First appearance    Balls in the Air (07/11/91)     

Sergeant Matt Boyden was born in Margate. Summer jobs on the fun fair developed his patter and sense of humour. He left school at 17 with 5 'O Levels, moving into a clerical job with BR. Boredom and disillusionment led him to join the job in 1975. He served as a PC in Beckton, Wantstead and Barking. He passed his sergeant's exams on the second attempt, aged 30. Unfortunately, being caught 'over the side' with a WPC probationer at his sergeant's course in Hendon effectively ended his marriage and made any rapid future promotion unlikely. He no longer saw his daughter Amy and grandchild Sophie, and his wife had since re-married.

Another indiscretion with a WDC in 1991 forced Boyden’s move from Romford, where he was sergeant, to Sun Hill. The clean shirt in his locker, toothbrush, toothpaste an electric razor in his drawer, marked him out as the OTS type. He was a good thief taker though and kept up with the latest Met initiatives with the jaundiced eye of a pre-PACE copper. He also came across as a caring, compassionate sergeant who was well liked by most of the Relief.

Boyden's earlier dalliance with an underage girl made him a little more wary, although his career was again on the line when he inadvertently slept with DI Nixon's 15-year-old daughter, Abi. Add to that his own drug addled daughter, being an eyewitness to a shooting plus failing to stop a suicidal jumper, Matt’s popularity around Sun Hill began to dwindle. It was no wonder when he was shot dead by his daughter's drug-dealing boyfriend, so she could profit from his insurance money.