Episode 1
Dragon By The Tail
Oct 13, 1967
With riots unsettling Kowloon, Brian Stead sends Peter Thornton out to Hong Kong, posing as a tourist, to follow up a secret approach. Ho Man Chin, a senior technician at China's Taching oilfield, is said to want to defect with details of new Chinese drilling methods. Through local manager Richard Short, Thornton meets Ho's daughter Esther, who says a guide wants a large sum to arrange her father's escape, and Thornton suspects a trap.
Episode 2
The Daring Young Man
Oct 20, 1967
As part of a Canadian takeover deal, Brian Stead agrees to take Mike Szabo, the Harvard-educated nephew of the retiring company president, onto his staff. But Mike has turned his back on business and is driving across North Africa with Virginia-Ann Straker to teach in Malawi. Peter Thornton is told to find them, and catches up with the couple at a remote and struggling Mogul wildcat rig deep in the Fezzan.
Episode 3
Where The Carpet Ends
Oct 27, 1967
A junior secretary, Ann Rendell, is sacked after £800 goes missing from the handbag of Gladys West, who has served as Brian Stead's secretary for years. Unhappy that she was dismissed without an inquiry, Willy Izard looks into the case himself. The Wests' lavish lifestyle arouses his suspicions about her husband George, a company geologist, and he enlists Peter Thornton to examine George's work at the Goring laboratory.
Episode 4
Winner Lose All
Nov 10, 1967
Peter Thornton is supervising tests of the Savory IV powerboat ahead of the Offshore Powerboat Race, but the engines keep overheating and builder Dino Marinetti blames Mogul's lubricants. Its wealthy owner, Sir John Savory, gives Thornton twenty hours to cure the fault or lose the contract, then draws him in as co-driver after the usual driver is injured. In London, Willy Izard and Brian Stead face a price war in Southampton.
Episode 5
A Nice White Girl - Is She For Sale?
Nov 17, 1967
Oil has been found in ar Rahba, and Mike Szabo finds its ruler, Sheik Falik, demanding punishing terms for the development rights. Brian Stead wants a contract signed before rivals step in and sends Szabo back with Eileen O'Rourke from public relations, whose company the sheik requested. On arrival Szabo learns that both Zenith and Kulatov, a senior Russian, are competing for the concession.
Episode 6
Mr. Know-How
Nov 24, 1967
When a rail disaster claims the life of the man in charge of the Mogul-Hart Special Oils subsidiary, and his deputy is not expected to survive, Willy Izard and Brian Stead are forced to find a replacement quickly. Colin Maddox impresses at interview but lacks motor trade experience. Learning from Kim Hart that her father Bernard, the firm's former owner, has money troubles, Izard suggests bringing him back, though Stead doubts so independent a man will fit in.
Episode 7
And The Walls Came Tumbling Down
Dec 1, 1967
An earthquake and tidal wave devastate the Moroccan port of Torkoz, where Peter Thornton was on a watching brief, and he is found in a makeshift hospital in shock and with no memory. Then local people fall ill from toxic oil scavenged from a ruined bunker, and the drums are traced to Mogul. As a journalist threatens to expose the company, Brian Stead sends Charles Grandmercy out to limit the damage.
Episode 8
Good Lord, No, It's Illegal
Dec 8, 1967
Peter Thornton is in Singapore arranging Mogul's planned £35 million refinery when Mei San warns him that Ian Palmer, her husband and Gruger's Bank's man in Singapore, means to stop the loan. After Thornton and Mei San survive a car crash, Palmer's opposition takes on a personal edge. In London, Brian Stead needs a bridging loan from Gruger's and also faces a request from his daughter Moira that would break exchange control rules.
Episode 9
Thanks For Nothing
Dec 15, 1967
Alec Stewart takes up his post in New York as Mogul's US director, only to be told by Charles Grandmercy that Brian Stead no longer trusts him and that Grandmercy is ready to step in. Stewart goes over the head of veteran manager Brian Winstanley to bid for Viner Garages, which owns over two hundred filling stations. But Winstanley's assistant is feeding information to Zenith, and his unhappy wife Lois has her own reasons for wanting the deal to fail.
Episode 10
Rest You Merry
Dec 22, 1967
Two men die when an explosion and fire tear through Ballygrena, Mogul's automated refinery in Ulster, and Brian Stead sends Peter Thornton, Charles Grandmercy and Eileen O'Rourke to investigate and handle the publicity. Refinery manager McQuitty, an old colleague of Thornton's, points the finger at supervisor Harry Cobbett. Over Christmas in London, Stead's estranged daughter Moira arrives home just as he is courting an East German minister over a sensitive deal.
Episode 11
Who Buys Who?
Dec 29, 1967
Awaiting a House of Lords ruling on its exclusive supply contracts, Mogul calls Peter Thornton back from leave to stop cut-price rival Javelin Petroleum winning over garage owner Big Gally Gallacher, an old friend whom Brian Stead sacked years ago. Gally needs money to take his gravely ill wife Saroya abroad. Meanwhile a criminal gang offers him a large sum for occasional, no-questions-asked use of his premises.
Episode 12
The Deeper You Dig
Jan 5, 1968
Brian Stead shelves Cab Eleven, a Mogul afterburner that sharply cuts carbon monoxide from car exhausts, even though Peter Thornton believes it could make road tunnels practical. When the government favours a rail-only Channel Tunnel and Joan Maple, an Opposition MP, leaks the device's details, Stead gives Thornton a month to prove it publicly. A large-scale test in the Blackwall Tunnel is arranged as rival Trident threatens a patent fight.
Episode 13
Kitchener Knew It Well
Jan 12, 1968
With Mogul's bunkering depot in Aden under threat after the British withdrawal, Brian Stead goes to Sudan himself to assess the old port of Suakin as an alternative. There he meets a wartime colleague and Helena, a woman from his past, who urges him to leave business behind. In London, Willy Izard decides to test the port by sending a tanker, while Peter Thornton and Eileen O'Rourke uncover a problem in the channel.
Episode 14
The Sharp End Of The Wedge
Jan 19, 1968
Someone is trying to charter 400,000 tons of tankers for Dibouti, and Brian Stead, fearing a civil war that could endanger Mogul's storage at Maradi, wants to know who. Foreign Office man Dowding recruits Peter Thornton to pose as a rival buyer in Paris. The trail leads through the gangster Grimaud to Considine, head of the Swiss arms firm Eurarmco, and the deception grows steadily more dangerous.
Episode 15
Just A Bunch Of Arabs In Kilts
Jan 26, 1968
When Mogul finds oil near Ruag, an island off Scotland, the Scottish Republican Army, led by Mackenzie, sabotages the rig and demands royalties for Scotland. Brian Stead dismisses the threat as a hoax and sends Peter Thornton north, but Thornton is kidnapped on arrival at Glasgow Airport. The SRA gives Stead 24 hours to read out a statement agreeing to negotiate.
Episode 16
Not For My Friend - He's Driving
Feb 9, 1968
Brian Stead wants to hold on to Mogul's option on Venezuela's Aragua field as an emergency reserve, but in Caracas the official Escardo is stalling Charles Grandmercy so that it will lapse in favour of rival Anzoapet. A clause says the option renews if work begins on site. Stead sends Alec Stewart and Jimmy Saxon, a transport specialist, to drive an Alvis Stalwart across country to the field, and Anzoapet sets out to stop them.
Episode 17
Stop It, You're Breaking My Heart
Feb 16, 1968
A Soviet drilling rig anchors right beside Mogul's North Sea platform, Mogmac, off Scotland, claiming to be drilling outside national jurisdiction for a Cuban company that never signed the continental shelf convention. Rig superintendent Eddie Barnaby finds that the rig is run by Nina Kapler, someone from his past. In London, Brian Stead and Willy Izard get little help from the Foreign Office, and the Russians come forward with an offer of a trade.
Episode 18
A Girl To Warm Your Feet On
Feb 23, 1968
Mogul wants to drop out of a Thai offshore tender after the government imposes harsh terms and bans any survey work, but a Thai minister insists the company honours its bid. Left to arrange a quiet exit, Peter Thornton decides he first needs to know whether there is oil there, and hires American pilot and geologist Bob Plater to photograph the concession from across the border in Burma.
Episode 19
Give Me The Simple Life
Mar 1, 1968
Brian Stead approves a £200 million investment in Canada's Athabasca tar sands but insists that Alec Stewart refer every decision to London. Stewart looks for ways to fund the scheme without head office, while Willy Izard and Eileen O'Rourke, visiting Alberta, learn that the planned plant would force a self-sufficient Hutterite community to leave its land.
Episode 20
A Slight Problem With The Press
Mar 8, 1968
Talks in Aleppo over transit fees for Mogul's Syrian pipeline break down when a London newspaper claims Mogul is building a rival line across Israel, and Willy Izard and Peter Thornton are confined by an angry Syrian general. In London, Brian Stead sets Eileen O'Rourke to find out who planted the story, just as an Egyptian official arrives asking Mogul for a large interest-free loan.
Episode 21
Never The Twain
Mar 15, 1968
Brian Stead sends Willy Izard to India to learn why Mogul lost a fertiliser plant contract to its American rival Zenith, while Alec Stewart lobbies the board to put its money into the United States instead. In New Delhi, Izard finds the contract unexpectedly back on offer, but the Indian government's conditions are tough, support from London is uncertain and his local partner Tandon may have his own plans.
Episode 22
Cut Off Whose Nose
Mar 22, 1968
Gavin and Sarah Malet, a Mogul couple working in Iran, are arrested after helping Daud, the addict son of the tribal chief Feruz Khan, to get away to Abadan. As Charles Grandmercy and Peter Thornton try to have them freed, Brian Stead in London threatens to use Mogul's large Iranian investment as leverage, while quietly pursuing a deal of his own over newly found mineral deposits.
Episode 23
The Day The Sea Caught Fire
Mar 29, 1968
A gas explosion destroys a Mogul rig off Sicily, leaving a single survivor. Willy Izard goes to Cefalù to settle compensation and finds that a lawyer with Mafia connections, Giovanni Coltroni, has taken charge of the bereaved families and the local fishermen. Meanwhile Peter Thornton is ordered to tow a replacement rig across the Atlantic, through hurricane waters where the insurers will not cover it.
Episode 24
The Dispossessed
Apr 5, 1968
After rebel attacks on Mogul property in Aden, Brian Stead sends Charles Grandmercy and Peter Thornton to hand the main storage depot over to the new government. Both the ministers and the rebels want the veteran British depot manager, Nichols, removed, even though he runs the place efficiently in his own unorthodox way, backed by his own armed local workforce.
Episode 25
The Wrecking Of The Sierra Nevada
Apr 19, 1968
The Sierra Nevada, one of Mogul's largest tankers, runs aground on a Florida reef with a cargo of 120,000 tons of oil as a hurricane approaches. Brian Stead sends Peter Thornton with authority to have the ship bombed if the coast is threatened, but Alec Stewart, who regards Florida as his territory, backs salvage expert Hans Daniels and his plan to refloat her.
Episode 26
The Minister of the Crown... and the Very Compromising Photograph
May 3, 1968
Matt Mathias, the Minister of Power, attacks Mogul publicly at a rig launch, deepening a stand-off with the Gas Council over the price of North Sea gas. Hoping to earn a move to London, Alec Stewart sets out to make peace with the minister at an embassy reception, where an innocent mishap involving Eileen O'Rourke is captured by a press photographer in a very misleading light.
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