Kavanagh QC
A crusty barrister oversees difficult criminal cases while dealing with the demands of his family life.
Cast:John Thaw , Oliver Ford Davies , Nicholas Jones , Cliff Parisi , Lisa Harrow , Tom Brodie , Daisy Bates , Anna Chancellor , Jenny Jules , Valerie Edmond , Arkie Whiteley , Danny Midwinter , Geraldine James , Rebecca Front , Robert Ashby , Celestine Randall , Robin Bailey , Rosalind Bailey
S1.E1 ∙ Nothing But the Truth
When a respected student digging out a swimming pool in the garden of a housewife finds himself accused of raping her, Kavanagh takes up his defence.
S1.E2 ∙ Heartland
In Sunderland a young former car thief is run over by a local vigilante, leaving him brain damaged. His mother asks Kavanagh to to take on the case despite lack of sufficient evidence.
S1.E3 ∙ A Family Affair
Kavanagh prosecutes a pornographer and advocates for a divorced man who kidnapped his son in a custody case.
S1.E4 ∙ The Sweetest Thing
Kavanagh defends a high-priced prostitute accused of murdering a business tycoon, and wife Lizzie interviews for a job on the continent.
S2.E1 ∙ True Commitment
Kavanagh finds himself defending a left-leaning protester accused of stabbing a skinhead at a protest march. The accused claims that it was entirely his fault, but when he hears that his upper middle class girlfriend has shopped him to the police, he changes his story saying he was just being chivalrous and that it was his girlfriend who did the stabbing. The Kavanaghs continue their commuter marriage with Lizzie working in Strasbourg and it all proves to be a challenge to them both. Kate has left for Cambridge and Lizzie is pleased to hear that her tutor is the husband of one of her closest childhood friends. She is far less pleased when she learns that her daughter and the tutor are having an affair and Kavanagh himself simply blows a gasket.
S2.E2 ∙ Men of Substance
When another QC becomes ill, Kavanagh inherits the prosecution of a ruthless drug dealer with a record of intimidating witnesses and their families.
S2.E3 ∙ The Burning Deck
Two sailors, one a young officer with a family pedigree and a common seaman who is a childhood friend are accused of setting fire to their ship's barracks.
S2.E4 ∙ A Sense of Loss
The shooting of a young policewoman draws Kavanagh into a tragic case in which his client refuses to help himself.
S2.E5 ∙ A Stranger in the Family
An industrial accident at a recycling plant leaves a young man mentally and physically impaired. Kavanagh goes to court to secure a fair settlement from the insurance company for the family.
S2.E6 ∙ Job Satisfaction
Kavanagh faces the most complex case of his career: a man and his sister appear to have murdered their father, a farmer, and his second wife.
S3.E1 ∙ Mute of Malice
An army chaplain is accused of killing his brother after returning home from duty in Bosnia, but he will or cannot speak in his own defense.
S3.E2 ∙ Blood Money
The widow of an accident victim who unexpectedly dies from a heart attack during surgery suspects malpractice and asks Kavanagh to represent her.
S3.E3 ∙ Ancient History
A new law suspending the statute of limitations on war atrocities has Kavanagh prosecuting a Polish doctor who stands accused of war crimes.
S3.E4 ∙ Diplomatic Baggage
An influential government minister takes a great interest in Kavanagh's case of an ambassador's daughter accused of murdering a blackmailing tabloid journalist.
S3.E5 ∙ The Ties That Bind
Kavanagh agrees to take on a private prosecution against Ian Vincent who is believed to have beaten 17-year old Graham Foster to death for having stolen a briefcase from his car. Vincent's stepfather, Ron Baab, heads a crime family and tries to buy everyone off with both money and veiled threats. There is little solid evidence and the case relies primarily on Graham's girlfriend who has also been threatened. In Chambers meanwhile, Aldermarten is anxiously awaiting the results of his application to join an exclusive mens club in which Peter Foxcott is a member.
S3.E6 ∙ In God We Trust
Kavanagh goes to Florida to help former protégé Julie Piper, now married and pregnant in Florida, with a death penalty appeal with racial overtones.
S4.E1 ∙ Memento Mori
Recovering after LIzzie's death, Kavanagh moves to a new home and gets back to work with a novice lawyer on the case of a doctor accused of murdering his wife.
S4.E2 ∙ Care in the Community
Kavanagh and Peter travel to Kavanagh's hometown to defend a young unmarried couple on welfare from the murder of their young child.
S4.E3 ∙ Briefs Trooping Gaily
Kavanagh defends a battered wife who stabbed her husband to death and Jeremy when he is accused of professional misconduct.
S4.E4 ∙ Bearing Witness
Kavanagh's personal views and professional pride clash when his clerk Tom asks him to represent a former girlfriend Susannah Emmott. After they split she was briefly married to a Jehovah's Witness whose beliefs she took on before he became disillusioned and left her. She has a son, Luke, aged thirteen, whose father knows nothing of him and who needs a life-saving blood transfusion, which is against Susannah's religious beliefs. Jeremy gets himself involved with a group of tree-huggers out to save local woodlands.
S4.E5 ∙ Innocency of Life
When a young vicar is accused of seducing a grieving young widow. Kavanagh defends him, but suddenly charges are dropped and the couple become engaged.
S4.E6 ∙ Dead Reckoning
Kavanaugh prosecutes the owner of a capsized fishing trawler for negligent manslaughter even though his son is one of the five victims.
S5.E1 ∙ Previous Convictions
Twenty-two bystanders at a motor-cross race are killed when an RAF plane crashes into the crowd, and Kavanagh defends the radicalized young woman responsible.
S5.E2 ∙ The More Loving One
Kavanagh defends a convicted arsonist and former heroin junkie for blowing up his apartment and killing his addicted, pregnant girlfriend.
S5.E3 ∙ Time of Need
A new government minister is charged by a young felon with having molested him while he was in her care over a decade before.
S5.E4 ∙ End Game
In 1985 a student and a pregnant woman were shot dead during an armed robbery. Three men were apprehended and sentenced to life imprisonment, Kavanagh being a junior member of the defence team. Seven years later,one of them commits suicide,leaving a note to say that one of his fellow prisoners was innocent and, after public pressure, an appeal is launched with Kavanagh and Jeremy Aldermarten representing the couple. However Kavanagh begins to suspect that somebody does not want the truth to be revealed. Peter has a health scare and recommends Kavanagh as head of chambers. Eleanor parts as friends with Kavanagh to be a prosecutor in the Yugoslav International war Crimestribunal in the Hague.
S6.E1 ∙ The End of Law
Kavanagh is considering being a justice, but government pressure tries to persuade him not to pursue an appeals case.
