Search - Kavanagh Q.C. - A Sense of Loss on DVD

"I expect my lawyer to have fire in his belly."

Mary Whipple | New England | 08/24/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Incorporating episodes 4 - 6 of the second season of Kavanagh QC (Spring, 1996), these two DVDs continue the character development of Kavanagh (the brilliant John Thaw) and show him at his legal best. In this series Thaw is one of the Queen's Counsel, a family man with two children, and therefore a man with personal concerns that the unforgettable Inspector Morse (in a series which also starred John Thaw) never had. The mysteries in the Kavanagh series are better plotted than the Morse mysteries, though they lack the intimacy of a mentor/protégé relationship and the overall charm which makes the Morse series (with Sgt. Lewis) so memorable. The legal proceedings and the conclusions are more thoughtful and better resolved, and though "justice" is always meted out in the courtroom, at least technically, Kavanagh and the viewer are not always satisfied with the end result.



Directed by Colin Gregg, who also directed a number of the Morse episodes, the three mysteries here completely grip the viewer's imagination. In "A Sense of Loss," Kavanagh is defending a young man who has confessed to having killed a policewoman, seemingly an open-and-shut case, but with several surprising twists. In "A Stranger in the Family," a young man suffers serious injuries, including brain injuries, in an industrial marine accident, and his parents are suing for hundred of thousands of pounds. The barge company, the managers, and employees have secrets to hide, some of which explain mysterious findings regarding the victim's health. In "Job Satisfaction," a wealthy young man and his sister are accused by their half-brother of having killed their parents, the two defendants supporting each other against any suggestion of wrong-doing.



As in other Kavanagh episodes, many revelations regarding Kavanagh, his wife Lizzie (Lisa Harrow), and their family keep the personal drama as high as the courtroom drama. In "A Sense of Loss," Lizzie's father visits and keeps the family up at night and emotionally on edge with his late-night partying with his new girlfriend. A family dinner with the girlfriend is a classic. In "Job Satisfaction," Kavanagh's father has a stroke and is hospitalized, and his mother collapses. His loving relationship with his parents comes under scrutiny, just as the relationship between his clients and the parents they killed are being scrutinized in court. Among the continuing characters, fatuous Jeremy Aldermartin (Nicholas Jones) proposes to a colleague, a beautiful former employee with whom Kavanagh had problems gets rehired, and Julia Piper (Anna Chancellor) considers taking a job in Africa.



The characters all continue to grow within this marvelous mystery series, and the accolades for actor John Thaw continue to accumulate. Smart direction, unusually clever mysteries, dramatic courtroom scenes, and outstanding photography make this a particularly fine BBC series. n Mary Whipple

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