Pie In The Sky

Pie in the Sky was a light-heartedpolice drama starring Richard Griffiths and Maggie Steed, created by Andrew Payne and broadcast in five series on BBC1 between 13 March 1994 and 17 August 1997 as well as being syndicated on other channels in other countries, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The series departs slightly from other police dramas in that the protagonist, Henry Crabbe, while still being an on-duty policeman (much against his will), is also the head chef of the title restaurant set in the fictional town of Middleton and county of Westershire.














Detective Inspector Henry Crabbe is a long-serving police officer in the fictional county of Westershire. Although very much his own man and an independent thinker, he is not a maverick, nor has he any particular neuroses; indeed, Crabbe is a highly intelligent, gentle and thoughtful man of high moral principle. On the other hand he does have one passion in life ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ food ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ and he dreams of retiring from the police to run his own restaurant serving good English fare. However, as the most outstanding detective in his department, his superiors ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ in particular Assistant Chief Constable Freddie Fisher ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ are reluctant to allow him to leave.

The first episode (The Best of Both Worlds) opens with Crabbe, after twenty-five years in the force, just seven weeks away from retirement when he finds himself close to catching high-profile fraudster Dudley Hooperman (played by Michael Kitchen), whom he has been trailing for years. While making his escape (with ┬ú3ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£4 million worth of stolen treasury bills) Hooperman shoots Crabbe in the leg, which, although a relatively minor injury, consolidates Crabbe's desire to retire on his police pension and open his own restaurant in the fictional town of Middleton ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ Pie in the Sky, technically owned by his wife Margaret, although Henry is the main chef. (Much to Henry's disgust, Margaret has no feeling whatever for food, seeing it as nothing more than fuel, and has a partiality for bars of chocolate and ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ horror of horrors, in Henry's eyes ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ prawn cocktail flavour crisps). However, during his "final" case, an investigation into police corruption, he is tricked into appearing to take a bribe. Although Crabbe himself is entirely innocent, the circumstances enable his superior, A.C.C. Fisher, effectively to blackmail Crabbe into continuing to take on occasional cases as required, threatening to re-open the inquiry if Crabbe disagrees. Thus Crabbe has, in Fisher's own words, the best of both worlds ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ still investigating the cases that Fisher puts his way while at the same time cooking back at Pie in the Sky.

Between his first love ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ cooking ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ and being constantly called back on duty by Fisher, Henry finds that he's not going to fulfil his dream in peace. Prowlers, sudden deaths, retrieving rebellious daughters, missing lovers, psychics and fear of the restaurant critic are all elements Henry has to deal with as well as creating his signature steak and kidney pie ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ containing oysters and said to be addictive.