Chief Inspector Derek Conway     played by Ben Roberts

First appearance   The Three Wise Monkeys (21/07/88)     

Dogged Chief Inspector Derek Conway may have seemed a straightforward old-fashioned copper, but he hadn’t got where he was without cunning. In his eyes real police work began an ended on the streets – not behind desks or in the files of well-meaning experts. He had little patience with modern theories and PC initiatives. Dour, and determined that none should be promoted to a role that threatened his (which he'd reached as a result of resolute persistence rather than any outstanding talent) - that was his style. But he was still valuable to Sun Hill. His organisational abilities and talents as a negotiator were second to none.

Beneath a gruff exterior Conway was a generally fair and tolerant man. He was also a means of bringing humour into the programme. When he was determined to improve the station’s reputation for orderliness, he went poking around looking for stashes of drink, which were officially banned from the premises. At one point he was caught searching in Inspector Christine Frazer’s filing cabinet, and was found in possession of a pair of her knickers.

It often seemed that his boss Brownlow had no time for him and had put a block on his career. He got around that. He had a pal at HQ who wangled his name on to the shortlist when the new job of Community Liaison Officer was to be filled at Sun Hill. He hardly seemed the ideal candidate for the job, having never expressed an interest in race relations. But it became gradually clear that this was part of his plan. The CLO job was a route to promotion to superintendent. And when he started to do the job he found to his surprise that it was interesting. He also discovered that by giving up his membership of the Round Table and joining the Masonic Lodge his prospects improved. Certainly Brownlow, also a Mason, seemed to have warmed to him. His later promotion to acting superintendent took most of his colleagues by surprise. It didn’t last long, but he enjoyed it while it did. But possibly it did not surprise his family. Perhaps his happy home life with his wife, two sons and a daughter, whose photographs appeared in his office, was the basis of his success. Certainly wife Sandra was a perpetual driving force in their marriage.

In the end, Conway was killed in a devastating car bomb attack after meeting with community leaders to deal with the growing racial tension in Sun Hill.