Softly Softly: Task Force · S08E08
Baked Beans
First broadcast 1976-10-27 · George Baker as Frank Chandler
Watt meets a fence in a bar, which is how these evenings tend to start, and the fence's secretary Doris is soon offering the thing every detective wants: a fence caught in the act. Baker is Frank Chandler, who has agreed to buy a batch of stolen lawnmowers from two villains new to the game. The crime is unglamorous and all the better for it — a whole operation hinging on stolen lawnmowers, played with total seriousness.
Minder · S01E11
You Gotta Have Friends
First broadcast 1980-01-21 · George Baker as Altman
A gangster's bearer bonds go missing and the gangster does not ring the police. Baker is Bobby Altman, the big man with a low tolerance for loose ends, who sends his heavies after the courier Billy Gilpin and soon decides Arthur knows more than he is saying. Arthur is taken for a ride — in this world not a holiday — and the questioning is uncomfortable and very funny.
The Gentle Touch · S03E03
The Hit
First broadcast 1981-11-20 · George Baker as Gerald Harvey
A marksman with a high-powered rifle is loose on Maggie Forbes's patch, and a sniper changes the arithmetic of policing: every rooftop a threat, every parked car a possible firing position, one shot all it takes. Baker is Gerald Harvey, one of the Knights circling the case with motives the writing keeps deliberately murky — the investigation conducted in the open while the threat stays hidden.
The Chinese Detective · S02E06
Chorale
First broadcast 1982-10-15 · George Baker as Jack Balfe
Jack Balfe, a well-known East End fence, wants the tenor Robert Tear to sing at his daughter's birthday party, and nobody — least of all Ho — is going to stop him. Baker plays the fence in the most enjoyable premise of the run and the only episode of the series with a genuine performer appearing as himself inside the fiction.
Minder · S07E02
Days of Fines and Closures
First broadcast 1989-01-09 · George Baker as Cooper
Dave goes missing on a day trip to France, and a day without Dave is a day when nothing runs properly. Terry and Arthur must attend court in his place to renew the Winchester Club's licence while Rycott opposes the application firmly, which is his way of being helpful, and Dave's wife decides Arthur made her husband vanish. Baker is Cooper in an hour of stately confusion — Thorley Walters's Magistrate included — that runs on everyone's very good reasons for behaving badly.
Midsomer Murders · S09E01
The House in the Woods
First broadcast 2005-09-10 · George Baker as Charlie & Jack Magwood (dual role)
The haunted house at the end of the lane claims a house-hunting couple, found garroted inside, and Midsomer Newton's first reaction is not surprise but the smugness of people who told you so. Baker plays a pair of roles, Charlie and Jack Magwood, at the heart of the village's side of the story, while Barnaby and new partner Ben Jones pick their way between ghost stories and forensic fact.
Spooks · S04E08
Episode 8
First broadcast 2005-10-24 · George Baker as Hugo Ross
The Grid runs two cold threads: a Russian multimillionaire whose NHS rescue is too good to be true, and an old British traitor pulled back in to infiltrate a firm stealing secrets out of GCHQ. Baker is Hugo Ross, filling out the edges of an hour whose sharpest scenes belong to Ben Daniels's Korsakov, a man who wears charm like body armour.