The Best Episodes of Crown Court Season 2

Rita Mattson is cross examined by James Elliot QC. She is rattled when he claims her husband was threatening to leave her for a younger woman. Brig. Sir Ferdinand Tennyson-Pusey gives evidence about how he believed gun trick worked.

Director: Mark Cullingham

Writer: David Fisher

Count Alucard, a Dracula-themed illusionist, is shot dead on stage when a stunt involving a gun goes horribly wrong. His assistant (his wife, Rita) is accused of having tampered with the gun, killing him after discovering yet another of his affairs. did she purposely kill her husband, or was the gun faulty?

Director: Mark Cullingham

Writer: David Fisher

Lingerie model Kathleen Nolan gives evidence of the events leading to the death of Norman Mattson, at the 501 Club. Rita Mattson takes the stand and claims in the 8 years of her marriage she never knew how the silver bullet trick worked.

Director: Mark Cullingham

Writer: David Fisher

A retired lawyer decides to defend himself in court after he is charged with shoplifting.

Director: Gordon Flemyng

Writer: David Blunt

George Robins is a second hand car dealer and well-known ladies man. He has disappeared. Blood stains were found at his country cottage. A local car thief, Harold Barnes, is charged with his murder, but Barnes claims that Robins has not been murdered but has faked his own death so that his wife can claim a large insurance pay-out. The prosecution will try to prove that Barnes has indeed murdered Robins even though no body has ever been found.

Director: Bob Hird

Writer: Paul Wheeler

Detective Inspector Robert takes the stand to describe the investigation into the disappearance of George Robins and the arrest of Harold Barnes. Dr. John Gould gives a breakdown of the forensic evidence and the link to Barnes.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

P.C. Kershaw takes the stand to give details of the arrest of the two defendants. With Mrs Palmer evidence tainted there are now doubts that John Dempsey was the second man. Walter Sissons QC also queries Kershaw's impartiality.

Director: Richard Doubleday

Writer: Paul Wheeler

A man is left paralyzed after being shot on his own doorstep following an argument about a betting slip. Two brothers living next door stand accused of attempted murder but claim the gun went off by accident during a scuffle.

Director: Brian Parker

Writer: Sean Hignett

An estranged wife has accused her husband of rape. The husband denies the charge and claims that his wife has made up the allegation in anger after he refused to increase her maintenance payments.

Director: Gordon Flemyng

Writer: David Blunt, Nicholas Mander

Defendant Harold Barnes alleges that George Robins is still alive. Prosecutor Jonathan Fry QC causes a stir when he calls Robins as a witness. Barnes' wife Catherine denies the she had an affair with Robins and alibis her husband.

Director: Bob Hird

Writer: Paul Wheeler

Alan Collings fiancee Pauline Ellis gives evidence about the long running feud between the father's Alan and Brian and how family party ended in threats. Brian Collings takes the stand in his defence but is unable to produce an alibi.

Director: Howard Baker

Writer: Scott Forbes

The effects of hallucinogenic drugs provide a theme in this case. Peta Best, a leading sixties fashion photographer, has been found dead in her studio with a cloth pushed down her throat. Natasha Marlow, a young model who was with Peta Best at the time of her death, is charged with murder but claims that herself and the photographer were 'freaking out' after an L.S.D. session and she would therefore have been incapable of committing murder. Light is shed on the sleazy world of pornography as the trial progresses.

Director: Alan Gibson

Writer: Bruce Stewart

Rose Messiter is cross examined by Helen Tate. She accuses Messiter of being a witness to the original Will and wouldn't be provided for. Under pressure, from Tate, Messiter admits she wrote the second Will but denies it was forgery.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Natasha Marlow is cross examinined by Jonathan Fry QC after it was revealed she threatened to kill Peta Best while high on drugs. The defence called Sister Joanna Forbush but her evidence, based on Marlow's therapy, proved problematic.

Director: Alan Gibson

Writer: Bruce Stewart

The first day's proceedings came to halt when prosecution witness Madge Gorman failed to show. When Mrs. Gorman appears, today, she has an obvious black eye, so the judge warns her should she change her original evidence.

Director: Brian Parker

Writer: Sean Hignett

Lady Crittenden is cross examined by Stephen Harvesty following her admission, in court, that Lapointe is the maiden name of Sir Tom's mother. Bernard Crittenden attempts to show that Raoul Lapointe's birth certificate is a forgery.

Director: Bill Podmore

Writer: Bruce Stewart

Fulchester's notorious Curl brothers are accused of demanding money with menaces and GBH. The court will hear that the brothers had been conducting a reign of terror over Fulchester's club and bar owners through a Chicago-style protection racket. After refusing to pay the brothers for protection, a number of club owners suffered injuries ranging from falls down stairs, feet burned with electric fires and attacks with hammers. Indeed, one of the brother's own enforcers has disappeared and is believed to have been buried under the new M16 motorway foundations. The defense insist that the brothers are legitimate businessmen.

Director: Bob Hird

Writer: David Fisher

The second day of the trial of brothers George and Arnold Curl. The pair are accused of running a Fulchester protection racket. Much of the evidence comes from Stephen Telfer, a club owner who is now in a coma following a savage beating.

Director: Bob Hird

Writer: David Fisher

Facing a second day under cross examination, George Curl claims he found religion while in Reading Gaol. However his brother Arnold gets rattled when questioned about hiring Arther McGraw to injure Stephen Telfer.

Director: Bob Hird

Writer: David Fisher

Before his death a year ago, a renowned artist wrote a will in which he bequeathed his estate to his favourite model, Rose Messiter. The will is being challenged by his business partner Brenda Kingsley, who had been named as sole beneficiary in an earlier will written by the artist. She claims that at the time of writing the second will, the artist was not of sound mind. Ms Kingsley is now challenging the second will and is laying claim to the artist's estate.

Director: Richard Doubleday

Writer: Peter Wildeblood

A 15 year old schoolgirl has given birth to an illegitimate baby. Within a week of the birth, the body of the baby has been found buried in the girl's back garden by police acting on a tip-off. The schoolgirl's father (the baby's grandfather) has been charged with the murder of the baby after it was discovered that the infant had been strangled.

Director: Mark Cullingham

Writer: David Fisher

The previous day ended sensationally with both Dominic Collins' wife and daughter confessing to killing the baby. Barrister Helen Tate accuses Mary of researching the Infanticide Act in bid to get her father off a murder charge.

Director: Mark Cullingham

Writer: David Fisher

A 21 year old man has been blinded after an attacker flung acid into his face. Was the attack carried out by his own cousin following a family feud?

Director: Howard Baker

Writer: Scott Forbes

Photographer Alleyn Griffin gives evidence about Natasha Marlowe erratic behaviour at the party. Marlowe takes the stand, in her own defence, and confesses that she has taken so much L.S.D that she has little memory of the night.

Director: Alan Gibson

Writer: Bruce Stewart

A pensioner is mugged in a dark alley. two young black men are identified as the muggers in a local youth club. However, the defense claims that the identity parade was not carried out according to correct police procedure.

Director: Richard Doubleday

Writer: Paul Wheeler