Edge of Darkness

1 9 8 5 (UK)
6 x 55 minute episodes

Edge of Darkness was a unique BBC2 drama about a dour north-country police inspector who tries to come to terms with his activist daughter's death, and ends up involved in an international conspiracy involving environmental terrorism, plutonium, and the Knights of St John. 

There were even hints at the conspiracy being the latest battle in a centuries-old struggle between two secret medieval societies.

Written by Troy Kennedy Martin, the series starred the late Bob Peck as Craven and Joe  Don Baker as Jedburgh, a golf-obsessed American agent. Joanne Whalley played Craven's daughter (and went on in real life to marry Val Kilmer).

The action took place in Craven's cottage, the corridors of Whitehall, an underground nuclear power station (called Northmoor) and an abandoned nuclear bunker stocked by Harrods (!). In the original ending, Craven turned into a tree, but after much argument, the filmed ending is more enigmatic. Either that, or he becomes a flower.

The atmospheric music was provided by Eric Clapton.