Inspector Gina Gold played by Roberta Taylor

First appearance    # 021 (27/06/02)     

Inspector Gina Gold was originally from South London. An all-drinking, all-smoking workaholic, Gina was ballsy, funny and had the capacity to terrify every rank of officer when the mood took her. She joined the Met slightly later in life at 28. The daughter of a bookmaker, she left school and worked as a till girl in one of her dad's South London shops. His clients although pretty low level, had fingers in many pies. Gina grew to resent the sort of men who used to frequent the premises and with that developed a razor sharp sense of wit as well as an impressive left hook. Even by the age of 17, Gina was not a woman to be messed with.

Gina's heritage and knowledge of the underworld made her an instinctive copper. It wasn't ambition that got her up the ladder, but her talent. She made it to DS pretty quickly and earned a reputation for being funny, hardnosed, loyal but unpredictable. She raised a few eyebrows when she decided to go for the post of uniform Inspector at Sun Hill, instead of following the rest of the herd with their sights set on DI. Her reasoning was simple: if the young hotshot uniforms can transfer into CID overnight, why not the other way around?

Having had a foot in both camps, uniform and CID, Gina was a natural bridge between the two departments and each earned her respect this way. She refused to bow to political correctness and wouldn't be dictated to by the thought police. But whilst she was happy to live by her old school copper reputation, Gina wasn't averse to using every trick in the book to swing things her way. She certainly had a sharp-tongue, to which her colleagues constantly fell prey. She ruled the relief with an iron rod and her manner could often be seen as brusque and sarcastic. Gina would let anyone have their say, whatever rank, without fear of being disciplined - as long as she was afforded the same respect in return. She was also fiercely protective of her team - she was the first one to leap to their defence. But behind her super-confident exterior, she hid a secret sadness - her brother Richard committed suicide in jail after being wrongly convicted of murder. She also mellowed slightly following a fight with cervical cancer.

First in and last to leave, dedicated Gina was always at her post. If not, she was probably in the ladies' lighting up yet another cigarette. But being tough and married to the job changed: Gina's nerves became shot to bits following the death of an officer, and whenever other officers risked their lives in the line of duty, the anxiety became too much. In the end, Gina realised that she could no longer lead the troops at Sun Hill and resigned her commission.