Memento Mori

Memento Mori is the first film of the fourth series, and it comes after the death of Lizzie, Kavanagh's wife. The summaries do not say how she died, but Wikipedia puts the film in the context of Kavanagh's bereavement, and the case he takes on reflects it.

His client is Dr Felix Crawley, played by Tom Courtenay, who is charged with killing his wife Ann with an overdose of lithium. Ann was depressive and unfaithful, and Felix says that he treated her in secret because of the shame of her disorder, and that her death was an accident. Janet Maw plays Ann.

Kavanagh takes on the prosecution witnesses. They include Ann's lover and her young niece, whose advances Felix had spurned. As the case draws to its verdict, he comes to appreciate that he is identifying with his bereaved client. A widower defends a man whose wife has died, and the barrister's own loss colours the way he sees the case.

TVDB gives a further turn. The prosecution has several witnesses, but the accused maintains his innocence. After the verdict, Kavanagh learns of an ironic twist. Neither source says what the twist is, or what the verdict was, so the film's ending stays unknown here.

The series has changed around him. Valerie Edmond joins as Emma Taylor, who is Kavanagh's junior in the fourth series, and Cliff Parisi, Oliver Ford Davies and Nicholas Jones continue in chambers. The Classic Film and TV Café reviewer notes that from the fourth series the show focuses more on Kavanagh's courtroom work, having mixed his private life with his cases in the first three. Anna Chancellor and Lisa Harrow had left after the third series.

Russell Lewis wrote the film and Charles Beeson directed. Donald Douglas appears as Mr Justice Halliwell, Marjorie Bland as Claire Fitzsimmons, Jill Brassington as Iris Lucas, Matyelok Gibbs as Professor Simunovic and Jon Glover as a quizmaster, with Daisy Bates and Tom Brodie as Kate and Matt.

On the DVD release it opens the first disc of the fourth series, with Care in the Community and Briefs Trooping Gaily, according to a library catalogue record. The Classic Film and TV Café reviewer contrasts Kavanagh with Morse: where Morse was an introvert with few friends, Kavanagh is an outgoing family man, which is why the loss of his wife at the start of this series is felt as a loss to the whole family.

The film was shown on Tuesday 17 March 1998, after a year since the third series ended. Central Television made it for ITV. IMDb voters give it 8.2 out of 10.

The summaries do not give the verdict or the ironic twist that follows it. The account therefore stops with the case still undecided.