History Series / NewTricks

* ItsPersonal: Jack was hell bent on bringing down crime boss Ricky Hanson, the man who murdered his wife. Jack actually tries to kill him with his car at one point, but only ends up hospitalising himself and the whole team. Taken UpToEleven when Hanson takes the opportunity to try and smother him in his hospital bed (while [[KickTheDog rubbing his wife's death in his face]] no less) and ''still gets away with it'' due to having a ruthlessly efficient lawyer who destroys the case by referencing all of the team's flaws (including Jack's obsession with bringing Hanson down), to make them all seem like unreliable witnesses. The team celebrate with champagne when they finally bring him down in a later episode.

* Brian 'Memory' Lane (Alun Armstrong), a brilliant but highly eccentric and anti-social detective with an instant-recall memory and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. A recovered alcoholic.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: Although they're not too bad for the most part, the boys can at times have difficulty adjusting to more modern ways of thinking about things like race, gender equality, etc., which can cause tension.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Several of the cases in Series 9, especially "Glasgow UCOS", which of the main cast only has Gerry and Steve, going to Glasgow in order to help set up the Glasgow branch of UCOS.

* YouMakeMeSic: In "Good Morning Lemmings", Brian wastes an entire morning attempting to compose the perfect 140 character tweet, which eventually causes an exasperated Jack to snap:
-->'''Jack:''' Brian, I can summarise what you've achieved this morning in precisely six characters: SOD ALL!"\\
'''Brian:''' Seven. You forgot the space.

* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: George Cole, Dennis Waterman's co-star in ''Series/{{Minder}}'', guest-starred in an episode. Sadly, Creator/JohnThaw died before the series was made, thus denying us the chance of seeing [[Series/TheSweeney Regan and Carter]] reunited.

'''Hancock''': Bollocks\\

'''Hancock''': Human Sacrifice. In the 1970's?\\

** FreudianTrio: ''Ice Age''
*** TheKirk: Gerry
*** TheMcCoy: Jack
*** TheSpock: Brian

* DirtyCop: a number throughout the series. Last Man Standing is loaded with them, and the threat of being exposed is almost certainly the motive for to the main case.

* .FinallyFoundTheBody:. A number of cases start like this, Where a random body or body of a missing person is found, and UCOS is put on the case.
** In London Underground, the finding of a body helps solve the case, by confirming a theory about the main crimes being investigated.

** The victim in Last Man Standing was disposed of this way.

'''Hancock''': Human Sacrifice. In the 1960's?\\

'''Hancock''': Human Sacrifice. In the 1960's?
'''Danny''': Yes.
'''Hancock''': In London?
'''Danny''': Yes.

* PapaWolf: Gerry's father [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Norman Lestade]] may not have seen eye to eye with his son for not [[GenerationXerox becoming a butcher like him]] but when Gerry was in serious trouble with loan shark Danny Paye in the 1970's as his nephew Barry states: [[ThickerThanWater "he's going to be buggered if he's going to let his son take a kicking from a jumped up, bullying little toerag like Danny Paye"]] and Norman's solution to this? Personally lead a posse including [[SiblingTeam his brother]], [[BashBrothers Sid and Barry]] and [[TrueCompanions 30 others from Smithfield Market]] to confront Danny and his gang. [[CurbStompBattle It ended badly for Paye and his cronies.]]

** Gerry's birthname Lestade is clearly based [[SherlockHolmes on a certain Lestrade]]

** At the end of the pilot, the final arrest occurs at a dinner the villain is hosting, which results in a punch-up between the villain's family and friends and the cops, with everyone pitching in... except for one bloke, presumably not ''that'' fond of the villain, who just calmly finishes his meal with the chaos going on around him and walks out when everyone's gone, blithely muttering 'very nice' to the main characters as he leaves.

%%* OffTheWagon: Brian. Handled far ''far'' better than many instances of this trope though.

* RecastAsARegular: Tamzin Outhwaite was cast as DCI Sasha Miller after appearing in an earlier episode, "Love Means Nothing In Tennis", as Victoria Kemp. [[spoiler: Who was that episode's murderer, so probably ''slightly'' more memorable to the audience than usual...]]

* RecastAsRegular: Tamzin Outhwaite was cast as DCI Sasha Miller after appearing in an earlier episode, "Love Means Nothing In Tennis", as Victoria Kemp. [[spoiler: Who was that episode's murderer, so probably ''slightly'' more memorable to the audience than usual...]]

* MenAreUncultured: The stereotype is played with. Gerry, who normally comes across as an unreconstructed 'real man', is a connoisseur of fine food, while Brian, the 'nerdy' one who enjoys tabletop strategy games, is conversely a SeriousBusiness football fan.

* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Sandra has been in charge of [=UCOS=] for nearly a decade after she was attacked in the press for shooting a dog in self defence, considered a dead-end job; the group in general has a reputation as a refuge for washed-up has been cops and officers. This despite the fact that they have put away crime lords, drug lords, serial arsonists and killers, corrupt police officers (including the [[MoleInCharge deputy commissioner]]), and numerous other high-level crime figures, basically putting the rest of the Met to shame several times over. Although it is played with, in that their hard work and achievements have been noted and rewarded several times over; Sandra has been offered 'better' jobs but [[StatusQuoIsGod for whatever reason]] has always chosen to stay with UCOS. However having been dumped out-of-the-way in the basement in the first series, each season has seen them be moved to increasingly nicer rooms before they reached their current, rather swish offices, suggesting that their overall reputation has gradually improved even if they do remain the butt of a few jokes.