End Game

End Game closes the fifth series, and it begins in 1985. A robbery at Turnbrook Services goes wrong, and a pregnant teacher and a young boy are killed. The following year three men are sentenced to life imprisonment, with minimum terms of between fifteen and twenty-three years. Kavanagh was a junior on the flawed defence.

The case does not go away. The man who fired the final shot commits suicide in 1992, and leaves a note admitting that one of the three was innocent. Hunger strikes and petitions to successive Home Secretaries follow. Finally, twelve years after the original killings, Kavanagh and his junior Miss Miller act for one of the men, Cracken, at his appeal. Aldermarten defends another of the men.

TVDB describes the film's central situation in general terms. Kavanagh finds himself fighting prejudice and corruption when he acts for a client who is appealing against a murder conviction, and the odds are against him. The two versions agree on the subject, an appeal against an old conviction.

The film also settles matters in chambers. Peter Foxcott, played by Oliver Ford Davies, decides to retire after a health scare, and Kavanagh is offered the post of Head of Chambers at River Court Chambers. Afterwards he and Eleanor Harker, the barrister played by Geraldine James, go for a weekend in Brighton, which Wikipedia calls raffish. They decide to part as friends, because she is to become a prosecutor for the International War Crimes Tribunal for Yugoslavia, in The Hague.

Stephen Churchett wrote the film, and Tristram Powell directed. The cast includes Jimmy Flint as Jimmy Cracken, Anna Gilbert as Helen Brewster QC, Donald Douglas as Mr Justice Halliwell, Anthony Edridge as Felipe Arrabal and Imogen Claire as Madame Zonglo, with John Thaw, Nicholas Jones, Daisy Bates and Oliver Ford Davies.

The film was shown on Monday 29 March 1999, the fourth and last of the fifth series. It was written for the fourth series under the title Seasons of Mist and held back by a scheduling change. Central Television made it for ITV. Wikipedia gives its audience as 9.39 million viewers. IMDb voters give it 8.6 out of 10.

Wikipedia records that all five series are available on DVD in Region 1 and Region 2.

The sources do not say whether the appeal succeeds, or whether Kavanagh takes the Head of Chambers post, so the account ends with the offer.