Pie in the Sky - Season 1 (1994)

With Fisher at a conference for a week, Henry is free to concentrate on planning a gourmet evening for a group of prospective Japanese investors in the town but gets side-tracked when he sees supposedly long dead villain Vince Palmer, now using an assumed name. Palmer comes clean but Henry is bribed with the offer of retirement provided that he keeps quiet. The dilemma weighs heavily on his mind and he is late for the Japanese evening,but Margaret steps into the breach and turns it into a success and events are taken out of his hands regarding Palmer even though it ...

Henry investigates when charter pilot Guy Featherstone is found shot in his office. The place is crawling with edible snails, which Featherstone and his co-pilot Bentley exported for businessman - and former drug smuggler - Leonard Roston. Fisher is convinced that drugs are again being smuggled and makes a fool of himself on television but dog hairs on the corpse links the airline to a nearby boarding kennel and a racket to evade quarantine, and a call to Featherstone's doctor wraps up the case for Henry.

Fisher's 'research' project sends Henry and Sophia Cambridge to the nearby village of Wychwold, allegedly to assess public opinion of the police. However, Henry guesses - rightly - that this is Fisher's way of getting him to investigate the suspicious death of Dilip Patel, a philanthropist about to turn the ailing country club into a public leisure centre. Henry arrests the culprit and visits a culinary heroine whilst Steve solves a burglary from the restaurant.

With Fisher on a week's vacation Henry wants to use the time to perfect his passion-fruit sorbet. However his love-lorn dry cleaner Alec involves him in rescuing his fiancee from her crazed ex-partner and he has to help Steve, who keeps getting arrested due to a dodgy friend from the past.

Henry investigates a ram-raid at Ernest Drummond's wine warehouse whilst Margaret acts as caretaker for another wine importer, George Porter, married to her old school friend Rosie, after George has been run over. George once worked for Drummond and Margaret uncovers a complicated scam involving George and several worthies, one of whom - fortunately for the Crabbes - is the rival restauranteur who sent an officious health inspector to close down Pie in the Sky.

The dismembered body of Claudette Thierry, who went missing eighteen years previously, is dug up on farmland and French detective Marianne Dupont is brought in to help Henry re-open the enquiry. At the time Fisher, then an inspector, convicted labourer Gary Bourne who confessed to the murder but Henry and Marianne start to doubt his guilt and suspect that he is covering up for a dead friend.

Level Earth conservationists target the chief engineer of a new motorway link road and disable a bull-dozer. Told to catch them Henry finds that the protesters number some very respectable people including Margaret and Henderson, who is sheltering the leading activist.When he discovers evidence that a thuggish security boss has been sending heavies to intimidate the protesters Henry gets the chance to put one over on the construction company and Fisher and strike his blow for free speech.