Softly Softly: Task Force · S05E09
The Loudmouth
First broadcast 1973-11-07 · Don Henderson as McKay
Billy Mason talks too much, which is why the police know his name and why PC Snow is put into a casino to get close to him — and then Mason is murdered before anyone can decide what the deal was worth. Henderson is McKay in the episode's other kind of hunt, the one that starts once the loudmouth is gone and a place where nobody asks questions becomes a good place to disappear.
Van Der Valk · S03E09
The Professor
First broadcast 1977-10-31 · Don Henderson as Ullman
A body at a famous Amsterdam hotel, and the man in the bed is not who his papers say: a married professor with a second identity, affairs with his own students, and a life built on contradiction. Henderson is Ullman in the inquiry that works the gap between the public self and the private one, the murder being the point where the versions finally collided.
Dempsey and Makepeace · S03E10
Guardian Angel
First broadcast 1986-11-01 · Don Henderson as Dan
Makepeace has a vision of Dempsey being shot dead and it is enough to make her resign; the vision refuses to be explained away, and when Dempsey is nearly killed it starts looking like a warning. Henderson is Dan in an episode written by Ranald Graham and directed by the star himself, with Kate O'Mara's treat of a performance as the desk-bound Joyce Hargreaves being pulled out of storage.
Minder · S07E05
Fiddler on the Hoof
First broadcast 1989-01-30 · Don Henderson as Billy Lynch
The same episode that caught Michael Kitchen's Maltese Tony: the City safety-deposit robbery, Arthur moving his money to a lock-up with a lock and a minder and very little else, and the television camera catching Arthur greeting a wanted man. Henderson is Billy Lynch on the gang-boss side of the trouble Arthur's greeting brings to the doorstep.
The Ruth Rendell Mysteries · S09E08
A Case Of Coincidence: Part One
First broadcast 1996-03-22 · Don Henderson as Ray Brannel
The year is 1954 and the fen-land of Norfolk is producing strangled women — five in all, apparently by the same hand. Henderson is Ray Brannel in the investigation that narrows onto a young man and the question the title teases: really a serial killer, or something more complicated than a simple pattern of murder, in a period setting that gives the affair its proper weight.
The Ruth Rendell Mysteries · S09E09
A Case Of Coincidence: Part Two
First broadcast 1996-03-29 · Don Henderson as Ray Brannel
The conclusion turns on a confession that is partial in the most frustrating way: Eddie admits the other killings but denies killing Sara herself, and Inspector Masters insists on taking the denial seriously against direct orders. Henderson's Ray Brannel sits inside the study of a detective trusting his instincts over procedure — the act of insubordination that cracks the case.