Top Telly - Pie in the Sky televison programmes

Pie in the Sky is a light-hearted police drama starring Richard Griffiths and Maggie Steed. It was created by Andrew Payne and originally broadcast on BBC1 from 1994 and 1997. The programmes is now broadcast on cable and satellite tv,

The programmes is different in that Detective Inspector Henry Crabbe is close to retirement that has been allowed leave due to a minor injury and because he is under suspicion (wrongly) of taking a bribe.

He is still an on-duty policeman who can be called upon to investigate crimes but is also free to be the head chef of the Pie in the Sky restaurant set in the fictional town of Middleton in the fictional county of Westershire. His wife is “officially” the owner of the restaurant as he, a serving policeman, cannot be.

Henry is a highly intelligent, gentle and thoughtful man of high moral principle and his passion in life is food. His dream is to retire from the police service and run his own restaurant. However, his boss Assistant Chief Constable Freddie Fisher will not allow him to leave and calls upon him whenever he feels the need.

His wife Margaret has no interest in food and loves junk food much to Henry’s horror. Her particular favourite being cocktail flavour crisps.

Henry’s penultimate case whilst on full active duty was his attempt to catch high-profile fraudster Dudley Hooperman (played by Michael Kitchen). Hooperman escapes from Crabbe by shooting him in the leg but it is only a minor wound and suspision falls on Henry of letting him escape. When he is apparently photographed later taking a bribe while investigating police corruption, Fisher has the ammunition he needs to get Henry doing his bidding. Although Freddy Fisher does not believe that Henry is corrupt.

The programme ran for five series and a total of forty episodes which each ran for fifty minutes.

The exterior of the restaurant was actually a florist, later a toy shop, in the High Street of the Old Town in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. It was later actually turned into a restaurant. Henry’s hero fictional food writer Hilary Smallwood is based on Elizabeth David.

BBC’s Pie in the Sky starring Richard Grifiths and Maggie Steed

Henry Crabbe is a police inspector close to retirement who chefs in his wife’s restaurant

Starring Richard Griffiths, Maggie Steed, Elizabeth David, Malcolm Sinclair, Joe Duttine, Bella Enahoro & Samantha Janus