Let's narrow it down to the sort of people who, if you were inclined to use such language, you might, between clenched teeth, refer to as 'bums'. Take Smelly Shelley, a middle-aged bag woman, stinking of urine and bad attitude - what's her story? How did she get here? And Bernard, a shambolic mess of learning difficulties and obsessive behaviour - and Greg, a middle-class and useless young drug dealer. Or Karl, the dodgy nightclub owner and his brutish brother Byron.

These are just some of the characters that Detective Inspector Frank Lee encounters as he investigates the bizarre...