Shoot to Kill is a four-hour drama documentary reconstruction of the events that led to the 1984–86 Stalker Inquiry into the shooting of six terrorist suspects in Northern Ireland in 1982 by a specialist unit of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), allegedly without warning (the so-called shoot-to-kill policy); the organised fabrication of false accounts of the events; and the difficulties created for the inquiry team in their investigation.

The NHS Hillcroft Medical Centre has a vacancy for a practise manager. The receptionist Beryl Oldham is the favourite for the job, but then pompous ex-Army officer Maurice Ribley arrives to vye for the position