# The Vice (1999)

> A London Metropolitan Police Vice Unit team battles prostitution and organised crime while its own members are tempted across the line.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/16472

## Facts

- Seasons: 5
- Episodes: 28
- Episode runtime: 90 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Rob Pursey, Barry Simner
- Network: ITV1
- Cast: Caroline Catz, David Harewood, Ken Stott, Rosie Marcel, Diane Parish, Mel Raido, Anna Chancellor, Victoria Shalet
- TMDB rating: 7.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0182648/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: gritty, tense, morally ambiguous, bleak, atmospheric

## Synopsis

The Vice (1999-2003) is a British ITV police drama created by Rob Pursey and Barry Simner for ITV1. Ken Stott plays DI Pat Chappel, the leader of a Metropolitan Police Vice Unit team in London, who struggles to balance a strained private life against the demands of the job. Around him, David Harewood as DS Joe Robinson and Caroline Catz as PC Cheryl Hutchins work the seedy underworld of prostitution, underage sex and organised crime, while the team's loyalty to the law keeps being tested. The engine of the show is the dilemma of policing vice: officers who spend their days among the temptations they investigate, and whose lines of right and wrong grow blurred. Across five short series of mostly self-contained cases, episodes often end with the main villain caught but without a neat resolution, leaving more questions than answers. Its tone is gritty, tense and morally ambiguous, with a rich, shadowy London atmosphere. Fans of The Bill, Line of Duty and Happy Valley will find resonance in its British police procedural grit and compromised protagonists.

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