Three British soldiers and their German captive trek through the European countryside.

Mute of Malice
Kavanagh's defence of an army chaplain accused of killing his brother is made all the more difficult by the fact that his client refuses to speak. Is he simply being uncooperative, or has the trauma of service in Bosnia rendered him mute? Meanwhile, Aldermarten faces traumas of his own when the judge involved in his case has a nervous breakdown.
Blood Money
When her husband dies in the operating theater following a car crash, Sarah Meadows believes there is a case of negligence. With Jeremy Aldermarten representing the hospital, Kavanagh agrees to take on her case, despite his misgivings as to the likelihood of winning. The surgeon left the theater before closure, but at a point when the patient was doing well. In Chambers, Kavanagh is asked to speak to one of his colleagues over her behavior. At home Kavanagh and his wife are disappointed when son Matt fails his A-level exams.
Ancient History
Kavanagh prosecutes an apparently blameless family doctor in an unprecedented war crimes trial and finds himself wondering about the fallibility of human memory after fifty years. The court hears devastating testimony, as victims of Nazi atrocities relive their experiences of concentration camps.

Diplomatic Baggage
Natasha Jackson is the daughter of the UK's ambassador-designate to Austria, Sir Alan Jackson. She is charged with murder in the death of Lisa Aeurbach, a journalist. Natasha's defense is that the woman was dead when she arrived for an interview. The case takes an interesting twist when Kavanagh is approached by a mysterious government official whose only concern is to keep HM's ambassador-designate as far away from scandal as possible. Matt decides to move out on his own and his parents are surprised to learn he's sharing a flat with two attractive young women. In Chambers, Peter Foxcott takes an interest in an old friend he has not seen for many years.
The Ties That Bind
Kavanagh agrees to take on a private prosecution against Ian Vincent who is believed to have beaten 17-year old Graham Foster to death for having stolen a briefcase from his car. Vincent's stepfather, Ron Baab, heads a crime family and tries to buy everyone off with both money and veiled threats. There is little solid evidence and the case relies primarily on Graham's girlfriend who has also been threatened. In Chambers meanwhile, Aldermarten is anxiously awaiting the results of his application to join an exclusive mens club to which Peter Foxcott is a member.
In God We Trust
Kavanagh finds himself in Florida assisting his one-time pupil Julia Piper in preparing an appeal for an inmate who is on death row and awaiting execution in the electric chair. It is apparent that his original defense was badly handled from the start. Many facts were left unchallenged by the defense and no mitigation was offered at the sentencing stage despite his limited emotional development and abuse-laden upbringing. When Julia goes into premature labor, Kavanagh finds himself actually pleading the case and uncovering the true nature of what happened. At home meanwhile, Lizzie Kavanagh learns some distressing news from her doctors but waits until her husband's return to tell him.

1. "Nothing but the Truth" (3 January 1995)
Successful but over-worked barrister James Kavanagh defends David Armstrong, played by Ewan MacGregor, a Cambridge student of impeccable background who is accused of rape by Eve Kendall, played by Alison Steadman, the wife of his employer. Eve's husband Alan is having an affair and she is lonely, which, at first sight, makes her seem to be a fantasist fabricating a consentual happening, which is Kavanagh 's line of defence. However he also has to face the fact that his wife Lizzie, upset by her husband's workaholism, is having an affair with a colleague.
2. "Heartland" (10 January 1995)
In Sunderland a young former car thief is run over by a local vigilante, leaving him brain damaged. His mother asks Kavanagh to take on the case despite lack of sufficient evidence.
3. "A Family Affair" (17 January 1995)
Michael Duggan has received an eight-month sentence for kidnapping his own son. Kavanagh defended him and now Duggan's ex-wife and her new husband are seeking a court order banning all contact between him and the child. The case takes a turn when Duggan reveals to his solicitor that the boy's stepfather is abusing him. In a separate case, Kavanagh is prosecuting a pornographer whose defence is that her work is art. At home, Kavanagh faces the inevitable when daughter Kate wants her boyfriend to spend the night. In Chambers, Aldermarten considers running for Parliament and asks a special favor from Julia.
4. "The Sweetest Thing" (24 January 1995)
Kavanagh defends Annie Lewis, a high class prostitute accused of killing an entrepreneur who had a reputation for being a risk-taker and who regularly enjoyed the company of paid escorts. Annie claims she is innocent and refuses a plea bargain offered by the prosecution. The defence challenges the testimony of witnesses who claim to have seen her leaving the hotel just prior to the murder, though she claims to have left several hours before. On the home front, Kavanagh is concerned about the future of his marriage when he learns Lizzie may get a senior level civil service appointment in Strasbourg and daughter Kate, who is about to leave for university, is having boyfriend problems. In Chambers, Jeremy is at his chauvinistic best when he initially refuses Julia's request to play in the annual cricket match.

Morse is pressed into service when, while attending a college dinner for an eclectic group of foreign summer students, a Japanese member of the group suddenly excuses himself and a short time later is found brutally murdered in his room. There are any number of suspects, several of whom had bad experiences with the Japanese during World War II and at least one student that is clearly not what he claims to be. When traces of drugs are found on the Japanese student's clothing the drug squad is now involved. But when a second member of the group is murdered, Morse is convinced that this is far more than a simple case of drug smuggling gone awry.

Spain 1812
After the siege of Cuidad Rodrigo, the Dule of Wellington plans to lay siege to Badajoz. Meanwhile, Teresa tells Sharpe he is now the father of their daughter, Antonia, who is in their target city of Badajoz.
A new draft arrives from England with Col. Windham and Capt. Rymer. In charge of the men is Sgt. Hakeswill, a murderous figure from Sharpe's past in India. Hakeswill becomes obsessed with Teresa and plans to use her to revenge himself on Sharpe.
Sharpe is told that the regiment no longer has a place for him as a captain, but he chooses to stay on as lieutenant and is made Quartermaster. In a bid for promotion he requests permission to lead the Forlorn Hope when the breach at Badajoz is stormed, but he is refused.
Sharpe is given the task of guiding Capt. Rymer and the Forlorn Hope to the breach. He watches as they are repulsed leaving many, including Rymer, dead. Against his previous orders, Sharpe takes his Chosen Men to the breach and leads the storming. They are successful.
Sharpe frantically looks for Teresa, but Hakeswill gets there first, intent on raping her. After a fight, Hakeswill is injured and flees. Sharpe has reason to be happy, he holds his daughter for the first time and is given command of the Light Company again, together with his captaincy. Burt will his happiness be short lived?

Sharpe is horrified to be told that his regiment,the South Essex,is to be disbanded and discovers a plot whereby corrupt war minister Fenner and other high ranking militarists auction off soldiers privately,keeping the profits but still claiming on paper that the regiments exist. Having gained the ear of the eccentric Prince of Wales who orders Fenner to give him a new regiment Sharpe is now in danger from Fenner and he and Harper survive an attempt to kill them. Putting it about that they are dead they enlist,using assumed names,in the South Essex,falling foul of vicious Sergeant Lynch and paranoid Colonel Girdwood who abuse the naive young recruits. After Harper is ordered to be shot he and Sharpe escape,helped by Jane Gibbons,whose sadistic,corrupt uncle Simmerson,who also benefits by the auction scam,intends to marry her to Girdwood. Jane knows that her uncle keeps a ledger containing all the illegal transactions,which Sharpe must obtain to bring down the miscreants.

France 1815
When Napoleon escapes from Elba, Sharpe is settled in Normandy with Lucille, but his sense of duty recalls him to the army, and he is promoted to Lt. Col. in the 5th (Belgian) Light Dragoons, under the command of William, Prince of Orange. Sharpe and Lucille head for Brussels where the Duke of Wellington is based, with Lord John Rossendale and Jane Sharpe nearby in the city.
Out on reconnaisance, Sharpe sees a mass of French soldiers. He and the Prince's chief of staff, Rebecque, try to discover if it is a feint prior to Napoleon attacking Mons. Sharpe believes the French are heading to Quatre Bras, to split the Allied and Prussian forces. With French forces gathering, Sharpe knows he must tell Wellington and interrupts him at the Duchess of Richmond's ball. After delivering his message, Sharpe heads for the front, rejoined by Sgt. Harper (retired) and riflemen Hagman.
After the battle at Quatre Bras, Sharpe and Harper are given their post, the farm at La Haie Sainte. Woefully undefended, the men there repulse attacks from the French in bloody combat. The Prince of Orange has made mistakes, ending in the senseless loss of life of good soldiers. Eventually, Sharpe has had enough of this.
Not only must Sharpe deal with incompetent orders from the Prince of Orange, that lead to slaughter, he confronts his wife's lover, Lord Rossendale, in the midst of battle. The film climaxes as Wellington's small army 'holds the line' against Napoleon's veteran Imperial Guard.

During the Crimean War between Britain and Russia in the 1850s, a British cavalry division, led by the overbearing Lord Cardigan, engages in an infamously reckless strategic debacle against a Russian artillery battery.

A huge panorama of Wagner's life and work, from before the 1848 Revolution, through his exile in Switzerland, his rescue by the besotted King Ludwig II of Bavaria to the final triumph at Bayreuth. Wagner's radical musical and political ideas, his German nationalism and even his anti-Semitism are set in the context of his life and times.