The Shield (five)

Hitler's Children (C4)

THE rule with TV cop shows is that the new captain must be an outsider, who'll offend officers that have been passed over and come in like a new broom to clean up any dirty business in the department.

The potential for conflict is even greater if he is a she. And if the incoming actor is an award-winning Hollywood movie star, the regulars have even more reason to worry.

When film stars aren't invading our country to appear on the London stage, their agents are finding them work in TV series. So perhaps we shouldn't be surprised to find the new captain of the Barn - inevitably described as "a hard-nosed veteran cop" - in The Shield is played by an actress of the stature of Glenn Close. What's surprising is that she doesn't come in all guns blazing, chewing the scenery and acting everyone else off the screen.

"I've gone through everyone's packages so I know the dirt on all of you," she announced. There was much to read, the department is dirtier than a pair of female mud wrestlers.

This opener of the new series combined crime investigation - a family of four drowned in a bath, child kidnapped, drug deal, murder - with the arrival of Close's Captain Monica Rawling. "It was quite a day yesterday," she said to rule-bending Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis). This woman of steel isn't going to take any nonsense from him. "What kind of future are we going to have if you're already lying to me?" she asked as they reviewed their first day together.

If the rest of the series lives up to the promise of this scene-setter, the future is bright.

The most frightening sight of the weekend wasn't Close laying down the law, it was Hitler smiling. That he was doing this while acting like a favourite uncle with small children made it all the more spine-chilling.

I don't think I've ever seen him smile before. More usually, he's ranting and raving and shoving his arm in the air. Then again, there was much that was unfamiliar in the first of this five-part series.

Hitler knew that the future of the Third Reich rested on the shoulders of Germany's young people, so he set about training a generation of dedicated and ruthless Nazis to conquer the world.

At the age of 14, members of Hitler's Youth were swearing to give their lives for the Fuhrer, the people and the fatherland. SS doctors measured and graded youngsters to weed out undesirables. The ideal German boy said Hitler was "swift as a greyhound, tough as leather and hard as Krupp steel". Schools came under Nazi control, children learnt the art of war in classrooms and were taught racial theory in kindergarten.

This was revealing stuff, with the testimony of former Hitler Youth members reliving their experiences. They told how the sense of community and availability of every imaginable activity made the movement a giant playground for youngsters.

By 1935, four million - half the country's children - had joined. The rest were forcibly recruited as parents were threatened or faced with sanctions. Failures were rejected and ridiculed. Class was removed - after all everyone looked the same in a uniform. They were trained to follow orders blindly as they served their country. Hitler had reason to smile, his plan was working.