Protection spoilers: COMPLETE guide to NEW ITV DRAMA

Protection airs from Sunday, March 16th, 2025 on ITV1 at 9:00pm

Episode 1: “Protection”

Police officer DI Liz Nyles (Siobhan Finneran, Happy Valley, Downton Abbey, Time) works in the secretive and high-stakes world of Witness Protection. When we meet her, she’s juggling a high-stakes job (with life-and-death consequences for her witnesses) alongside a demanding family life – attending to the needs of a teenage daughter, a difficult ex, and a dad recovering from a stroke.

Liz is principled, in control, and scrupulous about the security of her witnesses, particularly the high-risk criminal-turned-informant Jimmy McLennan (Kris Hitchen, The Long Shadow, Four Lives, Trigger Point) and his family. Jimmy is about to testify against his old boss Eddie Crowther (Alec Newman, Karen Pirie, The Last Kingdom), the head of a major organized crime group that has so far evaded prosecution. Liz goes above and beyond to keep Jimmy’s family safe. It’s protocol that only Liz and her colleague DS Raj Kohli (Chaneil Kular, Sex Education, Bodies) are privy to their location. Both at work and at home, Liz always puts others first, but recently, she has decided to take something for herself and has launched into a secret affair with a married, more junior colleague, DS Paul Brandice (Barry Ward, Bad Sisters, The Capture).

One morning, an attack on one of her safe houses raises grave questions about the integrity of Liz’s unit, which is rocked with accusations of corruption: it is believed that someone has been leaking information to Crowther’s OCG. Liz begins to wonder with horror if she has unwittingly compromised herself—if, indeed, her secret lover Brandice is in league with Eddie Crowther and has been using her. While the police team, led by the formidable DCI Hannah Wheatley (Katherine Kelly, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Criminal, The Long Shadow), investigates the incident, Liz secretly launches her own unofficial investigation to find the leak. In this, she must avoid the watchful eye of both Wheatley and the inscrutable DCI Amanda Kelman (Nadine Marshall, Champion, Sherwood, Trigger Point) from Professional Standards, who has been tasked with weeding out corruption in Liz’s unit.

Alongside her scramble to understand what happened on the morning of the terrible incident, Liz is also charged with caring for a highly endangered witness. The question of whom she can trust becomes more uncertain as a conspiracy emerges, and Liz realizes her only chance for professional survival—and the survival of her witnesses—lies in breaking every rule she’s ever known.

Episode 2: “Don’t Trust Anyone”

Liz offers crucial information to DCI Wheatley but doesn’t reveal certain facts, worried she will compromise both herself and her secret investigation into the leak. This takes her further down a path of secret transgression, a decision which may come back to haunt her.

Meanwhile, everyone in the team is hauled before Wheatley and Kelman for questioning. They are all under suspicion as the unit is investigated from the inside. Liz is on the back foot as she is challenged about corruption in her unit, but will she come clean when confronted with uncomfortable questions about her own recent movements? Meanwhile, formidable gangster Eddie Crowther is giving nothing away.

As Liz tries desperately to protect the integrity of her unit and to limit further damage, she is forced to take drastic steps to protect her highly vulnerable witness, who is a target for organised crime.

Meanwhile, Liz secretly pursues the one major clue at her disposal, which might help her understand her lover’s connection to the deepening conspiracy. Something in Liz’s gut tells her he is hiding something. But in pursuing the truth, will she only compromise herself further? A sudden intervention from Wheatley makes things even more dangerous for Liz, as the unit is sent into a tailspin.

Episode 3: “Pressure”

With the help of her colleague DI Rick Bewley (Andrew Knott, Tin Star, Maryland) in the Organised Crime team, Liz digs into a mysterious contact of her secret lover Brandice’s. As pressure mounts at work, Liz compromises herself even further by using her position to access confidential files in secret. She is determined to link Crowther with recent shocking events, but her fear that Brandice is also connected to the head of the organised crime group is never far away.

When Liz’s worst fears are realised in a shocking incident, she begins to wonder if someone—or several people—in the police are colluding to cover up this dark conspiracy. Distracted by the stresses of work, Liz finds herself increasingly at odds with her daughter Jasmine. Meanwhile, she comes under pressure from a friend in trouble as her earlier transgressions threaten to jeopardise her secret investigation, leaving her increasingly vulnerable and exposed.

Episode 4: “Sabotage”

As Liz fights to prove foul play, she finds herself sabotaged, and the danger gets frighteningly close to home. A sinister event only fuels Liz’s suspicions of her fellow police officers and their possible connection to organized crime. But how long can she continue her secret investigation before she is shut down? And how much will she risk to uncover the truth while still trying to keep her secret affair under wraps?

Meanwhile, a problematic new witness (played by Adam Long—Happy Valley, The Long Shadow) brings Liz into the orbit of the assistant chief constable, just as tensions between her and Wheatley reach a boiling point. Wheatley proves to be a formidable adversary as Liz finds herself increasingly isolated.

Episode 5: “In Too Deep”

The police teams struggle to resolve an escalating crisis as the stakes of the conspiracy rise. A life hangs in the balance, and Liz feels the blame directed firmly at her. Still unable to trust her colleagues, she takes matters into her own hands—with surprising consequences. Meanwhile, she must also deal with the fallout of taking on a problematic new witness.

Juggling pressure from both home and work, Liz discovers a clue that brings her closer to the criminal Crowther—and deeper into danger. She fears that corrupt individuals within the police are conspiring to silence her. As she makes headway in her investigation, it becomes increasingly clear that her enemies will stop at nothing to cover their tracks, putting Liz in life-threatening danger.

Episode 6: “Conspiracy”

Isolated and with nothing to lose, Liz pushes even further down a path of transgression in her desperate pursuit of the truth. But can she uncover the conspiracy before the corrupt forces stop her? And with her professional and personal worlds colliding, will she ever truly understand the nature of her illicit relationship with DS Brandice?