Pie in the Sky Episode Rating Graph

Margaret and Henderson side with Reynard the Fox in opposing a new bypass, while Henry must question his loyalties.

Di Crabbe and DS Cambridge are assigned to investigate a spate of garden thefts carried out while the owners are away for a few days. It's not just a few plants that are being stolen - whole gardens are being stripped. The only person appearing to benefit is landscape designer Alan Wellbeloved, who becomes the prime suspect for the robberies. Returning home, Henry is horrified to discover that Margaret has hired Wellbeloved to redesign the restaurant's back garden to provide an outdoor dining area.

In a moment of weakness famous cookery writer Hilary Smallwood has given her unscrupulous nephew Colin a Power of Attorney. He has sold her house and put her into a retirement home; now he is trying to steal her recently written memoirs. Hilary calls on Henry Crabbe and her lifelong friend Seymour to help. Meantime there is friction behind the scenes in the restaurant between Steve and John.

Charles Rider, a wine-loving regular at Pie in the Sky, is being threatened. It turns out he is really Joseph Webb, an ex-burglar turned supergrass, and now in witness protection. His collection includes many valuable bottles of wine, some of them stolen property and formerly owned by a bent policeman. His cronies have tracked Webb down and want the most priceless bottle back. So Rider comes to Henry Crabbe for help. Can Crabbe restore justice while keeping his friend safe?

As Henry mysteriously loses his sense of smell he is intrigued when Fisher seems obsessed with arresting tyre exporter Peter Watson and suspects that Fisher, about to divorce his wife, is having an affair with Mrs. Watson. In fact she has discovered that her husband is defrauding her charity and is using Fisher to trap him. Having seen the case through Henry, feeling used by Fisher to catch Watson, resigns from the police and immediately regains his sense of smell. With Gary turning down the offer of work at another kitchen, Henry and his staff and colleagues have every reason to drink to the continuing success of Pie in the Sky.

Fisher drags Crabbe down to the West Country to investigate the apparent murder of an undercover woman police officer. While Henry is away a burst pipe causes havoc in the restaurant's kitchen.

The girlfriend of Henry's dry cleaner is kidnapped by a psychotic ex-lover.

The large family of much-married Irishwoman Kit Kelly book the restaurant for a wedding banquet for her and her new husband, American television writer Byron De Goris. Byron's briefcase is stolen from his hotel and Henry is suspicious of his reaction and even more so when Margaret tells him that the groom is not Byron De Goris but his friend James Jackson. Margaret had known them both thirty years earlier and discovers that Byron killed himself and James assumed his identity. Henry has to find out why.

The 'Happy Ploughman' food chain has won the franchise for the Police canteen, but is being subjected to deliberate vandalism. An obvious suspect is Flora McKee, a local baker who was not only rejected as a supplier to the firm, but was upset by improper advances made to her by its manager, Geoff Reece. Spurred on by Fisher, Henry tracks down the culprit and solves an old mystery into the bargain.

Crabbe has to join ACC Fisher and DS Cambridge on a management development seminar, but Fisher is having a crisis of confidence in 'The Job' and after a rave review, 'Pie' has customers queuing at the door - could this be Crabbe's chance to leave the Force and concentrate on cooking?

Fisher's younger daughter has left home after a row and thrown in her lot with a group of squatters. He asks Crabbe to find the girl and try and persuade her to return home. Henderson has bought a new field to add to his market garden, but is horrified to find that it has been invaded by travellers. He appeals to Henry for help, whereupon Henry finds that the two cases have a common thread.

Henderson's neighbour finds a dismembered corpse, which may prove the innocence of an imprisoned man.

DI Crabbe's first job with his new team of PC Guthrie and WPC Morton is to guard a new housing development which has been subjected to vandalism. Nearby villagers claim that one of the houses is built in the path of a centuries old right of way. Henderson is in trouble for growing and selling varieties of tomatoes not approved by the E.E.C. And the new waitress in the restaurant gets the cold shoulder from Gary, who is missing the recently departed Nicola.

Fisher sends Henry and the squad to a meat factory where animal rights protesters are demonstrating against the owner,Mr. Trubb's use of veal in his Trubbs' Thunderbolt sausages. However, Henry finds to his surprise that the sausages contain soya and are wholly meat-free. Margaret, meanwhile, is concerned when her friend Julia, a wealthy widow, falls for a pilot much younger than herself and agrees to finance a bucket shop for him.

Henry and his team are called to a private boarding school where police Commander Colin Stilwell's son Alex has been beaten up by local youths. Henry initially encounters a wall of insular hostility from the establishment before Alex points him to another pupil, who has blackmailed the Chemistry teacher into manufacturing Ecstasy tablets, which he is selling around the school. Gary meanwhile creates a new blend of mustard and attracts the attention of a large food manufacturer who offer to market it. However, they want to alter the recipe, making it taste more bland, whereupon Gary, taking a leaf from Henry's book, puts his culinary principles first and tells them that the deal is off.

A narcotics investigation ends in a bitten hand for Fisher, and Henry finds a new source of escargots.

The Chen family appear to be victims of racial harassment when their Chinese takeaway is set fire to but widowed Mr. Chen will not go to the police so his daughter Mei asks Henry for help, It turns out that Chen is a gambler deeply in debt to a restauranteur in London's Chinatown who has been has been threatening him for the money he owes. When Pie in the Sky makes it to the final of the Great British Grub contest being held in London, Henry uses the trip to visit Chinatown and act as go-between. A winner and a loser return to Middleton come the end of the day.

As Fisher launches a campaign to make the police more popular with young people a boy called Nicky comes to Pie in the Sky, claiming he is there for work experience. Henry uses him in the kitchen and he impresses everyone but then the till is robbed and Nicky, who was not sent by any school, goes missing. His mother last saw him a week earlier, the night an off-licence was robbed by a violent teenage gang. Henry tracks Nicky down to a childhood haunt and finds out that he was bullied into joining the gang and now regrets it, which he proves by leading them into a police trap.

Henry Crabbe (Richard Griffiths) is posted to guard a jury deliberating in a fraud case, who have been sequestered in a ghastly hotel. Crabbe has to find out who is intimidating the jurors, and how the villain is getting to them. Meanwhile he comes to the aid of the hotel's talented cook (John Thomson) who is cruelly oppressed by the jobsworth manager. Back at Crabbe's restaurant an obnoxious customer is giving new waitress Sally (Marsha Thomason) a hard time.

Henry lets Hooperman escape, and Fisher takes the opportunity to suspend his retirement.

When Fisher allocates Henry to guard Sasha Wilkes,due to testify against her gangster husband, in the police 'safe house',D.C.I. Harding,who had expected the job,is resentful. Sasha is initially hostile but,won over by Henry's cooking,comes to confide in him. Harding uses a drug pusher called Vicky, who once knew Henderson, to discredit Henry and also discloses the safe house's location to Wilkes. Henry averts disaster and parts as friends with Sasha but wonders if they were used as bait by Fisher because he already suspected Harding.

Liz claims the money is winnings from a bet and Henry releases her but notes that Jerry too has a healthy bank balance and surmises he was trading inside information for cash. Tony apologizes to Henry but tries to push Bob into accepting the take-over and Henry's mystery man proves to be a private eye, since Tony has been fixing races and the Jockey Club have hired him to get proof. Henry believes Tony got Jerry to nobble his horses and killed Ben when he found out. He has the correct motive but the wrong suspect and it's Margaret who literally stumbles on the real killer and has a close call with them. Meanwhile Nicola is annoyed when a spoilt school-friend appears to be making a play for Gary, though she is actually trying to poach him for her restaurant - unsuccessfully.

There's a spate of burglaries, the local police station's closed down and the great and good of Middleton, headed by Mr. Chukky Chicken' Barry Wilkes, want Crabbe to catch the thief, popularly believed to be teenager Karl Elves or 'Pikey'. To their dismay, Crabbe is much more interested in pike than 'Pikey'.

Henry has to solve a series of thefts from lorries and gets unexpected help from private security firm Troubleshooters. Their accuracy is such that he is suspicious of how they came to know of the crimes and believes that there is a possible informer within police ranks feeding them information for a reward. Troubleshooters are due to play the police eleven in an important football match. Both teams boast an ex-professional, in the police team's case Kirk Flowerbridge, who has a murky past and a liking for the drink. Fisher tasks Henry with minding Kirk and keeping him sober for the match. In the process of helping Kirk,Henry gets to identify the informer.