The Troubleshooters (1965) | Couchpile

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The Troubleshooters (1965) | Couchpile

Season 3

13 Episodes

1967

E01

Words Are Softer Than Oil

1/30/1967·50m

Peter Thornton believes the North Sea gas field extends into Dutch waters, and Mogul plans a diversion to secure it before rivals catch on. Brian Stead sends his son John, who has little experience, to the Netherlands with Thornton, who also brings his girlfriend Julie Serres. Julie, however, has long known Prince Diaz of Zenith Oil, and he is quick to guess what Mogul is up to.

E02

A Damn Great Lump Of Iron

2/6/1967·49m

Mogul wants a new supertanker built quickly and for no more than seven million pounds. Alec Stewart leans on Lord Ravenscar, owner of the yard, who threatens to shut the yard rather than take a loss, while on Tyneside Peter Thornton puts the figures to union official Arthur Rogers. With the shop stewards divided over a strike, the union turns to Sam Jardine, now a local MP and in poor health.

E03

My Daughter Knows Her Way Around

2/20/1967·49m

On a routine trip to the Middle East, Alec Stewart is kidnapped and taken into the desert to meet a man who claims to speak for plotters against Nasser. He wants to know whether Mogul would return to Egypt, years after its oilfields were nationalised, if they seize power. Against Brian Stead's wishes, Stewart goes to Egypt to look into it, with Sally Andrews, daughter of a former Mogul man, as his guide.

E04

Home And Dry

2/27/1967·49m

When a fatal accident wipes out the crew of Mogul's underwater habitat MogAqua One, Brian Stead suspends the costly programme. Peter Thornton travels to Tembigo to look into it with Commander Cardno, who worries about the strain on deep-sea divers. To find the cause, the new MogAqua Two is lowered to the site, and Thornton learns to dive in a hurry so he can go down with the team.

E05

We're None Of Us Perfect

3/6/1967·50m

A computer-led cost-cutting plan calls for closing Mogul's Burling bulk plant, setting Peter Thornton and Alec Stewart against each other over how to handle the unions. Stewart is prepared to use leaks and provocation to weaken union official Clancy. At home his preoccupation strains his marriage to Roz, whose dress boutique is in financial trouble, just as Brian Stead weighs whether Stewart is ready for the board.

E06

Think Big

3/13/1967·49m

While Peter Thornton and Alec Stewart push ahead with plans for a giant tanker berth in County Kerry, Brian Stead is offered a high-profile government appointment for three years. He leaves for Stockholm, and deputy chairman du Cros, left in charge, stalls the Irish project. On the way home, blizzards strand Stead and Willy Izard in the Scottish Highlands, where Izard challenges him over his priorities.

E07

Some Days You Just Can't Win

3/20/1967·50m

When Togamo, a small West African country, asks to charter a tanker, the odd request leads Alec Stewart to suspect that the country's petrol is being sold on in breach of sanctions against Rhodesia. Peter Thornton flies the company plane to Brussels, and the trail leads to a front company and a tanker called the Rosanna Three. Brian Stead and Thornton then set off for Togamo, and a long flight across Africa with pilot Dave Sandy.

E08

Nothing To Do With Mogul

3/27/1967·48m

Alec Stewart's Easter plans are overturned by news that his estranged aunt has taken her own life in Stoke-on-Trent. As the only relative who can be contacted, he goes to deal with her affairs, much to the annoyance of Brian Stead, who needs him at important tests with Mogul's partner Jimmy Satchell. In Stoke, grasping relatives arrive to claim their share while Stewart tries to understand how his aunt came to be so alone.

E09

No Sentiment In Business?

4/3/1967·48m

When Harry Telfall is killed in a car crash, Alec Stewart and Brian Stead see a chance to buy his engineering firm and its research into battery-powered cars, which could threaten much of Mogul's market. Peter Thornton is sent to the factory in the Midlands under a cover story to assess its work. He finds chief engineer George Ward at odds with Maggie, the young widow who now owns the firm.

E10

Journey From The Interior

4/10/1967·50m

With no word from the Dibouti pipeline Mogul shares with Trident, Peter Thornton is sent to find out what is happening, only to stumble into a tribal rebellion. Ambushed and stranded, he takes refuge with a mercenary, Major Ruthven, Sister Domitilla, a nun, and a young deaf girl, and the group tries to escape through the jungle. In London, meanwhile, Brian Stead learns the pipeline may no longer be needed and weighs his options.

E11

Long Knives Cut Deep

4/17/1967·50m

A mining accident in Bradgate injures Will Faulkner, whose son Gordon is part of the Gas Council team negotiating North Sea gas prices with Mogul. Looking for an advantage, Brian Stead sends Alec Stewart to Bradgate to dig into Gordon's background. Stewart learns more than he expected from the injured miner, and Gordon, angered at being investigated, confronts him.

E12

Women And Business Never Did Mix

4/24/1967·46m

Alec Stewart and Brian Stead are negotiating to buy the British arm of the Vornkind Group, a deal that would hand Mogul more than a third of Britain's plastics trade. Uneasy about the market dominance it would create and about plans to sidestep the regulators, Willy Izard ignores his wife Joan's advice and leaks the deal to journalist Mary Fielding. The story soon puts the monopoly question before the Board of Trade.

E13

There's Always A Next Time

5/1/1967·49m

When Mogul finds commercial oil in West Pakistan, director Alec Stewart wants the field developed at once, but Brian Stead has the wells capped and the find kept secret because of the risks of investing on the Indo-Pakistani border. Stewart refuses to accept the decision and takes his case to chairman Sir Giles Bliss. The quarrel grows into a boardroom battle over Stead's authority, and Stewart is prepared to go further still.

Season 1

13 Episodes

1965

E01

Kelly's Eye

7/7/1965·50m

Mogul's North Sea rig Kelly's Eye strikes a small and worthless pocket of oil, but word of the find reaches the newspapers and television before the company can contain it. Brian Stead wants the man responsible identified and dismissed, and the job falls to Peter Thornton. Only three men from the rig had the chance to talk, and one of them is among Thornton's closest friends.

E02

Young Turk

7/14/1965·49m

After Mogul's representative dies in the desert, Brian Stead sends his troubleshooter Robert Driscoll to take over talks for a valuable Middle East oil concession. Driscoll's brash approach offends Charles Andrews, the veteran area manager, who had hoped to end his long career by winning the deal himself. With an American rival closing in, Driscoll brushes aside local advice and presses the sheik for a quick agreement.

E03

Safety Man

7/21/1965·55m

Personnel officer Derek Prentice grows worried that Ron Smith, the safety officer at a Mogul refinery, is becoming mentally unstable. Smith, a solitary man, has begun a romance with Prentice's secretary Gwyneth Evans, who refuses to report on him. With royalty due to tour the refinery, Prentice's attempt to have Smith transferred is blocked by his superiors and tension between the two men comes to a head.

E04

Wildcat

7/28/1965·47m

Ordered by the government to surrender one of its two exploration areas in West Africa, Mogul sends Peter Thornton to oversee the handover. Geologist Sam Okeke is sure the coastal swamps hold oil and wins approval for a speculative well first. But Okeke is burdened by doubts about staking his career on one call, guilt over his ailing friend Alan Boyd in the field, and pressure from his tribal chief to leave the company.

E05

Tosh and Nora

8/4/1965·49m

At 55, hard-living tanker seaman Tosh Brinkwater resolves to settle down as his partner Nora prepares to give birth. He turns to his old shipmate Brian Stead, who promises to find him quiet work on land and a flight home in time for the baby. Then a supertanker breaks down, and Robert Driscoll's plan to reroute smaller vessels to cover its cargo puts Tosh's homecoming in doubt.

E06

The Schloss Belt

8/11/1965·45m

Mogul has never sold oil in Germany, so Brian Stead sends Robert Driscoll and Willy Izard to assess the market. The choice lies between buying the small independent firm E.V.A. and agreeing a crude oil supply deal with the much larger Deutsche Petrole. Both companies set out to court Driscoll, one with the nightlife of Hamburg and the other with sophistication and a hint of decadence.

E07

Out of Range

8/18/1965·51m

Fresh from university, David Izard starts work as a Mogul geologist in Libya under veteran Chris Darnley, who suspects the young man owes his post to his father Willy, Mogul's company secretary. Darnley's distrust of head office deepens when Peter Thornton comes to Tripoli to overhaul the exploration effort. On a survey deep in the desert, David is eager to prove himself, and the party begins to take risks.

E08

The Way It Crumbles

8/25/1965·49m

Former advertising man Robert Driscoll proposes lifting Mogul's image by putting money into a grand prix team, a plan Brian Stead opposes on both moral and commercial grounds. Driscoll gains support from the managing director and from ambitious account executive Hillary Dawson. The team they favour has a promising new car but no money, and much rests on a demonstration run at Goodwood.

E09

A Job for Willy

9/1/1965·51m

Mogul's new rig is almost finished at a yard on the Tyne when foreman Rogers dismisses Willy Murtagh for unsafe work. Willy, a vulnerable young man whose late father was a respected union leader, is a favourite of the workforce, and the men respond with a work to rule. Sent north by Brian Stead, Peter Thornton and Derek Prentice try to settle the dispute before it turns into a full strike.

E10

Meet Miss Mogul

9/8/1965·50m

Sandra Spratt leaves her father's filling station forecourt behind when she is chosen as Miss Mogul, the face of a costly campaign to boost petrol sales. Derek Prentice is assigned to look after her and make sure she carries out her duties, a task that brings him moral and emotional difficulties. Meanwhile her boyfriend Instant Turner and her grandmother are determined to bring her home.

E11

Stoneface

9/15/1965·47m

Robert Driscoll is assessing Mojida, an Iroquois who has risen to take charge of Mogul drilling in the far north of Canada, as a possible troubleshooter. Mojida's deputy Godin is French Canadian, heir to an old enmity, and the two disagree over how to handle a gas pocket the rig has struck. While Mojida is away meeting Driscoll in New York, Godin decides to proceed his own way.

E12

Driver of the Year

9/22/1965·49m

Peter Thornton expects an easy trip when he is sent to present Mogul's Driver of the Year award at a depot outside Newcastle. After his car fails on the road, he accepts a ride with Chas Wilson, a cheerful tanker driver whose creed is never to be tied down. A string of mishaps follows, and Thornton finds himself drawn into Chas's carefree outlook on life.

E13

Borrowed Time

9/29/1965·47m

Brian Stead, now deputy managing director, faces a campaign to unseat him led by financial director Martin Lister. A heart scare while touring the Middle East hands his rivals fresh ammunition, and Stead dismays his allies by stepping back from the fight. Travelling home at leisure with secretary Jane Webb, he grows fond of her and begins to imagine a quiet retirement.

Season 6

17 Episodes

1970

E01

The Slick And The Dread

5/18/1970·50m

Back from convalescence, Brian Stead announces he will name a deputy and sails for the Caribbean aboard one of Mogul's new supertankers, apparently to offer Alec Stewart the post. On board he takes to Captain Millway, a model company man in line to become commodore of the fleet, but starts piecing together evidence about a big spill off Madagascar for which a Greek captain took the blame.

E02

A Pig In A Pipe

5/25/1970·50m

Brian Stead plans to attend the opening of new refinery extensions in the East African state of Manzaya, and sends Peter Thornton ahead to check security after a pipeline engineer was killed. Thornton finds the pipeline has now been blown up and puts heavy pressure on the strained engineer in charge, Bill Jackson, to have the oil flowing in time, while the dead man's widow, Mrs. George, organises the ceremony.

E03

Camelot On A Clear Day

6/1/1970·50m

Mogul learns that the leper hospital run for forty years by the revered Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann stands in the middle of its planned drilling area in East Africa, and the government of Kasemba will not alter the concession. Protests pour in from the doctor's admirers around the world, Peter Thornton has to calm restless engineers, and Willy Izard, a longstanding admirer, goes to meet Hoffmann himself.

E04

Who Did You Say Inherits The Earth?

6/8/1970·49m

In Alaska, an Inuit hunter, Nivilak, uses a high-powered rifle to pin down Mogul's drilling crew in protest at the loss of his people's hunting grounds, and rig boss Tommy Eastwind, an Iroquois, sympathises too much to report it. Brian Stead and Peter Thornton, attending an oil conference in Alaska with Nina Kapler as Stead's adviser, learn what is going on, while prospectors serve writs claiming the concessions are theirs.

E05

The Price Of A Bride

6/15/1970·48m

When the government of Manzaya orders the deportation of Mogul's manager Ralph Grant, apparently because his wife is South African, Peter Thornton goes out to deal with it and finds marriage complicating everything. The man he wants as a replacement, Jack Robbins, is living with an African woman in the bush, and she is expecting his child, and Thornton's own wedding plans with Roley Johnson are threatened by his duties.

E06

Operation Black Gold

6/22/1970·50m

In Ebon, an African state torn by civil war, mercenaries serving a breakaway regime hold Mogul's oilfield. Dudley FitzGibbon kidnaps Willy Izard and takes him to Mogul's refinery on the coast, where Commandant Tyler intends to sell oil for cash to pirate tankers. In London, Peter Thornton tracks down FitzGibbon's fiancée Jane Webb, once Brian Stead's secretary, and persuades her to help secure Izard's release.

E07

We Also Need Experts

6/29/1970·49m

Brian Stead hires management consultants to reorganise the head office, and fear of redundancy spreads through the building as the experts move from department to department. For two long-serving employees, Henry Wynn and Charles Attwell, the upheaval threatens everything they have built, and Willy Izard is asked to reassure the anxious staff.

E08

I'm Glad I'm Just an Oilman...

7/6/1970·47m

Brian Stead travels to an Arab state to negotiate the renewal of Mogul's concessions just as a coup brings a new ruler, Colonel Al Faraj, to power. The colonel will renew only if Mogul first uses its rigs to search for water, and Peter Thornton is sent to run the project alongside Doctor Kharma, the government's expert on water, while political pressures build on every side.

E09

Boys And Girls Come Out To Play

7/13/1970·48m

Brian Stead wants to expand into South America through the companies controlled by the immensely rich Ferdinand Perez, who refuses to discuss business during the three months of each year he devotes to pleasure. With a hostile board setting a deadline, Stead sends Willy Izard and Peter Thornton after him on a chase that takes in polo, golf, a health farm, Cannes and the casinos of Europe.

E10

The Dangerous Green Impala

7/20/1970·49m

Calling at Haiti en route to Trinidad for a conference, Brian Stead and Willy Izard discover that Captain Vassiere of the Tonton Macoute has ousted the local Mogul manager and installed his own cousin. Stead will not tolerate the interference, and the quarrel turns into a dangerous personal duel between him and the captain, with Izard and Peter Thornton drawn into the fight.

E11

A Truly Exotic Development

7/27/1970·49m

When an explosion that looks like sabotage hits the joint Mogul-Zenith rig off Drake Island, Peter Thornton and security chief George Bartlett are sent from London to investigate, much to the resentment of Alec Stewart, who runs the local operation. Suspicion falls on Drake Island Developments, whose manager Tom McGrath wants the oil workings closed to protect the island's Caribbean tourist trade, and the threats against Thornton grow steadily more serious.

E12

That's Africa, Baby

8/3/1970·50m

When Mogul offers assistance to the government of the Congo, Willy Izard and Peter Thornton are sent out. While Izard struggles with evasive politicians, Thornton is far out in the bush coping with inexperienced crews, tribal rivalries and superstition, lodging in a rundown hotel kept by a hard-drinking Englishman, Sid Carver, whose knowledge of local affairs proves valuable.

E13

They Shall Not Pass

8/10/1970·51m

A French lock-keeper, Albert Lefloch, goes on strike over a long-standing grievance, holding up a barge that carries a new aviation oil needed for the development of a supersonic airliner. Brian Stead and Willy Izard try to settle the one-man dispute, and Izard travels to central France to grapple with French bureaucracy and an obstinate old man, while Stead faces a similar problem at home.

E14

Let's See The Colour Of Your Money

8/17/1970·49m

Kasemba, an African state, asks Mogul for a refinery that the Americans have dismissed as uneconomic and that the Chinese are keen to construct on a far larger scale. With the government itself split between Western and Chinese sympathies, Peter Thornton and Willy Izard find the capital full of spies and themselves outmanoeuvred by rival interests at every turn.

E15

Hey We've Got A Problem Here

8/24/1970·50m

Having found oil in Alaska, Mogul must find a way to move it, and Brian Stead is testing a submarine tanker designed to travel beneath the ice, using a former Royal Navy submarine off St. Lucia. Stead, Peter Thornton and Willy Izard arrive to see the trials completed, but the submarine, with Stead aboard, becomes stuck on the sea bed, leaving everything in the hands of Captain Simon Broadsword.

E16

The Order Of The Good Time

8/31/1970·51m

Brian Stead travels to Nova Scotia to plan a new refinery. Rejecting the costly industrial site the planning committee favours, he chooses a quiet rural district instead, but the farmers whose families have worked the land for generations are reluctant to sell, and Stead begins to wonder whether he should really disturb the very peace that attracted him.

E17

Injury To The Nation

9/7/1970·48m

Mogul is secretly helping the Ministry of Defence build a SEATO naval refuelling base on a small Indian Ocean island, a project known only to Brian Stead, Willy Izard and Peter Thornton. When Commander Fayne of Naval Intelligence comes to Mogul House to investigate a leak, his long evening of questioning leaves the three men on edge and suspicious of one another.

Season 4

26 Episodes

1967

E01

Dragon By The Tail

10/13/1967·50m

With riots unsettling Kowloon, Brian Stead sends Peter Thornton out to Hong Kong, posing as a tourist, to follow up a secret approach. Ho Man Chin, a senior technician at China's Taching oilfield, is said to want to defect with details of new Chinese drilling methods. Through local manager Richard Short, Thornton meets Ho's daughter Esther, who says a guide wants a large sum to arrange her father's escape, and Thornton suspects a trap.

E02

The Daring Young Man

10/20/1967·50m

As part of a Canadian takeover deal, Brian Stead agrees to take Mike Szabo, the Harvard-educated nephew of the retiring company president, onto his staff. But Mike has turned his back on business and is driving across North Africa with Virginia-Ann Straker to teach in Malawi. Peter Thornton is told to find them, and catches up with the couple at a remote and struggling Mogul wildcat rig deep in the Fezzan.

E03

Where The Carpet Ends

10/27/1967·48m

A junior secretary, Ann Rendell, is sacked after £800 goes missing from the handbag of Gladys West, who has served as Brian Stead's secretary for years. Unhappy that she was dismissed without an inquiry, Willy Izard looks into the case himself. The Wests' lavish lifestyle arouses his suspicions about her husband George, a company geologist, and he enlists Peter Thornton to examine George's work at the Goring laboratory.

E04

Winner Lose All

11/10/1967·48m

Peter Thornton is supervising tests of the Savory IV powerboat ahead of the Offshore Powerboat Race, but the engines keep overheating and builder Dino Marinetti blames Mogul's lubricants. Its wealthy owner, Sir John Savory, gives Thornton twenty hours to cure the fault or lose the contract, then draws him in as co-driver after the usual driver is injured. In London, Willy Izard and Brian Stead face a price war in Southampton.

E05

A Nice White Girl - Is She For Sale?

11/17/1967·50m

Oil has been found in ar Rahba, and Mike Szabo finds its ruler, Sheik Falik, demanding punishing terms for the development rights. Brian Stead wants a contract signed before rivals step in and sends Szabo back with Eileen O'Rourke from public relations, whose company the sheik requested. On arrival Szabo learns that both Zenith and Kulatov, a senior Russian, are competing for the concession.

E06

Mr. Know-How

11/24/1967·50m

When a rail disaster claims the life of the man in charge of the Mogul-Hart Special Oils subsidiary, and his deputy is not expected to survive, Willy Izard and Brian Stead are forced to find a replacement quickly. Colin Maddox impresses at interview but lacks motor trade experience. Learning from Kim Hart that her father Bernard, the firm's former owner, has money troubles, Izard suggests bringing him back, though Stead doubts so independent a man will fit in.

E07

And The Walls Came Tumbling Down

12/1/1967·50m

An earthquake and tidal wave devastate the Moroccan port of Torkoz, where Peter Thornton was on a watching brief, and he is found in a makeshift hospital in shock and with no memory. Then local people fall ill from toxic oil scavenged from a ruined bunker, and the drums are traced to Mogul. As a journalist threatens to expose the company, Brian Stead sends Charles Grandmercy out to limit the damage.

E08

Good Lord, No, It's Illegal

12/8/1967·47m

Peter Thornton is in Singapore arranging Mogul's planned £35 million refinery when Mei San warns him that Ian Palmer, her husband and Gruger's Bank's man in Singapore, means to stop the loan. After Thornton and Mei San survive a car crash, Palmer's opposition takes on a personal edge. In London, Brian Stead needs a bridging loan from Gruger's and also faces a request from his daughter Moira that would break exchange control rules.

E09

Thanks For Nothing

12/15/1967·49m

Alec Stewart takes up his post in New York as Mogul's US director, only to be told by Charles Grandmercy that Brian Stead no longer trusts him and that Grandmercy is ready to step in. Stewart goes over the head of veteran manager Brian Winstanley to bid for Viner Garages, which owns over two hundred filling stations. But Winstanley's assistant is feeding information to Zenith, and his unhappy wife Lois has her own reasons for wanting the deal to fail.

E10

Rest You Merry

12/22/1967·50m

Two men die when an explosion and fire tear through Ballygrena, Mogul's automated refinery in Ulster, and Brian Stead sends Peter Thornton, Charles Grandmercy and Eileen O'Rourke to investigate and handle the publicity. Refinery manager McQuitty, an old colleague of Thornton's, points the finger at supervisor Harry Cobbett. Over Christmas in London, Stead's estranged daughter Moira arrives home just as he is courting an East German minister over a sensitive deal.

E11

Who Buys Who?

12/29/1967·51m

Awaiting a House of Lords ruling on its exclusive supply contracts, Mogul calls Peter Thornton back from leave to stop cut-price rival Javelin Petroleum winning over garage owner Big Gally Gallacher, an old friend whom Brian Stead sacked years ago. Gally needs money to take his gravely ill wife Saroya abroad. Meanwhile a criminal gang offers him a large sum for occasional, no-questions-asked use of his premises.

E12

The Deeper You Dig

1/5/1968·49m

Brian Stead shelves Cab Eleven, a Mogul afterburner that sharply cuts carbon monoxide from car exhausts, even though Peter Thornton believes it could make road tunnels practical. When the government favours a rail-only Channel Tunnel and Joan Maple, an Opposition MP, leaks the device's details, Stead gives Thornton a month to prove it publicly. A large-scale test in the Blackwall Tunnel is arranged as rival Trident threatens a patent fight.

E13

Kitchener Knew It Well

1/12/1968·50m

With Mogul's bunkering depot in Aden under threat after the British withdrawal, Brian Stead goes to Sudan himself to assess the old port of Suakin as an alternative. There he meets a wartime colleague and Helena, a woman from his past, who urges him to leave business behind. In London, Willy Izard decides to test the port by sending a tanker, while Peter Thornton and Eileen O'Rourke uncover a problem in the channel.

E14

The Sharp End Of The Wedge

1/19/1968·51m

Someone is trying to charter 400,000 tons of tankers for Dibouti, and Brian Stead, fearing a civil war that could endanger Mogul's storage at Maradi, wants to know who. Foreign Office man Dowding recruits Peter Thornton to pose as a rival buyer in Paris. The trail leads through the gangster Grimaud to Considine, head of the Swiss arms firm Eurarmco, and the deception grows steadily more dangerous.

E15

Just A Bunch Of Arabs In Kilts

1/26/1968·49m

When Mogul finds oil near Ruag, an island off Scotland, the Scottish Republican Army, led by Mackenzie, sabotages the rig and demands royalties for Scotland. Brian Stead dismisses the threat as a hoax and sends Peter Thornton north, but Thornton is kidnapped on arrival at Glasgow Airport. The SRA gives Stead 24 hours to read out a statement agreeing to negotiate.

E16

Not For My Friend - He's Driving

2/9/1968·51m

Brian Stead wants to hold on to Mogul's option on Venezuela's Aragua field as an emergency reserve, but in Caracas the official Escardo is stalling Charles Grandmercy so that it will lapse in favour of rival Anzoapet. A clause says the option renews if work begins on site. Stead sends Alec Stewart and Jimmy Saxon, a transport specialist, to drive an Alvis Stalwart across country to the field, and Anzoapet sets out to stop them.

E17

Stop It, You're Breaking My Heart

2/16/1968·45m

A Soviet drilling rig anchors right beside Mogul's North Sea platform, Mogmac, off Scotland, claiming to be drilling outside national jurisdiction for a Cuban company that never signed the continental shelf convention. Rig superintendent Eddie Barnaby finds that the rig is run by Nina Kapler, someone from his past. In London, Brian Stead and Willy Izard get little help from the Foreign Office, and the Russians come forward with an offer of a trade.

E18

A Girl To Warm Your Feet On

2/23/1968·50m

Mogul wants to drop out of a Thai offshore tender after the government imposes harsh terms and bans any survey work, but a Thai minister insists the company honours its bid. Left to arrange a quiet exit, Peter Thornton decides he first needs to know whether there is oil there, and hires American pilot and geologist Bob Plater to photograph the concession from across the border in Burma.

E19

Give Me The Simple Life

3/1/1968·50m

Brian Stead approves a £200 million investment in Canada's Athabasca tar sands but insists that Alec Stewart refer every decision to London. Stewart looks for ways to fund the scheme without head office, while Willy Izard and Eileen O'Rourke, visiting Alberta, learn that the planned plant would force a self-sufficient Hutterite community to leave its land.

E20

A Slight Problem With The Press

3/8/1968·50m

Talks in Aleppo over transit fees for Mogul's Syrian pipeline break down when a London newspaper claims Mogul is building a rival line across Israel, and Willy Izard and Peter Thornton are confined by an angry Syrian general. In London, Brian Stead sets Eileen O'Rourke to find out who planted the story, just as an Egyptian official arrives asking Mogul for a large interest-free loan.

E21

Never The Twain

3/15/1968·50m

Brian Stead sends Willy Izard to India to learn why Mogul lost a fertiliser plant contract to its American rival Zenith, while Alec Stewart lobbies the board to put its money into the United States instead. In New Delhi, Izard finds the contract unexpectedly back on offer, but the Indian government's conditions are tough, support from London is uncertain and his local partner Tandon may have his own plans.

E22

Cut Off Whose Nose

3/22/1968·49m

Gavin and Sarah Malet, a Mogul couple working in Iran, are arrested after helping Daud, the addict son of the tribal chief Feruz Khan, to get away to Abadan. As Charles Grandmercy and Peter Thornton try to have them freed, Brian Stead in London threatens to use Mogul's large Iranian investment as leverage, while quietly pursuing a deal of his own over newly found mineral deposits.

E23

The Day The Sea Caught Fire

3/29/1968·50m

A gas explosion destroys a Mogul rig off Sicily, leaving a single survivor. Willy Izard goes to Cefalù to settle compensation and finds that a lawyer with Mafia connections, Giovanni Coltroni, has taken charge of the bereaved families and the local fishermen. Meanwhile Peter Thornton is ordered to tow a replacement rig across the Atlantic, through hurricane waters where the insurers will not cover it.

E24

The Dispossessed

4/5/1968·50m

After rebel attacks on Mogul property in Aden, Brian Stead sends Charles Grandmercy and Peter Thornton to hand the main storage depot over to the new government. Both the ministers and the rebels want the veteran British depot manager, Nichols, removed, even though he runs the place efficiently in his own unorthodox way, backed by his own armed local workforce.

E25

The Wrecking Of The Sierra Nevada

4/19/1968·51m

The Sierra Nevada, one of Mogul's largest tankers, runs aground on a Florida reef with a cargo of 120,000 tons of oil as a hurricane approaches. Brian Stead sends Peter Thornton with authority to have the ship bombed if the coast is threatened, but Alec Stewart, who regards Florida as his territory, backs salvage expert Hans Daniels and his plan to refloat her.

E26

The Minister of the Crown... and the Very Compromising Photograph

5/3/1968·49m

Matt Mathias, the Minister of Power, attacks Mogul publicly at a rig launch, deepening a stand-off with the Gas Council over the price of North Sea gas. Hoping to earn a move to London, Alec Stewart sets out to make peace with the minister at an embassy reception, where an innocent mishap involving Eileen O'Rourke is captured by a press photographer in a very misleading light.

Season 2

26 Episodes

1966

E01

Is That Tiger, Man

4/30/1966·51m

Peter Thornton has led Mogul to a major offshore find in the Caribbean and expects promotion to London, but the post goes to newcomer Alec Stewart, who arrives to tell him he must stay on as Regional Supervisor. Thornton's restless wife Steve, longing for home, begins an affair with diving instructor Tiger. Then a rig leg sinks into the seabed, and Tiger is the only diver at hand.

E02

When You Gotta Go

5/7/1966·49m

Mogul is sponsoring Canadian Bob Stacey's attempt on the world water speed record, but after repeated failures and delays Brian Stead wants to withdraw. With his own career tied to the project, Alec Stewart wins a final week's grace and travels to Sweden's Lake Vattern. There he finds a driver haunted by a bad crash at Indianapolis, and doubts grow about both his nerve and the boat.

E03

Thea

5/14/1966·49m

Touring the Caribbean as Mogul's new regional supervisor, Peter Thornton is in Trinidad when one of the exploration crew is killed in a blast. His fiancée Thea then arrives convinced he is still alive and sets out to find him. Raised in a strict religious sect and estranged from her family, she comes to lean on Thornton as the island prepares for carnival.

E04

If You Can't Lick 'Em

5/21/1966·47m

When the small petrol company FMP starts eating into Mogul's sales, Alec Stewart and Peter Thornton trace its success to Ian Bixby, its newly appointed managing director. Brian Stead decides Mogul should simply hire him, though Stewart has misgivings. Bixby also holds a valuable stake in FMP, and Stewart and Jane Webb track him to Romania, where he is in talks to acquire petrol from fields that Mogul lost to nationalisation.

E05

This Is Where I Came In

5/28/1966·50m

Peter Thornton travels to Riba, a former British colony in East Borneo, to bring home Geoffrey Arles, who manages the Mogul oilfield there, taking his wife Steve along in a last effort to save their marriage. The Prime Minister wants Arles kept in place and has twice stopped Mogul from handing the post to a local man. Thornton finds his reasoning hard to accept and resolves to get Arles out.

E06

Birdstrike

6/4/1966·49m

An airliner comes down near London Airport on the first flight powered by a new Mogul fuel, and Brian Stead asks Alec Stewart to establish whether the company bears any blame. Reluctant at first to interfere with the official inquiries, Stewart is gradually drawn deeper into the investigation. The airline's representative, Monserrat Vera, insists the pilot was far too experienced to have made a mistake.

E07

The Fires of Hell

6/11/1966·49m

Jane Webb and Peter Thornton expect a restful voyage home aboard a Mogul supertanker, until anonymous letters start threatening to destroy the ship. As events foretold in the letters begin to happen, suspicion falls on Captain Kenny, his young second wife, his daughter and her husband, chief engineer Arthur Frost. Thornton has to find the writer before the tanker reaches Southampton, where the last threat says it will be blown up.

E08

Wingless Wonder

6/18/1966·50m

Brian Stead plans to withdraw Mogul from North Sea exploration and sell its concessions to the state Fuel Board. Then young seismic surveyor Roy Binns claims Mogul has supplied false data to inflate their value, and a scandal erupts. While Stead sets Peter Thornton and others to work on the affair, Jane Webb finds herself falling for Roy, putting her loyalty to Mogul under strain.

E09

Cablegrams Come Expensive

6/25/1966·49m

After his divorce, Peter Thornton spends a month's leave in Australia with his mother and the friends he grew up with. Wary of new attachments, he is nonetheless drawn to Ruth Saire, and is then offered the post of running a new Queensland state oil commission. When he discovers that Ruth works for the minister behind the offer, he suspects she has been used to win him over.

E10

Operation Saigon

7/2/1966·49m

Alec Stewart flies to Saigon for talks with Gareth Williams, head of Mogul's local marketing office, and is soon caught up in the realities of the Vietnam war. A youth who offered him black market currency is arrested for a bomb attack he did not commit and faces execution. Ignoring advice that nothing can be done, Stewart sets about finding someone with the influence to save him.

E11

Baptism of Fire

7/9/1966·48m

When a Mogul well in Qualar catches fire, Alec Stewart, who happens to be passing through with Jane Webb, takes charge. Peter Thornton is sent from Rome to deal with it, only to find Stewart has already flown in renowned American firefighter Edgar Paley. Thornton resents being sidelined, dislikes Paley's methods and is further irritated by the attention Paley pays to Jane.

E12

Join the Club

7/16/1966·49m

Still unsettled by his son's death, Willy Izard is tempted by a job offer from an American oil broker in New York. Brian Stead is alarmed, both for Mogul's secrets and for Izard himself, after Alec Stewart learns that the Americans have a habit of hiring and then dropping men like him. Stead quietly holds back a deadline message and sends Izard off with Jane Webb to present the prizes at a Mogul car rally.

E13

Do Your Best For The Lads

7/23/1966·48m

Brian Stead sends Peter Thornton to Tyneside to order a new supertanker, but the yard cannot deliver within the year Mogul needs. Faster delivery depends on two rival unions merging and ending demarcation. One leader backs the idea for his own political reasons, while veteran Sam Jardine opposes it on principle, and Thornton's involvement with Jardine's daughter Ellen complicates the struggle.

E14

Someone's Head Has To Roll

7/30/1966·49m

Rumours suggest the British government will cancel the Bald Eagle missile project, which would expose the millions Mogul has secretly overspent developing its TDX fuel, spending Brian Stead approved without the board's consent. Alec Stewart finds that the project's main opponent is Tom Sinclair, a senior Treasury official. With board member Price asking awkward questions, Stewart and Stead look for ways to bring pressure on Sinclair and the minister.

E15

Troubled Waters

8/6/1966·46m

Brian Stead visits Tembigo to inspect Mogul's costly new semi-submersible rig, the Moaia, and tells Peter Thornton he is to be transferred back to London. Meteorologist Denny Carson is tracking Hurricane Sophia, which looks likely to miss the island, though some of the crew feel uneasy about the rig. When the storm changes course, Thornton finds himself aboard the Moaia as it bears the full force.

E16

What's Yours Is Mine

8/13/1966·50m

Dibouti's government takes over Mogul's Dekla refinery and harbour, a move engineered by its British economic adviser John Hallmaine. Brian Stead flies out with Alec Stewart, a legal adviser, Jane Webb and Dowding, a Foreign Office man whose purpose he distrusts. Stead offers Dibouti a stake while keeping control for Mogul, but the delegation will accept nothing less than full state ownership.

E17

The Bigger They Are

8/20/1966·48m

Mogul is choosing a site for a new Mediterranean refinery, and Brian Stead has engaged Dr Newman, an outside computer consultant, to find the best location. Michael Rennane withholds Italian marketing figures to protect his own plans for expansion in Italy, and Stead goes over his head. As Rome links market entry to a refinery in southern Italy, Alec Stewart is caught between Rennane, Mogul's Italian agent Count Solferini and the computer's verdict.

E18

Some Wet Night In Sauchiehall Street

8/27/1966·50m

Brian Stead sends Peter Thornton to a remote desert pumping station in Libya, where two engineers are backing rival plans to re-equip the pipeline. Bruce MacCallum favours a bold automated system but is drinking heavily, while Andrew Garvie offers a cautious, carefully costed scheme. Thornton must judge both plans and both men, and soon learns that rival company Zenith has been courting Mogul's staff.

E19

Error of Judgement

9/3/1966·47m

Alec Stewart takes part in the Tour of Europe rally alongside temperamental professional driver Ray Kennedy, a publicity venture Brian Stead backs over Willy Izard's objections. Kennedy's reckless driving soon alarms Stewart, and in a French village he knocks a young girl off her bicycle. Held by local policeman Giraud while her condition remains uncertain, the two men turn on each other as Mogul tries to keep the story quiet.

E20

They're Probably Drilling For Oil

9/10/1966·49m

Reports reach London that a Soviet state enterprise is building a camp to drill on Svalbard's Edge Island, right beside Mogul's concession. Brian Stead sends Peter Thornton to find out whether the Russians are encroaching. After contriving a visit to the Soviet camp with engineer Nina Kapler, Thornton has mechanic Per Heiden take a detour across the ice by snowcat to check the boundary, a decision that puts both men in danger.

E21

A Run For Their Money

9/17/1966·50m

Alec Stewart is sent to Llaneris in South Wales to steer Mogul's plans for a £30 million refinery and deep-water dock past local opposition. Stewart finds the preservationist campaign led by Grace Trevor, an old wartime acquaintance, while dockers' shop steward Elwyn Leonard fears the scheme will cost jobs in the long run. With nationalist Gareth Morris also on the attack, the matter goes to a public enquiry.

E22

Happy Landings

9/24/1966·50m

Alan Prescott, who runs Mogul's Inverness depot, comes to Head Office in London for an executive training course. A dinner invitation from Alec Stewart, once a young pilot under his wartime command, convinces Prescott that a senior post in London awaits him, along with an escape from a life he finds stale. As he pursues the idea and pays court to Jane Webb, trouble is brewing back at his depot.

E23

There's Nothing Like The Great Outdoors

10/1/1966·47m

With an annual general meeting approaching and nothing to report from Petawanga Lake in Ontario, Brian Stead sends Peter Thornton to find out why the survey team has drawn a blank. Thornton finds the camp split between cautious senior geologist John Horler and the impatient Brian Skinner. The arrival of Frank Marshall, a rich Texan hunter, and his wife Honey at a nearby camp adds to the strain.

E24

Out Of Your Evil Dream

10/8/1966·50m

At Mogul's research laboratory in southern France, scientist John Bartlett finds that a new agricultural insecticide has damaged the brains of laboratory monkeys. Fearing harm to humans or military misuse, he goes over his superior Macann's head to Brian Stead, who sends Alec Stewart to silence him. When Bartlett threatens to go to the press, Roz Stewart is asked to talk to him, and a troubled private life comes to light.

E25

Four Cheers For Geoffrey

10/15/1966·50m

An anonymous letter tells Brian Stead that Geoffrey Brady, a rising personnel manager newly moved to the Lisbury petrochemical works, is a Communist agitator. Alec Stewart looks into his past and finds a ruthless careerist who has cut himself off from his family. Peter Thornton then goes undercover as Brady's disaffected assistant, where poor conditions at the resins plant are stirring up trouble on the shop floor.

E26

No Such Thing As Luck

10/22/1966·44m

Under pressure from the Ministry of Power and lagging behind its rivals' North Sea gas finds, Mogul loses its main rig to storm damage. Peter Thornton secures early delivery of a new rig, the Ocean Pearl, and, against the chief geologist's advice, insists on drilling a block of his own choosing, with Alec Stewart backing him. Brian Stead makes both men answerable, and offshore a run of setbacks feeds the superstitions of toolpusher Al Nillson's crew.