Kavanagh QC (TV Series) The Burning Deck (1996) User Reviews

They both did it, one of them did it or neither of them did it

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 16 April 2010]

This episode is good, even if it never quite convinces. John Thaw is very good as Kavanagh and Geraldine James makes a welcome return as Eleanor Harker. The plot isn't as tightly structured or as compelling this time around and some of the courtroom scenes lack fire and feel underplayed on occasions. Out of the supporting performances, Lisa Harrow, Rupert Penry-Jones and Ray Winstone come off best. The script is decent, the camera work is of high quality and the music is beautiful.

Overall, not a complete disaster, elevated by some great acting and production values but one of the least convincing episodes of the series. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Poignant

[luckyribka · 10/10 · 27 March 2022]

It's the best episode in my opinion. Honestly, I didn't expect the outcome. Well before Brokeback Mountain. It's just nice, even it is only a movie, to see a true honour and dignity of a man.

The Burning Deck

[Prismark10 · 3/10 · 3 April 2020]

Regan (John Thaw) meets Regan (Ray Winstone) in this rather tedious story. Mainly because it is set in a court martial and most of it consists of the trial. It is all very dry.

Kinross and Jones are Royal Navy sailors who are both accused of setting the barrack room on fire.

It might have helped if the viewer had seen how the incident happened.

However the way the story is structured, seeing the incident would have robbed it of its various nuances. Bullying, romance, jealousy.

The episode is a misfire. Even the side stories were not that interesting including a surprise party thrown to celebrate the Kavanagh's wedding anniversary.

Kavanagh himself was so miffed that his client lied to him that he does not bother much with mitigation. Maybe Kavanagh should had found the reasons he lied before sentencing happened. So Kavanagh could had gone hell for leather to try to get him off lightly.

There is a confrontation at the end between Kavanagh and an officer with a big chip on his shoulder (Winston) which is powerful and yet also unsatisfactory.

An Unconvincing Episode

[thomas-j-jemielity-1 · 4/10 · 25 August 2007]

Kavanagh admires a young military defendant's decision to confess to a crime he didn't commit. He does this as an act of friendship for a military colleague he has known since boyhood. The problem is that this act leaves that young military friend at the mercy of an immediate superior whose antipathy to the friend is, as Kavanagh learns, even more sinister. Despite this realization, Kavanagh does not use this information in questioning the superior officer and so leaves us with a very unsatisfactory conclusion to the story. "Greater love ..." says Kavanagh at the end, presumably the moral of the tale. "Greater stupidity ... " is more like it. This one really disappoints.

Too much in too little.

[robsmithjr · 4/10 · 1 July 2019]

A chapter in the series that is muddled with too many stories and ends, seemingly, to make some point lost in the what had been presented.

I count five different stories strung together for this episode. All are done poorly and together makes the episode hard to follow or understand. Maybe if the writers had focused more upon the Kavanaugh part of the story, it would, or could, have been stronger and make the whole far better.

Instead, the episode is held down by cuts to various soap opera-esque elements that are mostly left as loose ends. I, myself, don't care if I learned any more about any of it. Sadly, the Kavanaugh part ends up reflecting this direction, though not connected.

Even Thaw's usual exceptional acting skills, which are not at full speed here, doesn't save this mess.