Blood Money

Blood Money opens with a death in an operating theatre. A man has been brought in after a car crash, and he dies on the table. His wife, Sarah Meadows, believes there has been negligence. Sheila Hancock, who was John Thaw's wife, plays her.

The surgeon left the theatre before the patient's wound was closed, but at a point when he was doing well. TVDB gives the surgeon's name as Hilary Jameson and describes the husband as a computer tycoon, and says that, within minutes of a successful operation, the wife learns he is dead. What happened in that brief period is the problem Kavanagh has to solve.

Prime Video's listing puts it more plainly: after an accident victim dies unexpectedly during surgery, his widow suspects malpractice and asks Kavanagh to represent her. Kavanagh takes the case on despite his misgivings about the likelihood of winning. Jeremy Aldermarten, played by Nicholas Jones, represents the hospital, so the pompous barrister of chambers is on the opposite side from his colleague.

Chambers have other business. Kavanagh is asked to speak to one of his colleagues about her behaviour. At home, he and his wife Lizzie are disappointed when their son Matt, played by Tom Brodie, fails his A-level exams.

Matthew Hall wrote the film and Jack Gold directed; Hall had written for the series from the second series, and Gold had directed the previous film as well. The cast includes Richenda Carey as Pamela Erskine, Nicholas Clay as Mr Justice Fulgright, Nicholas Boulton as David Cazalet, Malcolm Browning as David Berrowes and Carl Ferguson as Pete, with Oliver Ford Davies as Peter Foxcott QC.

The film was shown on Monday 10 March 1997, the second of the six in the third series. Central Television made it for ITV. IMDb voters give it 8.1 out of 10.

The Classic Film and TV Café observes that the first three series mix Kavanagh's private life with his cases, as in this film, where a son's failed exams are set beside a widow's claim. The reviewer adds that British barristers can take cases from either side, which is why Kavanagh can be found acting for a claimant in one film and for the Crown in the next.

The two sources differ on whether Kavanagh acts for the widow in a civil claim or prosecutes on her behalf. Neither says what the court decided, or whether the surgeon's absence from the theatre was the cause of death, so the account does not claim to know.