Care in the Community

Care in the Community takes Kavanagh home. Wikipedia says he comes from a working-class family in Bolton, and the film brings him back to the town with the head of chambers, Peter Foxcott. Two clients are on trial for killing their fourteen-month-old daughter.

The couple are Debbie Sattenthwaite and Mark Holmes. Foxcott, played by Oliver Ford Davies, defends Debbie, played by Cathy Sara. Kavanagh defends Mark, played by Sean Harris. In court, the couple's evidence suddenly starts to clash. Mark changes his story.

TVDB explains what follows. Kavanagh's tactics have to change when it becomes clear that the young couple are telling quite different stories. Wikipedia adds that Foxcott is shocked at the way Kavanagh goes for Debbie, and has to intervene to assist his colleague. So the barristers on the same side of the case, with joint clients, find themselves at odds, because their clients' interests are not the same.

The film is unusual in putting the two senior members of chambers on opposite sides of the evidence. Foxcott is the head of chambers at River Court, as the Classic Film and TV Café describes it. Kavanagh is the lead on the case, and he cross-examines a woman who is defended by his colleague.

Rob Heyland wrote the film, his only one for the series, and Jack Gold directed. The cast includes Haydn Gwynne as Mary Armstrong QC, Hal Cruttenden as Marshall, Simon Harrison as Dr Joseph Jardine, Alan Hulse as Dick Ellis and Richard Janes as Paul Buckley, with Valerie Edmond as Emma Taylor, Kavanagh's junior in this series.

Wikipedia adds a detail about Kavanagh's roots: on one occasion he dashes off to catch Bolton Wanderers playing in a televised match, and it is only in later episodes that his Bolton upbringing is revealed, partly through an exchange with a colleague who took him for a Yorkshireman.

On the DVD release the film is the second on the first disc of the fourth series, between Memento Mori and Briefs Trooping Gaily. The film was shown on Tuesday 24 March 1998, the second of the fourth series' six films. Central Television made it for ITV. IMDb voters give it 8.7 out of 10, which is the second-highest rating of the regular films, behind only Time of Need.

The Classic Film and TV Café reviewer, writing about the series in 2019, said the writing was above average, with several first-rate episodes.

The sources read do not report the verdict. They do not say whether the couple are convicted or whether the child's death is explained, so the account ends with the clash between the two defences.