Pie in the Sky: The Complete Collection

Satisfy your appetite for comedy and mystery by helping yourself to all five series of this popular, lighthearted BBC police drama. Although Detective Inspector Henry Crabbe (Richard Griffiths, Harry Potter) has retired to open his dream restaurant, his old boss keeps his plate full with tricky cases.

Detective Inspector Henry Crabbe (Richard Griffiths, Harry Potter, The History Boys) has been a policeman for 25 years, but he's craving a change. Crabbe finally leaves the force and opens his dream restaurant, Pie in the Sky, with his penny-pinching accountant wife (Maggie Steed, Shine on Harvey Moon). He hopes to while away his retirement serving up his favorite dishes, but his old boss (Malcolm Sinclair, Casino Royale) puts his plans on the back burner, keeping Crabbe's plate full with tricky cases.
In these five complete series Griffiths gives a "brilliantly understated performance" (The Times, U.K.) in the public television hit that's been called "an enjoyably British mix of character comedy and murder mystery with a light touch" (MSN Entertainment). Guest stars include Michael Kitchen (Foyle's War), Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings), Pete Postlethwaite (In the Name of the Father), Julian Fellowes (Monarch of the Glen), Keeley Hawes (Ashes to Ashes), Jane Wymark (Midsomer Murders), Kelly Reilly (Sherlock Holmes), and Nicola Walker (Touching Evil, MI-5).

Season 1
The Best of Both Worlds - After 25 years in the police force, DI Henry Crabbe dreams of retiring to open a restaurant, but neither his accountant wife nor his Chief Constable are enthusiastic about the idea.

The Truth will Out - DI Henry Crabbe is about to open his new restaurant, the Pie in the Sky, when he is called in to track down a missing police officer who has some sensitive information about the proceeds of a bullion robbery.

An Innocent Man - A surveillance team is moving into the Pie in the Sky to spy on millionaire entrepreneur Duncan Spellar. The Fraud Squad suspect that he is about to bribe an MP to help secure a railway franchise, but Crabbe suspects a set-up.

Once a Copper - Crabbe is preparing for an important function when he recognizes Vincent Palmer, a robber who supposedly died in a car accident in Morocco, and is soon side-tracked into finding out the truth about this case.

A Shot in the Dark - A partner in a small air-taxi firm exporting snails to France is murdered after a break-in at the aerodrome. The dead man's girlfriend claims that he thought his partner was cheating him, and Crabbe finds him uncooperative. The trail leads to a reformed drugs trafficker, who is now a successful snail-breeder. ACC Fisher is convinced that there is a drugs connection, but Crabbe has doubts.

Undesirable Elements - Crabbe is sent off on a research project for ACC Fisher to evaluate police services. The first case to be evaluated is ostensibly the accidental death of an Asian businessman. Neither the local chief superintendent nor a businessman who met the man on the day he died are very forthcoming, and Crabbe soon suspects a racial element. Back at the restaurant, Steve solves the mystery of the disappearing knives.

Passion Fruit Fool - Crabbe takes time out from developing the perfect fruit sorbet to look into the disappearance of the local laundryman's girlfriend. Meanwhile a face from Steve's crooked past turns up.

A Matter of Taste - Crabbe, plagued by a planning officer, investigates a ram-raid at a wine merchant's warehouse.

Who Only Stand and Wait - The body of a French girl is discovered, forcing the reopening of a twenty-year-old murder case originally investigated by Crabbe and Fisher.

Endangered Species - Crabbe is called on to arrest the ringleader of a group of conservationists protesting at the site of a proposed new road. The protestors include his vegetable supplier and his own wife, Margaret.

Season 2
Episode 1: Hard Cheese
A peeping tom peeps one time too many-on the wife of a senior police officer, no less-and ACC Fisher calls on Crabbe to make an arrest. Crabbe sniffs out a suspect, but the case starts to crumble after he learns that the man has more on his plate than mere peeping.

Episode 2: Brown Bread
Crabbe experiences the restaurateur's worst nightmare when a customer dies in the restroom. Things get even more complicated when the body disappears. Crabbe and Sergeant Cambridge manage to track down the man's relatives, but they soon realize that the deception has only just begun.

Episode 3: The Policeman's Daughter
ACC Fisher orchestrates a police drug raid on a home where his own estranged daughter is partying with friends. The young woman goes missing soon after, and Fisher gives Crabbe the job of tracking her down.

Episode 4: The One That Got Away
When an old friend is arrested for murdering his fiancée, Crabbe and wife Margaret smell something fishy. Even after the man breaks down and confesses to the crime, Crabbe suspects a conspiracy, pinning his hopes on scant evidence.

Episode 5: Dead Right
A celebrated psychic starts to get death threats from an unknown source. Pressured to investigate, ACC Fisher foists the case onto Crabbe. As the detective closes in on a solution for the psychic, she in turn begins to solve a case for him.

Episode 6: Black Pudding
Elderly and ornery, Hilary Smallwood is a food writer whom Crabbe regards highly. Her nephew is also very admiring-of her estate, which he believes will fetch a fortune. He's desperate to get his hands on her unpublished memoirs, but she resists his efforts.

Episode 7: Swan in His Pride
When the body of a young policewoman is fished out of the river, Crabbe delves into her last assignment. She had gone undercover to befriend the prime suspect in a murder case, even becoming romantically involved with him. Crabbe's investigation, however, encounters opposition from the other detectives.

Episode 8: The Mild Bunch
Two senior citizen sisters launch a crime spree around town, aided and abetted by their nephew and his girlfriend. More of a danger, though, is a wheelchair-bound police officer, armed with a gun and awaiting the prison release of the man who shot him. Crabbe strives to solve one crime and prevent another.

Episode 9: The Mystery of Pikey
When a wealthy customer's home is robbed while he and his family dine at the restaurant, suspicion falls on a young motorcycle rider. The teenager has a history of run-ins with the law, but Crabbe suspects that the burglary might have been an inside job.

Episode 10: Lemon Twist
After a leading food critic writes a good review, business takes off at Pie in the Sky. Margaret makes a few changes at the restaurant while Crabbe attends a three-day management development seminar. However, they may pay a price for success.

Series 3
Episode 1: Money Talks
Understaffed at the restaurant and under pressure from ACC Fisher for quick results on a surveillance case, Crabbe finds an out-of-work chef who may solve both his problems. The death of an arch criminal also gives him hope that early retirement is just a bit nearer.

Episode 2: Game Pie
ACC Fisher attends a pheasant shoot with fellow senior officers, and Crabbe handles the catering for the event. When Fisher fires a shot at a low-flying bird that appears to kill one of the estate hands, Crabbe is ordered to investigate.

Episode 3: Irish Stew
An American writer marries into a boisterous Irish family, who book Pie in the Sky for the wedding feast. After the author's briefcase is stolen from his hotel room, Crabbe learns that the new husband has lost documents that he very much wants to keep secret.

Episode 4: Doggett's Coat and Badge
At a celebratory lunch for a retiring police officer (alas, not Crabbe), DCI Doggett takes a keen interest in a fellow diner, one of the restaurant's regulars. Intrigued, Crabbe decides to look into the link between the two men.

Episode 5: This Other Eden
Someone is stealing trees and shrubs from the yards of wealthy homes in the area. The police call in the National Horticultural Division, but Crabbe has an inside track for finding the green-thumbed thieves.

Episode 6: Coddled Eggs
Everywhere he turns, Crabbe feels bossed around. An officious food inspector tells him he must improve hygiene standards at Pie in the Sky or be shut down. And at his other job, Det. Supt. Chalmers dictates how to run his investigation of a stolen car ring.

Series 4
Episode 1: Devils on Horseback (Part One)
A day at the races for the Crabbes turns sour when a stable boy is found dead. The murder investigation focuses on Larkhill Stables, run by the ill-tempered Tony Bishop, and Bishop's Cider, run by his brother, Bob.

Episode 2: Devils on Horseback (Part Two)
A second tragedy spurs on the race to catch the killer, and Margaret finds herself in the thick of it.

Episode 3: Chinese Whispers
A series of attacks on a local Chinese restaurant seems like a case of racial prejudice, but Crabbe suspects other forces are at play. Meanwhile, Pie in the Sky enters the Great British Grub Competition.

Episode 4: New Leaf
Crabbe must guard a key witness until she can testify against her crime-boss husband in court. By taking on the assignment, however, the inspector makes an enemy of the police officer who had been running the case.

Episode 5: Breaking Bread
To Crabbe's dismay, a new catering company wins the franchise for the police canteen. But someone hates the caterer even more than he does-and is sabotaging its operations to put it out of business.

Episode 6: Gary's Cake
After armed robbers raid Pie in the Sky, the investigating detective suspects an inside job. ACC Fisher seeks to head off any potentially embarrassing press coverage, while Crabbe decides to carry out his own investigation.

Season 5, Episode 1: Squashed Tomatoes
Original Air Date-29 June 1997
Henry is appointed as the head of the Public Duties Squad, which essentially sells its services to the private sector, and, instead of the trusty D.S. Cambridge,he has two new staff members, W.P.C. Jane Morton and P.C Ed Guthrie, both of whom appear to have been side-lined in the past. Their first task is to guard a new housing estate which has been subject to vandalism. Local villagers claim that it is in the way of a centuries old right of way and, as usual, Henry has to use his diplomacy to form a resolution. On the home front there is trouble for Henderson when he is accused of growing tomatoes which do not conform to E.E.C. regulations and Henry has to sort out Gary, who is unhappy that waitress Nicola has left and is less than cordial to her replacement, Sally.

Season 5, Episode 2: Ugly Customers
Original Air Date-6 July 1997
Henry's team go to the garish Luxor Hotel to protect the jury in the long-running fraud trial of Marcus Benson, accused of embezzling the Police Benevolent Fund. Several of the jurors are intimidated, including the reasonable foreman,Eric Dunfries. Henry discovers that the pretentious manager is a friend of Benson and uses the fact to make him give scope to Andrew, his talented but put-upon chef. The saboteur, in fact, turns out to be working against, and not for, Benson, whilst back at the restaurant Sally learns to get the better of a sex pest.

Season 5, Episode 3: Pork Pies
Original Air Date-13 July 1997
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.

Season 5, Episode 4: Cutting the Mustard
Original Air Date-20 July 1997
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.

Season 5, Episode 5: Return Match
Original Air Date-27 July 1997
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.

Season 5, Episode 6: The Apprentice
Original Air Date-3 August 1997
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.

Season 5, Episode 7: In the Smoke
Original Air Date-10 August 1997
The Crabbes holiday in London in a flat owned by ex-policeman Nick Spencer whilst he is in America on business. However Margaret finds his packed suitcase under the bed and hears an answer-machine message from his daughter warning that her violent ex-con boyfriend Danny is on his way to see him. Henry discovers Nick in hiding whilst Margaret discovers Danny's corpse in the dust-bin, killed in self-defence by Nick. Henry's loyalty is put to the test, as is the patience of Sally and Gary when the agency staff turn out to be a quarrelsome married couple.

Season 5, Episode 8: Smelling of Roses
Original Air Date-17 August 1997
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.

Directed by Martin Hutchings, David Innes Edwards, Lawrence Gordon Clark, Colin Gregg
Written by Andrew Payne, John Milne, Richard Maher < br> Produced by Jacky Stoller, Chrissy Skinns
Executive Produced by Allan McKeown, Joanna Willett, Ken Baker
Original Music by Colin Towns
Cinematography by Paul Bond
Film Editing by Jeremy Strachan, Nick McPhee
Costume Design by Pat Godfrey