Original title
Wycliffe
Released
7/24/1994
Origin country
GB
Genre
Crime, Drama
Production companies
HTV, Red Rooster Film & Television Entertainment
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
5
Number of episodes
36
Wycliffe is a British television series, based on W. J. Burley's novels about Detective Superintendent Charles Wycliffe. It was produced by HTV and broadcast on the ITV Network, following a pilot episode on 7 August 1993, between 24 July 1994 and 5 July 1998. The series was filmed in Cornwall, with a production office in Truro. Music for the series was composed by Nigel Hess and was awarded the Royal Television Society award for the best television theme. Wycliffe is played by Jack Shepherd, assisted by DI Doug Kersey and DI Lucy Lane. Each episode deals with a murder investigation. In the early series, the stories are adapted from Burley's books and are in classic whodunit style, often with quirky characters and plot elements. In later seasons, the tone becomes more naturalistic and there is more emphasis on internal politics within the police.
A bookshop owner in Penzance is brutally murdered, and Wycliffe discovers all is not well among the members of one of the area's most respected families.
Wycliffe clashes with his superiors over the way he's handling a gruesome double murder case, after a building society manager and his wife are gunned down.
In series one Wycliffe is called in to head up several murder investigations, delving into each case to discover the culprits and the true nature of those involved in the deaths.
A young female archaeology student is found naked in bed with gunshot wounds, and lies in a critical condition in hospital. As surgeons try to save her life, Wycliffe digs into the life of a famous novelist, who claims his life is at risk. Then a man is shot dead while walking his dog on the beach, and Wycliffe is under pressure to act quickly if he is to prevent another murder.
When the body of an amateur flautist, Tony Miller, shot by his own gun, is found on the secluded estate of Lord & Lady Bottrell, it is assumed that he killed himself. But Wycliffe senses there is more to the case than first meets the eye. As he unravels the dead man's last days, another mystery is revealed - the disappearance of a maid from the Bottrell household. Family feuds and illicit relationships are uncovered - and then another body is found.
A Cornish undertaker suddenly disappears. The missing man's body is found, washed up on the rocks, and a murder inquiry begins. A link is suspected between the undertaker's death and a strange local summer ritual, and the mystery ends with a figure strapped to a burning wheel plunging over the cliffs.
Wycliffe is brought in when an elderly bedridden woman is found dead, her body locked in a freezer, and a pregnant teenager, Hilda Clemo, from a bizarre family vanishes from her Cornish village. As fears for her safety grow, Wycliffe questions the family, whose feuding uncovers some dark secrets. Wycliffe has to unpick the tangled web of intrigue and greed.
When the Reverend Jordan arrives at the village church, he discovers the partially clothed body of Jessica Dobell, the church cleaner, spreadeagled below the cross. A satanic cult is thought to be behind the gruesome death, but Wycliffe believes responsibility lies elsewhere. There is an air of violent hatred in the village, not all of it directed towards the dead woman.
When a fishing-boat owner, Harry Tremaine, is killed in the explosion of his fishing boat, suspicion falls on the man's son, who stands to inherit everything, but Wycliffe remains unconvinced. There's also a local developer who wants to build a marina on the quayside Tremaine owned; Tremaine's partner has been having an affair with his wife; and there is a mysterious recipient of £500 in cash from Tremaine on the first day of every month.
Wycliffe is faced with many intriguing mysteries in series two - including the hunt for an escaped prisoner, a woman found dead in a car, a body washed ashore and claimed by two different wives, a dead schoolgirl and a surfer in a deep coma.
A hunt for John Bonetti, an escaped prisoner from HMP Bodmin, takes a dramatic twist after the discovery of a body. Wycliffe and his team race against time to recapture him.
Alex Keir is distraught when his wife Alison goes missing, but Wycliffe is sceptical of his grief, until a ransome note is found. The case of apparent kidnapping then takes a dramatic turn when Mrs Keir is found dead and smelling of alcohol at the wheel of a crashed car.
Wycliffe and his team investigate the death of a man found blasted by a shotgun at a Cornish holiday home. They discover evidence of ill-feeling between the dead man and his brother-in-law.
When a man's virtually unidentifiable body is washed ashore, Wycliffe is baffled when two separate women claim it is that of their missing husbands.
When a farmer goes missing, leaving his sheep and house unattended, the local police call in Wycliffe. Discoveries of arson and bloodstains lead the team into a farming community struggling to survive.
Through her family and friends, Wycliffe tries to discover if it was suicide or murder when a schoolgirl is found dead in a science laboratory after a school disco.
When an attempt is made to steal a headless skeleton from an archaelogical dig, Wycliffe discovers an estate steeped in archaic values. The identification of the skeleton unsettles the land-owning Rawle family, whose days of sovereignty in the community are fading.
Surfer Anne Carter is found in a deep coma when she is washed ashore. The assumption that she is a victim of afreak accident have to be revised when Wycliffe and his team investigate, and uncover a host of sinister facts and conspiracies. Their task is hindered by an obvious leak to the press, which puts DI Lane in a precarious position.
In series three Wycliffe celebrates his silver wedding anniversary. As always, celebrations are interrupted by a murder investigation.
An abandoned lorry with five corpses at the ferry terminal and a man on the run bring Wycliffe's silver wedding anniversary celebration, which their children have laid on as a surprise, to an abrupt halt.
When unexplained killings rock the Bodmin community, locals become convinced that the "beast" is back.
A dead man found buried under a pile of 100-year old wood provides an intriguing case.
When a fishing boat goes down taking one of the crew with it , Kersey and Lane discover a fishing community that is struggling to survive under the strain of legislation, as well as a new competitive edge to their working relationship.
A psychiatrist's wife is murdered in a seemingly unprovoked attack. Wycliffe finds that proving a motive can be harder than catching a killer.
The discovery of a baby's body leads the team to a bizarre pagan sect.
When a magistrate known to Wycliffe is found hanged, everything pints to suicide. But Wycliffe's instincts tell him otherwise.
When a young woman is found strangled, a pathologist is struck by the similarities to a string of other unsolved murders. Wyclife and his team have to unearth 11-year old evidence to see if they can trace a link.
In series four, Wycliffe faces a raft of new murder cases and an internal investigation.
Tragic events unfold after a wedding with a bizarre guest list: the bride and groom, who have only known each other for three weeks, advertised for guests to attend the ceremony in Penzance. Next day, one of the couple is found stabbed to death in their luxurious honeymoon hotel.
A petty criminal turns into a killer. A man is stabbed to death in a pub car park by a stranger. As Wycliffe investigates, the victim turns out not to be the upstanding businessman he seemed to be.
Wycliffe and Kersey exchange strong words as they investigate a disturbing case involving the contamination of jars of baby food in a local supermarket by a blackmailer. Meanwhile, the disciplinary enquiry into Wycliffe's team continues to run its course.
Wycliffe probes the disappearance of a lone yachtswoman, whose boat is discovered scuttled on the seabed.
A dark family secret comes to light when a girl deliberately runs over a woman on a pedestrian crossing. The results of the enquiry board are revealed.
A couple facing eviction from their tied cottage are suspected of murder when the landowner is suddenly killed. Wycliffe must act quickly to identify the killer before locals take the law into their own hands.
When a local pub landlord is bludgeoned to death, Wycliffe can find few people with a good word to say about him. A police informant points the finger at the victims' former wife and her new husband, but when DI Lane mishandles the situation, Wycliffe and Kersey are forced to stage a dramatic rescue.
Pursued by the press, under the spotlight of an internal investigation, and lacking support from his superiors, Wyclife's problems multiply when an old case resurfaces, and DCC Stevens seems out to prove Wycliffe is no longer up to the job.
Wycliffe gradually recovers from his injuries and begins to take on cases again. Whilst trying to solve a number of particularly complex murders, he is also forced to defend his reputation as photographs sent to the police threaten his good name.
In a police nursing home, Wycliffe ponders the future after the attempt on his life. Meanwhile, Kersey investigates a salmon poacher's suspicious death. Acting DCI Lane is tempted to move on and up.
A prostitute tells Kersey that a customer has killed one of her colleagues.
The wife of one of Kersey's friend goes missing after an evening class and the tutor is found murdered.
A climber dies after a cliff fall and a witness claims that his climbing partner is responsible.
A Policeman is murdered and orders Wycliffe to avoid any scandal made difficult by the Officers wife was having an affair with another Officer.
Wycliffe is accused of taking bribes and is suspended.
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