Floodtide

1 9 8 7 – 1 9 8 8 (UK)
13 x 60 minute episodes

Ex-pat British doctor Ramsey (Philip Sayer) is now living in a fishing village on the coast of Normandy in France, where his quiet life is divided between the local hospital where he works, his battered old fishing boat, his wine-drinking dog, and a love affair with his aristocratic French girlfriend Dany (Sybil Maas).

The mysterious death of his oldest friend, high-flying Defence Secretary Exton Waite, drives Ramsey to pursue a private vendetta he knows he can’t win against Lambert (Georges Trillat), the ruthless head of a powerful European drug smuggling cartel.

Ramsey’s search for Lambert takes him from London to the North West coast of England and deep into the heart of the French countryside and leaves him caught between the drug network and an undercover police surveillance operation.

Regular characters included Exton Waite’s widow Beryl (Linda Marlowe), his 24-year-old daughter Tessa (Gaby Dellal), his mistress Isabel (Connie Booth), and tough-but-honest Detective Inspector Brook (John Benfield)

Written by Roger Marshall (who also wrote the similarly-styled Travelling Man), the Granada Television series was particularly suited to viewers who like their conspiracies to be unravelled leisurely with plenty of significant silences.

Floodtide aired in some European markets as The Cocaine Run.

Ramsey
Philip Sayer
Dany
Sybil Maas
Det. Insp. Brook
John Benfield
Lambert
Georges Trillat
Tessa Waite
Gaby Dellal
Beryl Waite
Linda Marlowe
McCrae
Andrew Wilde
Isabel
Connie Booth
Serge
Raoul Delfosse
PF
Alfred Lynch
Marcel
Olivier Pagès