Episode list

Wycliffe

Dead on Arrival

Sat, Jun 08, 1996
The corpses of five illegal immigrants are found in a meat lorry by Customs at a Cornish ferry terminal. Driver Eddie Sowden goes missing and claims ignorance when the police locate and arrest him but Wycliffe is convinced he is lying and resolves to winkle out the truth.
7.5 /10
Number of the Beast
Wycliffe and his team are called to Bodmin Moor where a resurgence in corpses suggests that the so-called 'Beast of Bodmin Moor', a black panther which escaped from a zoo, and has a reputation for mauling livestock to death, has been active in slaying locals. Wycliffe, however, takes the view that the so-called beast is a convenient cover for a murderer with genuine motives and his theory is put to the test when Doug Kersey ventures onto the moor on his own and fails to come back.
7.5 /10
Slave of Duty

Sat, Jul 06, 1996
Jamie Yelland is found dead, shot through the head on land owned by Dan Hobden, and his house is ransacked. Jamie had been a diver, obsessed with a sunken treasure ship, carrying silver coins, allegedly never found, and had had dealings with local historian Donald Treloar, similarly obsessed and murdered with the same weapon that killed Jamie. Wycliffe believes the treasure was found and that both men were killed by an interested third party.
7.6 /10
Total Loss

Sat, Jul 13, 1996
After he is accused of breaching the E.C. fishing quota, Joe Mawnam's trawler sinks and his mate and best friend Don dies. Wycliffe and his colleagues establish that the boat was scuttled for the insurance money but their professional instincts are at odds with sympathy for fishermen whose livings are being destroyed by regulations and ultimately must act to prevent another tragedy.
7.2 /10
Crazy for You

Sat, Jul 20, 1996
Psychiatrist Stanley Malvern's wife Dawn is murdered whilst he is out with his dog. He has no financial gain from the death and helps the police investigation as a profiler. Lucy is sure the killer is a woman and she is right. Disturbed neighbour Annabel Naylor fits the bill but Wycliffe believes someone else set her up with a motive.
7.7 /10
Faith

Sat, Jul 27, 1996
When a dead baby is found in a cardboard box on a church steps, Chris Matthews comes forward to say that he has seen a pagan sect, led by the unsympathetic Dr. Dayton, saying, "Bring forth the child" in a midnight ritual. Lucy investigates the sect but the real key to the mystery lies with Wycliffe's boozy friend Bill, whose wife has just left him and who is staying with the Wycliffes with his withdrawn teenage daughter.
7.1 /10
Last Judgement

Sat, Aug 03, 1996
Magistrate George Pender's body is found hanged in woods but Wycliffe does not believe it was suicide. Disgruntled fisherman Jimmy Yates, whose wife left him after Pender jailed him, is a suspect, but Lucy is intrigued by the attitudes of the Pender family, his son Neil and girlfriend Jane, whose mother Pat, like Pender, once lived in Plymouth. As Pender's hostility to the relationship between Jane and Neil is exposed, so is a shocking secret from his past.
7.5 /10
Old Habits

Sat, Aug 10, 1996
Ellie Creed, whose father has just been imprisoned, is found strangled and the pathologist notes a similarity with unsolved serial killings a decade earlier. Chief suspect is Hugh Samford, in the frame before and now back in Cornwall after a long absence who has no alibi for Ellie's death or that of a second young woman. Kersey gets close to married Inspector Jill Gillespie, who liaised with the Creed family, making it more shocking when the true killer is exposed.
7.6 /10

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You Can't Buy Luck

You Can't Buy Luck

Wealthy and superstitious race-horse owner Joe Baldwin practices philanthropy because he believes his charity donations bring luck to his ponies. One object of his bounty is gold-digger Jean Jason, about whom he has no illusions, and in order to get rid of her he finances her European vacation, and with her, unknown to Baldwin, goes full-time gigolo/part time artist Paul Vinette. Before a big race Baldwin is at an orphanage near the track and expresses his wishes for rain on the following day as his horse, "Sarcasm", runs best on a muddy track. The orphans resent his wish as it is also to be the day of their annual big outing, as does the orphanage assistant, Betty McKay, who chides Baldwin for his selfish viewpoint. It does rain but "Sarcasm" loses anyway, and Baldwin decides it was because the orphans were pulling against him. He arranges a big party for the kids and he and Betty fall in love. When Jean returns from Europe, she demands $50,000 to fade out of the picture. He tells her he will bring her a check. Paul sees Jean packing her bags, accuses her of running out, and they quarrel. She gets a gun and orders him out of the apartment and they fight for the weapon. Paul is leaving the building as Baldwin enters. A few minutes later, the police receive a call from a man claiming to be Joe Baldwin who says he has just killed Jean Jason. Baldwin is arrested and convicted on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to death. He escapes the police and goes into hiding in the home of a taxicab driver, Frank Bent, he had once befriended. Baldwin, with the aid of Bent and Betty, start the process of proving his innocence and also finding the real killer.

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