HIGHLANDER: THE RAVEN
“She is immortal. A thousand years old, and she cannot die. A creature of legend, like the Raven. A thief who stole the sun and the moon. They sent a warrior to bring her back. He found her. Together, they brought back light to the world. I was a cop. To me, she was just a thief. Another day on the job. But she wasn’t. She changed my life. Changed… everything. And both of us knew, from that moment on, nothing would ever be the same…”
Though several of Highlander: The Series‘ Season Six episodes introduced potential spin-off headliners, none of them ticked all the categories that the practical investors wanted to see. It was decided that the character of Amanda, played by Elizabeth Gracen, and a long-standing favourite of fans would headline the series.
The concept of Highlander: The Raven was to see Amanda paired with a human detective. The often amoral, stick-fingered and practical Amanda would face a moral dilemma when some of her schemes – and problems within the world of Immortals – lead to the death of an innocent, Detective Claudia Hoffman (Torri Higginson) who takes a bullet meant for Amanda.
Paul Johansson was cast as Nick Wolfe, a police detective trying to find out the truth over Caludia’s death and realising that though Amanda was not the real threat, she had played a part in her demise. Nick discovers that Amanda is Immortal and disillusioned by corruption in his own department, he reluctantly finds himself drawn into Amanda’s world.
Amanda’s very long history of adversaries and Nick’s own past would provide the grist for the stories which moved between the States and Paris (as had Highlander: The Series). We are also introduced to a new supporting cast that included: Patricia Gage (as Amanda’s long-term confidant and companion Lucy Becker), Julian Richings (as Basil Morgan, an Immortal and fence of stolen property), Hannes Jaenicke (as security consultant Bert Myers) and Robert Cavanah (as Father Liam Riley, an Immortal who, like Darius, had left ‘the Game’ behind).
The show attempted to blend the idea of procedural crime drama with the added pivot of a character being Immortal. Though it had potential, the budget and tensions behind the scenes ultimately led to the series not returning for a second season.
1.1 – REBORN
EPISODE 1.1: REBORN
Written by Karen Harris
Directed by Ian Toynton
Detectives Nick Wolfe and partner Claudia Hoffman know that a string of robberies are the work of a woman who is (currently) calling herself Amanda Montrose but they’ve yet to be able to pin anything on her. She always has an alibi, often supported by her companion, Lucy.
After another successful evening spent plundering another safe, Amanda visits a local fence, ‘Cash and Carry’ Harry… but she finds he’s been murdered by someone who has raided his apartment. Wolfe and Hoffman return to Amanda’s own apartment with a search warrant, more determined than ever to bring Amanda to justice… and this time they find the gun that killed Harry. Realising she’s being framed, Amada flees.
She takes her jewels to another fence, an Immortal called Basil, but he too is shot by the same masked assailant as Harry. Basil revives but not in time to see the attacker get away… in a police car.
Amanda manages to get bail, but this time she doesn’t want to skip town for a crime she didn’t commit. Claudia remains convinced she’s guilty of murder, Nick is now less sure… However bringing a crooked cop to justice may have consequences for everyone…
Starring Elizabeth Gracen as Amanda Darieux/Montrose and Paul Johansson as Nick Wolfe
Also featuring: Patricia Gage (as Lucy Becker), Torri Higginson (as Claudia Hoffman), James Purcell (as Stanley Ferris), Julian Richings (as Basil Morgan), Michael Copeman (as Carl Magnus), Robert McClure (as David Hoffman), Hayley Lochner (as Annie Hoffman)
EPISODE 1.2 FULL DISCLOSURE
Written by James Thorpe
Directed by Peter Ellis
Refusing to go along with the cover-up over Claudia’s death, Nick has left the police-force and is finding solace at the bottom of a bottle. Though Amanda seeks him out to express her sympathies over Claudia – who died for her – Nick knows what he saw. Though he has questions on how she survived, he wants nothing to do with her. On the way out of a bar he instinctively stops a mugging and when he’s outnumbered, it’s only Amanda than saves him… though in the process she senses another Immortal, Mario Cardoza (Carlo Rota), a master assassin.
The dying mugging victim speaks a language that Amanda recognises as Navaho. Nick is convinced that with no need to kill the man, this was a ‘hit’, not a simple robbery. Nick’s ex-boss wants nothing to do with it but if he needs Amanda’s help to find the truth, so be it.
The Navaho words translate to ‘Red Storm’ but what do they mean? In this case… they mean Mario will be paying Amanda a visit and Nick will be doing research on war-crimes and ‘windtalkers’. But when he finds an old photo of Amanda and Cardoza – a very old photograph from Warsaw 1952 – there are now more questions than answers. Amanda will have to tell him the truth, but will Nick believe her without her using tactics that are a little more…drastic?
Also featuring: Patricia Gage (as Lucy Becker), Ryan Black (as Johnny), Jack Burning (as Walter), Michael Copeman (as Carl Magnus), Neil Girvan (as Hitman), Roger Misquadis (as Young Walter), James Kidnie (as Johnny’s Grandfather)
EPISODE 1.3: BLOODLINES
Written by James Thorpe
Directed by Dennis Berry
No longer a cop, Nick still needs to pay the bills and takes a job with an old associate Bert Myers, acting as part of the security detail protecting a visiting politician, Denis Grady. Despite his best efforts, an assassin shoots from a nearby rooftop and when Nick corners him, the man falls to his death. However unknown to Nick, the attacker is an Immortal who ultimately revives… his ‘body’ disappearing from the morgue.
Amanda denies recognising the man in Nick’s photo of the body – but she’s lying. His name is Morgan Kenworth (Cedric Smith). She met him over a century ago in the New York of the 1890s when she was involved with his adopted son, William, a young man who wanted to change workers’ conditions in the factories. However a ‘raid’ by the police in the pocket of a local corrupt politician leads to William’s death and Morgan being shot. .. and reviving.
Morgan makes another attempt on Grady’s life and both Amanda and Nick pursue their separate leads, trying to find reasoning for Morgan’s actions. It turns out that Grady is the direct descendant of the police captain who killed William… and she comes from a family that have been targeted down the years ever since…
Also featuring: Patricia Gage (as Lucy Becker), Hannes Jaenicke (as Bert Myers), Carolyn Dunne (as Denise Grady), Alan Van Sprang (as William Kenworth), Patrick Patterson (as Police Chief Grady), Desmond Ellis (as Jack Marsh), Catherine Black (as Ronette), Jean Daigle (as Reporter)
EPISODE 1.4: IMMUNITY
Written by Karen Harris
Directed by Dennis Berry
On another job for Bert, Nick is trailing a man across the city, photographing his every move to prove he’s selling secrets. The man meets a woman in an isolated courtyard and trying to re-negotiate the terms of whatever deal they have, she shoots him dead. Her name is Marta Anonesuc, an attaché to the Romanian Embassy and though Nick has her dead to rights, she simply claims diplomatic immunity.
During a shopping spree (not the five-finger discount she’d usually go for), Amanda senses another Immortal in the immediate area. It is Stefan Collier (James Kee), juggling chrome balls in one hand and wielding a sword in the other. She doesn’t know him – but he’s well-versed in her history and has been tracking her for years, assessing the right time to strike. Hiding her shopping and producing her own weapon, Amanda readies for the fight. He’s as good as he boasts and Amanda escapes – just – but she’s clearly rattled by her encounter.
Burt still needs to retrieve some of the plans that Marta has inside her consulate, but can he persuade Nick to break into the building and risk another international incident? If only Nick knew someone who was an expert at breaking and entering… someone who needed a distraction from whatever, or whoever, is on her trail.
Also featuring: Patricia Gage (as Lucy Becker), Hannes Jaenicke (as Bert Myers), Tara Rosling ( as Marta Anonesuc), Sten Eirik (as Divaj), Mark Melymick (as Gordon Norris), Conrad Bergschneider (as Jail Guard), Deborah Lobban (as Matron)
EPISODE 1.5: SO SHALL YE REAP
Written by Michael O’Mahony and Sacha Reins
Directed by Rene Bonniere
A scientist at Holman University’s Biological Research Center receives lunch from his assistant, but she may not have his best interest at heart. He finds himself choking, the phone now unplugged and a nearby window-cleaner seemingly unbothered by his plight.
Amanda visits Nick at his home asking for his assistance. An old mortal friend, Charlie (Lawrence Dane), thinks his son, Chuck – the scientist we saw – was murdered and is having no luck with getting help from the police or the FBI… they think it was an accident. Charlie, whom Amanda first met as a young man in the turbulent Prague in 1968, says his son mysteriously deleted ten years of his own research just before his death, but wouldn’t elaborate on why. Charlie may be an old man now, but he was once at the top of his game and recognises some of his younger self in Nick.
Amanda and Nick start to look into the death, but it seems Charlie may be right – they’re being watched. As they investigate they find other members of the biological team are all dead and another ‘commits suicide’ just before they arrive. But in the art of war, how much further will shadow-operatives go to protect the result of a long-gestating plan to create a mighty weapon that never needs to fire an actual bullet?
Also featuring: Matt John Evans (as Chuck Johnson Jnr.), Carl Marotte (as Young Charles), Frank Pellegrino (as Hewlitt), Chuck Shamata (as Martin Foster), Catherine Bruhier (as Chase MacAffee), Paulino Nunes (as Officer Dutton)
EPISODE 1.6: BIRTHRIGHT
Written by Frank Encarnacao
Directed by George Menedeluk
Just in case anyone was thinking that solving crimes, hanging out with ex-cops and generally saving people’s lives was affecting Amanda’s moral compass, she still has time for audacious burglaries. However her well-planned raid of an auction house is curtailed by two other intruders with a less-subtle approach to getting what they came for…
Nick believes she was involved and so do the actual police who come knocking on her door. But there’s no proof. Despite the fact that one of them, Simon Clark (Philip Akin) was supposed to have had his body pulled out of the river after being shot during his escape, the real culprits meet up later to work out a second attempt at what they were after. Simon will not tolerate another failure.
Amanda met the original owners of the brooch in the Bahamas of the 1720s when it belonged to two slaves promised their freedom in the new world, but she insists to Nick that the previous night’s thief didn’t register as an Immortal. So who IS Simon Clark and what does he want?
Also featuring: John Bourgeois (as Harmon Frost), Michael Copeman (as Carl Magnus), Desmond Campbell (as Marcel), Stephen Bogaert (as Ship’s Officer), Karen Glave (as Louise), John Ralston (as Riley Del Deegan), Kevin Rushton (as Jake), Julian Richings (as Basil Morgan)
EPISODE 1.7: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Written by Tibby Rothman
Directed by Rene Bonniere
Ray Bonita (Mark Humphrey) was a talented baseball player but convicted of killing his manager. Now he’s free and he’s going after everyone responsible for putting him away and the years of brutality he endured. He breaks into the home of the DA and murders him. His next target is the cop who investigated the case, Nick Wolfe.
Amanda has pulled out all the stops to make Nick lunch (‘all the stops’ meaning tipping only the very best takeaway restaurants) but he may be delayed as he’s spotted a tail – one who happens to be a police-officer. Furious, he confronts his old boss, Carl Magnus, who says the officer was there for Nick’s protection and admits to Nick that he knows Bonita may be coming after him.
He does, though Nick manages to avoid being shot. Bonita always insisted on his innocence, but now he’s clearly more willing to kill. With Nick and Amanda both being too ‘high-profile’ to grab the police-file from Magnus, it’s up to Lucy to show some more of her talents and help them plan a strategy.
Both Nick and Bonita visit Ray’s old team-mate, a big-name signing named Darryl Keenan, but where do his loyalties lie and who will he help?
Also featuring: Patricia Gage (as Lucy Becker), Michael Copeman (as Cark Magnus), Michael Daingerfield Hall (as Parkinson), Shary-Lee Guthrie (as Angie), Nigel Hamer (as Gatson), Andrew Jackson (as Darryl Keenan), Steven Allerick (as Tony)
EPISODE 1.8: THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER
Written by James Thorpe
Directed by George Mendeluk
While walking down a dark alley, a man is approached by a figure in military uniform. Fleeing to his car, he appears to run over the stranger and flees the scene. But when he reaches his home, the military man is waiting for him. Both men were once soldiers, but only one will leave the building alive… or, at least, remain dead. But Immortal John Ray Fielding (Michael Rhoades) may have already got what he came for…
The dead man is Donald Magnus, estranged and down-on-his-luck brother of Nick’s former police captain, Carl Magnus… and both Carl and Nick mourn his passing. When Nick finds Fielding’s old dog-tags near where Donald’s body was found, he begins to realise there’s more to the death. Meanwhile Amanda is paying her own respects at a different grave when she encounters Fielding, the first time she’s seen him since 1917 and the Western front in France. In that previous meeting she unknowingly made a terrible mistake… one that changed and cost lives. It’s one that is about to catch up with her…
Also featuring: Patricia Gage (as Lucy Becker), Michael Copeman (as Carl Magnus), Robert Bockstael (as Donald Magnus), Walker Boone (Detective Chapman), Melanie Nicholls-King (as Officer Robbins), Andrew Strachan (as Private Anderson), Reg Dreger (as Colonel Benson), Torri Higginson (Claudia Hoffman – archive footage)
EPISODE 1.9: CLOAK AND DAGGER
Written by Frank Encarnacao
Directed by Rene Manzor
East Berlin, 1988: Bert Myers is preparing some ‘advanced interrogation’ techniques against a man suspected of being a traitor. His boss gives him a golden cigarette case as a gift and then instructs Bert to kill the captive. In the modern day Bert wakes screaming – how much of what he remembers happened and why does it still haunt him?
Bert takes Amanda out to lunch and she immediately cuts to the case: what does he want? He wants Amanda to break into a house to ‘see what it looks like on the inside’. When sheer bribery doesn’t tempt her to assist, Bert tells her that there’s an investigation into dirty cops and Nick’s name is on it. If she retrieves the documents from the house in question, Bert says it will help halt the investigation. With Nick out of town, going undercover in Vegas, Amanda decides to help… but Nick returns earlier than expected.
Just what is Bert’s real motivation and when it leads to murder, what will Nick have to say about it?
Also featuring: Patricia Gage (as Lucy Becker), Hannes Jaenicke (as Bert Myers), Catherine Bruhier (as Chase MacAffee), Anne Marie Loder (as Catherine), Noam Jenkins (as Joey Poletti), Michael Louis Johnson (as Deiter Keller), Marc Strange (as Ludwig Weiss), Madhuri Bhatia (as Chandra)
EPISODE 1.10: PASSION PLAY
Written by Morrie Ruvinsky
Directed by Dennis Berry
Lucy attends a variety show where the main act Wilson Geary (Gordon Currie) runs a popular magic show. The arrogant performer is cornered in the car-park by what he, at first, thinks is a fan… but they shoot him (“Even worse… a critic!”). The would-be assassin… is Lucy. She’s immediately arrested but doesn’t seem to care. But when the police arrive… the body is gone.
Nick arrives at the police station and takes her back to Amanda, who quickly realises why her companion was out at night with a gun… and a sword. Back in 1963 Lucy was part of a professional and personal double-act with husband Marco Becker. He was an Immortal and Lucy knew his secret. When she met Amanda for the first time she was intimidated by her husband’s friendship with a beautiful woman who would never grow old. Needing some time alone, she allows herself to be charmed by Geary when she meets him in a bar. It’s a relatively innocent flirtation but one that Geary exploits to get Marco to his apartment and to kill him in front of Lucy. She began a life-long friendship with Amanda, but swore that one day she’d get revenge….
Neither Amanda nor Nick want to actively help her coldly execute Geary, but she snaps back that they’ve forgotten what it’s like to lose someone they love. If they won’t help, she’ll do it alone. But now Geary has her identity and is actually hunting for her and he says he remembers the details of that tragic night a little differently…
Also featuring: Patricia Gage (as Lucy Becker), Polly Shannon (as young Lucy), Kirby Morrow (as Marco Becker),Melanie Nicholls-King (as Officer Robbins), Richard Hughes (as Lounge Lizard), Lisa Messinger (as Gwen)
EPISODE 1.11: THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
Written by Durnford King
Directed by Donald Paonessa
Evel Knievel has had a stunt go terribly wrong in the freight elevator, or so Lucy concludes when a vintage motorcycle is left on Amanda’s doorstep – just the thing to lighten their boredom. It turns out it’s a gift from an Immortal admirer and Amanda admits that whomever ‘Victor Hansen’ is, he makes a great first impression!
Meanwhile, a disguised delivery man fakes a meal drop, drugging a bank manager in his office and secretly photographing museum plans. It seems that Victor Hansen (Geordie Johnson) has his own plans… However Nick is friends with the drugged man, Bob Marshall – an alcoholic on the wagon – and believes that he wasn’t drunk like his bosses suspected. Nick suspects that the building plans were the real target – especially as there are plans to exhibit the priceless ‘Valentino’ diamond on the premises.
Amanda tells Nick that despite knowing its history, she didn’t even know the diamond was in town. But when Marshall turns up dead, Nick is particularly invested in protecting the diamond – just as much as Victor is invested in talking Amanda into stealing it… but her ‘spider-senses’ are already tingling…
Also featuring: Patricia Gage (as Lucy Becker), Michael Copeman (as Carl Magnus), Richard Fitzpatrick (as Bob Marshall), Jack Newman (as Bank Manager), Peter Wylde (as Old Man), Bella (as Bella)
EPISODE 1.12: A MATTER OF TIME
Written by Karen Harris
Directed by Dennis Berry
Nick is chasing a suspect through viaducts and intersections when he comes across a body. It’s fairly nondescript except for the fact that on the man’s wrist is a tattoo… and lying beside him is a eastern pendant. He continues to chase his original suspect but returning to the spot where the body fell, he sees men loading the body into a van. When he challenges them he’s caught off-guard by their leader – a man named… Joe Dawson (Jim Byrnes).
Joe says he’s in the area as Amanda was being followed by an Immortal named Andre Korda (Valentine Pelka). Amanda first encountered him on the Chinese Coast in 1907. Korda was treated by the locals as some sort of divinity and relishes in the power. He easily outclasses her in swordsmanship and could have taken her life but instead he decides to take her as a student… to teach her that Immortals are hawks and mortals are merely sparrows.
He wants a partner and promises to show Amanda the skills of the ‘Flying Rainbow’ fan, a more artistic bladed weapon than a traditional sword and one that is as much to do with surrender as attack. But he says it will take a lifetime to learn. However, like the weapon, agility without force and surrender without resistance’ are aspects he demands in life as well… and since when has Amanda ever been patient? Seeing how ruthless he is, she flees.
Back in the present , Korda is a businessman, running a night-club called ‘The Sanctuary’ and wants Amanda to join him again. If not, she dies. Leaving for Paris, he instructs his Immortal assistant Crysta to take care of business and thereafter Joe delivers terrible news to Nick about Amanda’s fate…
Also featuring: Peter Mensah (as Raphael), Ellen Dubin (as Crysta), Helen Wu (as Female Martial Artist)
EPISODE 1.13: THE FRENCH CONNECTION
Written by James Thorpe
Directed by Dennis Berry
Bert is in Paris and takes the severely wounded Nick to safety, but he’s aware of Korda (Valentine Pelka) and tells Nick to leave. Nick, of course, refuses to listen. Amanda, very much alive and aware that Nick has been injured, seeks out Father Liam Riley (an Immortal who, like Darius, had left ‘the Game’ behind) to get help tracking him down in the city.
Finally establishing they’re both alive, Amanda and Nick begin to track Korda but he remains elusive, even when Bert brings down most of Interpol on his Parisian night-club in search of the counterfeit operation. Deep in the catacombs, Korda is busy biding his time. Liam doesn’t want to be involved directly in any acts of violence, but Nick suggests leaving it in the hands of fate and the high hopes that God might be a basketball fan…
Korda decides enough is enough and kidnaps Bert to force Amanda’s hand. As time ticks away, Amanda decides she will have to face Korda, her old teacher, once and for all…
Also featuring: Hannes Jaenicke (as Bert Myers), Robert Cavanah (as Father Liam Riley), Tomer Sisley (as Felix), Charley Fouquet (as Aurore), Nicolas Parienty (as Gerard), Daphne Cheung (as Doctor Mika) , Sylvain Clement (as Clement), Carlos Lopez (as Sulaiman)
EPISODE 1.14: THE ROGUE
Written by Frank Encarnacao
Directed by George Menedluk
Debra Dow is a spoiled, petulant, slasher-film actress whose light is fading and she resents having to have bodyguards assigned by Bert Myers and resents them even more if they dare get in her light. She might prefer it to being shot at… especially when one of her protectors is shot by a sniper through the window. The other bodyguard, Rachael (Glynis Barber) barely survives the attack..
Rachael appears to blame herself – it’s the second partner she’s lost in four years. But there’s little time to feel sorry. Another audacious attempt is made on Debra’s life, this time in a very public location and just seconds after Amanda senses another Immortal – Frank Brennan. Nick sets off in pursuit and nearly catches him until he’s shocked to see the face of a man he killed four years ago in Central Park when he first met Bert Myers. Myers said the ‘dead’ man was a rogue agent. It also turns out he was Rachael’s partner. Maybe Dow isn’t the target, after all?
Letting Rachael know he’s alive, Brennan claims he was duped and double-crossed by Bert and Nick and she believes him. But still confused by aspects of Brennan’s sudden reappearance and explanation, she won’t help his revenge plan. Meanwhile, how can Amanda and Nick keep their friend safe, without telling Bert who is actually stalking him?
Also featuring: Hannes Jaenicke (as Bert Myers), Michael Sibbery (as Frank Brennan), Lysette Anthony (as Debra Dow), Audrey Moore (as Young Woman), Trevor Stephens (as Nestor)
EPISODE 1.15: INFERNO
Written by Elizabeth Baxter
Directed by Dennis Berry
A woman breaks into a chemical research facility, easily subduing the guards and making an explosive exit carrying a suitcase – the flames appearing to have no effect on her.
The company hires Nick to get it back. He’s already concerned that they haven’t told the police about the case, merely the break-in… though they claim it’s because the case contains a revolutionary polymer that could lose or make them billions in the wrong hands. They suspect a woman the company’s boss was seeing… Talia Bauer (Michelle Gomez).
Amanda knows, or knew, Talia well, right back to their meeting in the French countryside of 1792 when Talia led part of the peasants’ revolt. Though she’s less enamoured by poverty, Talia is still a revolutionary at heart and tired of the amount of times she’s rotted in jail-cells for the sins of other men. Talia says that the case she stole doesn’t contain plastic… it contains a sample of her Immortal blood and she knows full well the implications of letting the wrong people have it. She dumped it at the bottom of the Seine.
Liam tells Nick that while he personally doesn’t trust Talia, she hasn’t exclusively cornered the market on lying. She can be fickle, generous… but ruthless. So does that case contain the secrets of life… or death?
Also featuring: Robert Cavanah (as Father Liam Riley), Warren Zavatta (as Sumner), Joe Rezwin (as Prison Guard), Stephane Dausse (as The Captian), Guy Amarn (as Security Guard), Eric Connor (as Freddy), Jolyon Baker (as Michael Garrett) and Nadia Cameron (as Rebecca – archive footage)
EPISODE 1.16: THE FRAME
Written by Tibby Rothman
Directed by George Mendeluk
Nick and Amanda have the job of transporting a priceless painting across Paris to a museum… though Amanda is already doing the theoretical mental arithmetic of what they could do with it if they decided to skip town. It is then locked safely away in the building’s basement… or is it? Amanda senses an Immortal nearby but by the time they return to the basement, the painting and the real thief are impossibly gone – with only Amanda and Nick left as the obvious suspects…
Nick is released, for the moment, but given her history, Amanda is kept in custody longer. Realising his reputation is on the line as well – and under threat from the painting’s owner, Sir Trevor Benton – he resolves to find out how they were, literally, framed. Even Liam interrupts his ‘shooting of hoops’ to let Amanda know he’s not quite convinced she had nothing to do with it. However when Amanda gets a box of Cuban cigars and a Queen of Diamonds playing card, she begins to realise who’s behind it all… an old rival, Jade (Charlotte Lewis).
Also featuring: Robert Cavanah (as Father Liam Riley), Ronan Vibert (as Sir Trevor Benton), Derek Lea (as Bob Hemmon), Phillipe Caroit (as Inspector Colbert) and featuring Christopher Barker and Marc Pierret
EPISODE 1.17: LOVE AND DEATH
Written by Jocelyne Barque Simmons
Directed by Gerard Hameline
In Cumbria, a woman is being held in a stately home. Despite a ransom being paid the plan organised by Immortal Derrick Markham (Stephen Billington) seems to be to kill her, but a strike-team is there to free her. Bert and Nick are on the team, but the kidnappers manage to escape by a secret passage. The contents of a safe are secured but they include a very old iodine photograph taken in Manchester in 1867 – one that Bert notices shows… Amanda?
Back then Markham and Amanda were partners in crime in a kidnap plot, but he was far too ruthless for her liking, killing their captive rather than being satisfied with the monetary pay-off. But not knowing that at the time, it didn’t stop her marrying him – if only for his pragmatic purposes.
Now Markham, a man who is no stranger to bearing a grudge, is gunning for both Bert and Amanda and Bert wants some answers of his own…
Also featuring: Hannes Jaenicke (as Bert Myers), Robert Cavanah (as Father Liam Riley), Marc Pierret (as Pascal), Barnaby Apps (as News Vendor), Marie Legault (as Svetlana), Vincent Pickering (as Burke), Solveig Shimha ( as Shop Girl)
EPISODE 1.18: THICK OF THIEVES
Written by James Thorpe
Directed by George Mendeluk
After a series of robberies, Amanda and Nick are undercover at a casino when the room is flooded with gas. Nick immediately passes out, but before she succumbs, Amanda feels the buzz of another Immortal, Jeremy Dexter (Stephen Moyer).
Interpol agent Nicolae Breslaw has a very personal score to settle and has been tracking the robbers across Europe, convinced that at some point they’ll make a mistake. Nick’s convinced they already have: after all, why didn’t they take Amanda’s own necklace… might one of them be an old associate? Amanda did indeed meet Dexter in the England of 1554 where they audaciously robbed Queen Mary of her jewels while disguised as monks.
Nick says the job to retrieve the stolen goods comes before Amanda’s loyalty to a fellow thief, though Amanda points out that Nick’s singular morality has never meant turning her in for her indiscretions. Are Nick and Amanda on a collision course with each other, or will Dexter and Breslaw’s very different views of truth and consequences be the deciding factor?
Also featuring: Jan Triska (as Nicolae Breslaw), Peggy Frankston (Queen Mary), Edwin Apps (Chancellor), Pierre Rousselle (as Jurgen)
EPISODE 1.19: THE MANIPULATOR
Written by Andre Jacquemetton
Directed by Brian Grant
Amanda and Nick are strolling along the banks of the Seine at the crack of noon, when they approached by a reporter, Tim Helfet, who wants to hire them – because, he says, someone’s trying to kill him. As if on cue, a roller-skating passer-by opens fire on them and they narrowly escape with their lives.
Tim says his father, a renowned career journalist, was murdered by a Vladimir Rankov (Miles Richardson), a political advisor to an Eastern-Block Prime Minister, Anton Novak. His father found out Rankov was secretly trying to sabotage a peace treaty being negotiated in Paris. Tim wants Nick and Amanda to break into a chateau to steal back the proof from Rankov’s personal computer. He also notes that Rankov has a personal stash of diamonds – which secures Amanda’s interest.
But Tim’s story has left out some important details. His choice to involve them, specifically Amanda, has as much to do with another calling. Tim may be a legitimate reporter… but he’s also a Watcher. Still, Amanda has first-hand experience of Rankov’s long life of various treacheries, so what can she do?
Also featuring: Guy Lankester (as Tim Helfet), Agathe de la Boulaye (as Christina), Richard Durden (as Anton Novak), Daniel Briquet (as The Duke of Bourgogne), Patricia Kessler (as Duena)
EPISODE 1.20: THE EX-FILES
Written by David Tynan
Directed by Dennis Berry
1.20 – THE EX-FILES
Written by Karen Harris
Directed by George Mendeluk
Two lawyers come under fire when attending a meeting with an informer. Their informant is already dead and soon one of the lawyers is too. The female lawyer hides and narrowly escapes with her life. Her name is Lauren and she runs to the only person who might be able to help her. Her ex-husband, Nick Wolfe.
Lauren has been investigating the illegal trade in body organs and people-trafficking. The man behind it is Julian Heller (Julian Wadham)… a name Amanda knows all too well, dating back to the Black Forest of 1643. Then Amanda and an old woman were branded witches for catering for the ill and infirm – something for which only priests and doctors were allowed to practise (and then for a small fortune).
In the present Heller is just as ruthless, having ordered witnesses’ deaths in the ongoing lawsuit. He is still looking for Lauren… and Nick is just as determined to keep his lost love alive. But he also realises that while Amanda is willing to take Heller’s neck, that will mean his organisation will just find another person to commit the crimes… the solution is to help Lauren take down the whole organisation if possible.
But when the stakes become tragically higher, will it be Nick or Amanda that seeks long-overdue justice?
Also featuring: Rochelle Redfiled (as Lauren Wolfe) Dirk Bromley (as Jerry), Arno Dutheil (as Glenn), Patrick Albenque (as Spencer), Michel Albertini (as Sergeant)Franck Marion (as Phillips), Didier Kersten (as Soldier #1), Marc Rioufol (as Man), Veronica Antico (as Helena), Marc Pierret (as Pascal)
EPISODE 1.21: WAR AND PEACE
Written by Catherine Porciuncula
Directed by Brian Grant
While Amanda is off taking heads in a scrapyard not far away, Nick is playing a slightly more gentle game of basketball with Liam in his church’s courtyard. Liam introduces Nick to another friend, Lizzie Tynan, a journalist from London. Unfortunately Lizzie takes the wrong road away from the church, just in time to catch the end of the sword-fight… one that leaves Amanda with her head, but her opponent escaping on a motorbike. But perhaps more importantly… Nick, Liam AND Lizzie seeing her revival.
The explanation that this was street-theatre doesn’t exactly convince Lizzie, but Liam may have other concerns. The Immortal whom Amanda was fighting, Sean (Benedick Bates) hadn’t originally come for her – he’d come for Liam. At a British Army camp in New York, circa 1776, Liam (then a soldier) and Amanda catch up on old times before he is planning to go and find and kill the ‘colonial rebels’ in the name of the King. The next day, on the other side of the line, a mother, Emma, carries water to her son – Sean – and other troops. But Sean kills Liam in battle, if only temporarily as he dies his first death. However in the chaos, Liam also shoots Emma and it’s the last thing Sean sees before ‘dying’. Liam pledges his life to God if he will save the mother’s life and Amanda later tells him she survived.
As Lizzie Tynan tries to convince her old boss that she’s onto a big story with big consequences, Liam declares he’s sticking to that two century deal he made with God and to his commitment to life and the church – no matter what those consequences might be. But Amanda has been withholding an inconvenient truth that may yet cost more lives…
Also featuring: Robert Cavanah (as Father Liam Riley), Josephine Butler (as Lizzie Tynan), Janet Spencer-Turner (as Emma), David Fleeshman (as Harry), Dawn Steele (as Brynn), Pete Thias (as Dieter), Gregory Monro (as Jimmy). With participation of the band ‘Boxer’.
EPISODE 1.22: DEAD ON ARRIVAL
Written by James Thorpe
Directed by George Mendeluk
In his darkened cellar, Tom Ross, a ‘cyber-dick’, enthusiastically uncovers the shady electronic-footprint of yet another company, but he’s disturbed by an intruder, the Immortal called Evan Peyton (Thomas Lockyer). There’s a fatal shoot-out… but unlike Evan, Tom won’t be ‘rebooting’.
Across town, Amanda is catching up with Janet Ross, who knows Amanda from when she helped out with security at the British Gallery. (Amazingly, there was a robbery soon after, whodathunkit?). Janet is worried about Tom who has gone missing. Tom may have been permanently erased, but he’s made sure the information he was decoding has remained intact – transferred to a CD in his car… and Nick finds it. But activating the disc means Peyton can find them.
Peyton visits the bar to find Amanda, whom he hasn’t seen since The Netherlands circa 1610 when he was first fascinated by the patterns of the universe and a maker of ‘suspect’ potions that often killed rather than cured (especially when it conveniently killed his step-brother). Computers and technology are now Peyton’s alchemy…
Peyton warns Amanda to stay out of his business, but Nick makes no such promise and follows the Immortal who spots him and catches him off-guard… setting off a gas in Nick’s face. Amanda warns him that he’s lucky to have escaped with his life. But it soon becomes clear that Peyton did more than just distract – Nick is now sick. Peyton says he will give them the antidote if they stay away, otherwise Nick will die a slow, lingering death.
That is something Amanda cannot allow…
Also featuring: Natalie Roles (as Janet Ross), Scott Malsen (as Tom Ross), Fiona Curzon (as Countess Van Der Meer), Vernon Dobtcheff (as Count Van Der Meer) and a special appearance by Thomas M. Pollard (as Apartment Manager)