Artex: textured plaster finish for walls and ceilings

A Level: exams taken between 16 and 18

Auld Reekie: Edinburgh

Au pair: live-in childcare helper. Often a young woman.

Barm: bread roll

Barney: argument

Beaker: glass or cup for holding liquids

Beemer: BMW car or motorcycle

Benefits: social security

Bent: corrupt

Bin: wastebasket (noun), or throw in rubbish (verb)

Biscuit: cookie

Blackpool Lights: gaudy illuminations in seaside town

Bloke: guy

Blow: cocaine

Blower: telephone

Blues and twos: emergency vehicles

Bob: money

Bobby: policeman

Boggart: an evil spirit

Broadsheet: quality newspaper (New York Times would be a US example)

Brown bread: rhyming slang for dead

Bun: small cake

Bunk: do a bunk means escape

Burger bar: hamburger fast-food restaurant

Buy-to-let: Buying a house/apartment to rent it out for profit

Charity Shop: thrift store

Carrier bag: plastic bag from supermarket

Care Home: an institution where old people are cared for

Car park: parking lot

CBeebies: kids TV

Chat-up: flirt, trying to pick up someone with witty banter or compliments

Chemist: pharmacy

Chinwag: conversation

Chippie: fast-food place selling chips and other fried food

Chips: French fries but thicker

CID: Criminal Investigation Department

Civvy Street: civilian life (as opposed to army)

Clock: punch

Cock-up: mess up, make a mistake

Cockney: a native of East London

Common: an area of park land/ or lower class

Comprehensive School (Comp.): High school

Cop hold of: grab

Copper: police officer

Coverall: coveralls, or boiler suit

CPS: Crown Prosecution Service, decide whether police cases go forward

Childminder: someone who looks after children for money

Council: local government

Dan Dare: hero from Eagle comic

Deck: one of the landings on a floor of a tower block

Deck: hit (verb)

Desperate Dan: very strong comic book character

DI: detective inspector

Digestive biscuit: plain cookie

Do a runner: disappear

Do one: go away

Doc Martens: Heavy boots with an air-cushioned sole

Donkey’s years: long time

Drum: house

DS: detective sergeant

ED: accident and emergency department of hospital

Eagle: boys’ comic

Early dart: to leave work early

Eggy soldiers: strips of toast with a boiled egg

Enforcer: police battering ram

Estate: public/social housing estate (similar to housing projects)

Estate agent: realtor (US)

Falklands War: war between Britain and Argentina in 1982

Fag: cigarette

Father Christmas: Santa Claus

Filth: police (insulting)

Forces: army, navy, and air force

FMO: force medical officer

Fried slice: fried bread

Fuzz: police

Garda: Irish police

Geordie: from Newcastle

Garden Centre: a business where plants and gardening equipment are sold

Gob: mouth/ can also mean phlegm or spit

Gold Braid: higher ranks of the police

GP: general practitioner, a doctor based in the community

Graft: hard work

Gran: grandmother

Hancock: Tony Hancock, English comedian popular in 1950s

Hard nut: tough person

HGV: heavy goods vehicle, truck

Holiday rep: someone employed by travel company to look after people on vacation

HOLMES: UK police computer system used during investigation of major incidents

Home: care home for elderly or sick people

Hoover: vacuum cleaner

I’ll be blowed: expression of surprise