"Trial for Murder" (tx. 17/5/1974)
Written by David Ambrose, directed by John Frankau

Harriet interviews Muriel Parker at Holloway prison, where she is on remand, accused of murdering her husband. Muriel insists that she is innocent but admits that she hated her husband and that for the last twelve months she had been having an affair with Ronnie Manners. She also admits that she gave Ronnie £5,000 to settle gambling debts as soon as her husband died. Harriet decides it is best that Muriel not testify, as no one else knows about her affair with Ronnie.

In chambers, the clerk reprimands new barrister James Eliot for previously parking his car where Harriet normally leaves hers. James rebukes Bill for interfering. When Harriet arrives, James tells her that he is now parking his car in a nearby garage. Harriet is also using a garage, so Rosie the secretary uses the parking place instead. Harriet asks James for advice about Muriel, but he stops her as he has now been taken on to prosecute in the case. In court, the coroner testifies that Mr Parker died as a result of eating cheese together with his medication. James and Harriet have dinner that night. He is suspicious about her decision not to let Muriel testify.

Doctor Lomax is adamant in court that he told Muriel clearly that her husband couldn't eat cheese while taking his medication. Under Harriet's cross-examination he admits that he never considered Muriel as a potential murderer until the police suggested it. Harriet puts it to him that he should have been more detailed in telling Muriel what her husband could and couldn't take with the pills.

James takes Harriet to a dilapidated country house he is thinking of buying. He tells her that he has literary ambitions despite his great success as a barrister. In court, Muriel's housekeeper inadvertently reveals that Ronnie was given some of the Parkers' money, believing it to have been an act of charity. James learns that Muriel had given Ronnie money before her husband's death too. Muriel admits this but refuses to change her plea to guilty, no matter how bad it looks. In the witness box, Ronnie admits to James that he actually took the £5,000 to buy a house and win back his wife and child. Muriel is distraught and decides to testify that she deliberately poisoned her husband. She wants Ronnie to suffer in the knowledge of what she did for him.