norma West as one of the ringleaders of the illegal fighting ring; she’s playing the villain to the hilt, as a sexually voracious predator who gets off on strong men beating each other. She’s a riot, simultaneously creepy and very funny. One surprising thing: the fights are very brutal – you certainly wouldn’t have seen anything nearly this violent on American television in the 80s. 3 ½ stars.
tl;dr – a couple of wonderful guest performers enliven this tale of an underground fighting ring. 3 ½ stars.