YOU see it unfold with a horrible inevitability.
And then comes the sense of stunned disbelief.
Episode seven of Ashes To Ashes contains a big shock.
I’m not going to spoil the work of series co-creator and episode writer Matthew Graham by discussing the circumstances.
And I would advise fans to avoid any tabloids who may be tempted to run further details about this week’s episode.
Last Thursday’s end titles trailer left viewers with a sense of foreboding about what may lie ahead.
As this week’s episode begins, the Clown warns Alex: “Something dreadful is going to happen. I’m going to take someone.”

After she demands to know who it will be, he places a question mark – written in blood – on her calendar, over the date Wed Oct 7 1981.
That’s just three days away – and a further three days before the car bomb which killed her parents.
Everything, of course, is significant in a gripping penultimate episode.

Here are some other things to watch out for:
1) Gene, Ray and Chris as you’ve never seen them before.
2) The legendary Shaw – “Keep ‘em peeled” – Taylor in the return of Police Five.
3) Guest star Matthew Macfadyen, looking very different, on screen alongside his real life wife Keeley Hawes.
4) Drips of water in CID which only Alex can see…and feel.
5) For whom the bell tolls.
6) The dinner invitation talk is of Dover Sole. But Gene tells Alex: “You want soul? I can give you soul.”
7) The latest entry for Best Use Of A Pink Wafer In Television Drama at next year’s BAFTA TV Awards.
8) Gene telling Alex: “How do you know I don’t have children?”
9) The Manc Lion losing control.
10) More clues about little Alex and the car bomb.
11) A billboard advertising soap.
12) The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe.
Just one week to go – and then the long wait until series two, due on screen in early 2009.
As we’re nearing the end, two episode seven music videos for the price of one this week.
Also scroll further down the page for more links.
Kate Bush: The Man With The Child In His Eyes