The More Loving One

A house in London explodes, and a young woman is killed. Annie Fisk, played by Laura Heath, was a heroin addict. Her boyfriend Michael Woodley, a former addict and a convicted arsonist, was looking through the letter-box at the time, smoking a cigarette. He tells the first two people he sees that he killed her. Hugh Dancy plays Michael.

Wikipedia asks whether it was a gas leak or murder. Kavanagh defends him. TVDB adds the background. Michael and Annie had fled to London from the stifling, middle-class rural community where they were brought up, and where Michael, found guilty of setting fire to a doctor's surgery, was given a suspended sentence. Annie was trying to beat a drug problem with Michael's support. That day Michael came home and found that she was using again. His patience snapped and he stormed out.

Soon afterwards there was a loud explosion at the flat. A district nurse who was visiting the couple's elderly neighbour had seen him leave. Michael was numb with shock, and told the nurse and the police that he had killed Annie. Charged with murder, he is defended by Kavanagh, who is baffled by the boy's reluctance to explain what happened and by the emotional frigidity of his parents.

A second pathologist's report reveals that Annie was pregnant when she died. Kavanagh's dilemma, TVDB says, is whether he should tell his client and burden him further with guilt. The summary breaks off at that point.

In chambers, Miss Miller is sent to Romford to defend a pit bull terrier, before returning to London to act as Kavanagh's junior in the murder case. That leaves Aldermarten to take over the dog's case. Next thing he knows, Wikipedia says, he is buying a third of a greyhound, and everyone goes to see it race.

Peter Moffat wrote the film, and David Thacker directed. The cast includes Susanna Best as Emily Miller, Richard Banham as Clive, Di Botcher as Tilly Burgess and Philip Fox as Dr Kidd, with Oliver Ford Davies as Peter Foxcott QC.

The film was shown on Monday 15 March 1999, the second of the four in the fifth series. Central Television made it for ITV. Wikipedia gives its audience as 10.29 million viewers. IMDb voters give it 8.5 out of 10.

The sources read do not report what the court decides, or what caused the explosion, so the account stops with Kavanagh's dilemma.