Detective Inspector Brooks, known as Brooksy, was a 'bent' police officer who appeared in Series 9 of Shameless. Brooksy was paid a large sum of money by Paddy Maguire to make some of the evidence linking Jamie Maguire to 3 murders disappear. Brooksy visited The Jockey in Episode 5 of Series 9 in order to ask a favour from Jamie, in exchange for keeping the historic evidence away from his co-workers.
Brooksy told Jamie that his daughter had been severely beaten by her own husband but due to being under investigation at work and his son-in-law being under police protection he was unable to exact revenge personally. He showed Jamie a picture of a badly beaten woman and asked him to exact revenge for him, more than hinting that he wanted the man dead.
When he first arrived at The Jockey, Brooksy refused to tell Jamie what he wanted, preferring to hang around and socialize with the other residents as a way to make Jamie nervous. It was during this time that he showed his temper and use of drugs when arm wrestling with Jackson Powell. He also greeted Carl Gallagher as an officer, telling him he could "smell pork a mile off" before telling him to go away. Jamie vouched for Carl and told Brooksy he was a friend, but Brooksy simply pointed out that their friendship was not something senior police officers would be happy to know.
His interest piqued, Carl looked into Brooksy at work and attempted to warn Jamie that Brooksy had been suspended by the force under suspicion of badly cutting up a prostitute. Jamie tried to say that the allegations meant nothing but Carl told him that Brooksy's own partner had given evidence against him. However, knowing the hold Brooksy had over his future, Jamie ignored Carl and set about preparing to do the task asked of him.
Karen had watched Jamie since Brooksy's arrival and tried in vain to talk Jamie out of following Brooksy's request. When she finally saw no other option, she met with Carl in secret behind The Jockey and gave him the name and address for the man Brooksy wanted murdered so he could check the records at work. Hoping to find something out before it was too late, Karen was shocked when Jamie made for the door later that day and told her he was going to get it done. Karen tried to slow him down but Jamie left, his departure watched from across the room by Brooksy.
Jamie entered the house of the man Brooksy wanted killed, Phillip. Once Jamie had the man tied up however, the phone rang and Phillip pointed out that he was under police protection and an unanswered phone would send the police charging in. Seeing no other option, Jamie warned Phillip not to do anything stupid and put the phone to his ear only for it to turn out to be Karen. Carl had looked into the name and address and discovered that Phillip was a police officer who had never even met Brooksy's daughter and the picture supposedly of Brooksy's beaten daughter was actually of the prostitute Brooksy had attacked himself.
Jamie returned to The Jockey where he revealed to Brooksy that he hadn't killed Phillip. Brooksy tried to explain himself, saying that he had no other option, he also noted that two men sat at a table nearby were obvious plain clothes officers who had been called by Karen. Brooksy seemed resigned to his situation, knowing now that he would be charged with the attack on the prostitute, he got to his feet and offered his hand to Jamie in agreement that there was no hard feelings between them. However, when Jamie got to his feet and took his hand, Brooksy headbutted him in the face and quickly pulled out a knife and stabbed Jamie with force.
Karen vaulted over the bar screaming her husbands name as he lay on the floor and the two nearby officers grabbed Brooksy. However a quick check revealed Jamie had been wearing a knife proof vest under his clothes. Brooksy was taken away as Carl came over to Jamie and Karen to let them know that the historical evidence Brooksy had been holding over Jamie had been destroyed. Jamie was left shocked and relieved and thanked a grinning Carl.
Notes[]
- Steve Evets has appeared (as a different character) in Shameless once before during a brief scene in Episode 8 of Series 2, where Frank asked if he could lend him some money, which Steve Evets' character refused, as he only won seventy pounds off the Lottery and still had a fine to pay, thanks to Frank.
- Evets also co-starred in the 2009 Looking for Eric alongside Eric Cantona. Shameless alumni Gerard Kearns (Ian Gallagher) played Evet's step-son.
- Evet also had a small part in the 2006 two part serial See No Evil: The Moors Murders, which featured Maxine Peake (Veronica Fisher) as Myra Hindley and Kelli Hollis (Yvonne Karib) as the grieving mother of one of the victims.