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Oliver's Travels Season 1 Episodes

  • 1995-1995
  • 1 Season
  • PBS
  • Action & Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Suspense
  • Watchlist
    Where to Watch

Oliver is a middle-aged lecturer in Comparative Religion, with a passion for trivia, crosswords, and anagrams, and a very strange taste in jokes. Having been fired from the University of the Rhondda Valley, and with no family ties, he decides to set off on a quest to find "Aristotle", a setter of crosswords. He soon teams up with Woman Police Constable Diane Priest, who has just been suspended from the police force because she has been asking too many questions about a local murder that seems to implicate the Chief Constable. Pursued by Baxter ("the man with no name"), Oliver and Diane visit Shrewsbury, North Yorkshire, Durham, Hadrian's Wall, and Kirkleven in the Scottish highlands on their journey to find "Aristotle" in the Orkney Isles. Along the way, they uncover a major scandal centred around a property company. The laconic humor and the laid-back style are similar in many ways to The Beiderbecke Affair (1985), The Beiderbecke Tapes (1987), and The Beiderbecke Connection (1988) (also by Alan Plater), but with the added pleasure of word puzzles like those in Colin Dexter's "Inspector Morse" books.

Season 1 Episode Guide

Season 1

5 Episodes 1995 - 1995

Episode 1

Looking for Aristotle

Oliver is an eccentric professor of comparative religions at a university which is downsizing its humanities department. Now in forced retirement, Oliver, who is addicted to word games, puzzles, and anagrams, sets out in search of Aristotle, his favorite crossword puzzle compiler, but finds his Welsh home has burned down. When he reports Aristotle as a missing person to the police, he is considered a crackpot and assigned to WPC Diane Priest. In order to prove his sincerity to her, he researches the cold case of a murdered farmer and turns up evidence that her superintendent may be implicated in the unsolved homicide. When Priest confronts her superior with the evidence, she is put on suspension and conditionally agrees to accompany Oliver on his odyssey.

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Episode 2

Land of My Fathers

Oliver and Diane head to Shrewsbury to make inquiries about Griffiths death. A fire later breaks out at 19th Hole Developments. Diane's policeman ex-husband tells them to leave town while the intimidating Mr. Baxter starts following them.

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Episode 3

Why Did We Eat the Frogs?

Heading to Lindisfarne, Diane visits a police station to make inquires about the death of Adrian L. Walsh. Like Baxter, he worked at a subsidiary of the Farquar Group. Joined by son Michael the trio make for Baron Kite's ancestral home.

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Episode 4

The Farquhar Connection

Baron Kite claims he is just a figurehead chairman of the Farquhar Group. Oliver and Diane flee for their lives under attack from an helicopter gunship leaving Baxter shocked. Michael stole their code book so hacker Cathy can send a virus.

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Oliver's Travels, Season 1 Episode 4 image

Episode 5

Do We Look Like That?

Oliver's quest for Aristotle ends when he discovers the grave of compiler Mary Scott. Diane receives a fax with the names of the Farquhar Group but hands it to Baxter with arrests following. He worked undercover and is the new Aristotle.

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Oliver's Travels, Season 1 Episode 5 image