The Innocency of Life

A young vicar is accused of sexual harassment, and Kavanagh is asked to defend him before an ecclesiastical court. The request comes from the Bishop of Norfolk. The vicar, Rev Ian Winfarthing, is played by Matt Bardock, and the woman who accuses him, in Wikipedia's account, is a pub landlady called Anne Murchison, played by Susan Vidler.

The case then changes. Anne is charged with killing her drunken and bullying husband, Tom, played by Cliff Parisi, who is better known in the series as the clerk Tom Buckley. Accounts of what has been going on in the small town begin to change.

TVDB tells the story somewhat differently. A recently widowed parishioner accuses the Reverend of harassment. When Kavanagh begins to inquire into the death of her husband, she withdraws the complaint, and the case collapses. Later Kavanagh discovers that she has become engaged to the vicar, and he finds himself defending her against a charge that she murdered her husband.

At the same time the comic and domestic stories are busy. Jeremy Aldermarten dates a glamorous aristocrat and throws her over when she makes it plain that she wants a child. Later he is chagrined to discover that he has dumped one of the richest people in the country. Kate sits her finals at Cambridge.

Kavanagh, meanwhile, rekindles his friendship with the prosecuting counsel, Eleanor Harker, played by Geraldine James, and the two share a romantic weekend in a storm-tossed chartered sailboat. The friendship resurfaces in the fifth series.

Malcolm Bradbury wrote the film, and Ferdinand Fairfax directed. The show dossier lists Bradbury among the series' notable writers. The cast includes Felicity Dean as Lady Amanda Preston-Stoke, Teresa Churcher as Fern Lambert, Michael Burrell as Dr Holmes, Rita Davies as Mrs Harmer and Robert Ashby as Terence Brebner, with Valerie Edmond as Emma Taylor.

Geraldine James plays Eleanor Harker QC throughout the first five series, and the Classic Film and TV Café reviewer lists her among the regular cast. The film was shown on Tuesday 14 April 1998, the fifth of the six films in the fourth series. Central Television made it for ITV. IMDb voters give it 7.7 out of 10.

The Classic Film and TV Café reviewer noted that from the fourth series the show focuses more on Kavanagh's work in court, but the film also carries a romantic weekend for a widowed man.

The sources read do not say whether the woman is convicted or what becomes of the vicar, so the account ends with the murder charge.