Episode 1
A Dirty Old Man And A Rare Bird
Jan 6, 1969
Peter Thornton receives a Canadian court order stopping work on Mogul's almost complete products pipeline to Detroit, on the grounds that the route crosses a nesting ground of rare white pelicans. As Mogul shares slide, Zenith proposes a merger, and both companies seek the backing of Foss, a reclusive Californian billionaire with a key shareholding who is closely guarded by his wife, Ghislaine.
Episode 2
Twenty Years Is No Time At All
Jan 13, 1969
Determined to resist a Zenith takeover, Brian Stead sends Peter Thornton to Singapore to meet Mogul's Sydney manager, Jack Burns, and Tamira Hitaki, who represents a consortium of Japanese firms keen on an alliance. Back in Singapore for the first time in twenty years, Burns shows open hostility towards Hitaki, and the venture is put at risk when he falls seriously ill.
Episode 3
How Much Is One Man Worth?
Jan 20, 1969
Geologist Ted Kihl, about to lose his job because of his drinking, is trapped by a rock fall deep in a cave in Malaysia. Peter Thornton, an old friend, abandons other business to lead the rescue and arranges a costly airlift of drilling equipment without authority from London, where Brian Stead is preparing a much bigger gamble of his own.
Episode 4
If He Hollers, Let Him Go
Jan 27, 1969
Zenith appears to have won control of Javelin Oil, leaving Mogul with an expensive minority stake in a falling market. Alec Stewart and his assistant Ginny Vickers discover that the shares that will settle the contest belong to a company owned by Ghislaine Foss, the unpredictable wife of a legendary oil tycoon, and Stewart searches for a legal way to stop her handing them to Zenith.
Episode 5
A Very Special Relationship
Feb 3, 1969
Mogul fears that French industrialist Paul Boulet, whose firm controls most of its French filling stations, is about to sell up. Brian Stead asks Peter Thornton to investigate, while Willy Izard discovers that Jean-Paul Valois, who runs Boulet's company, has drawn him into a scheme that makes him look like an accomplice to fraud. The pair set off to track down Boulet aboard his yacht in Malta.
Episode 6
There's A Nasty Word - Love
Feb 10, 1969
Plans for a Japanese partnership stall when the I.K.O. group demands a half share in the venture without putting up any capital, and London suspects Zenith of interfering. Alec Stewart flies to Tokyo with his wife, Roz, to take over the talks. Meanwhile Tamira Hitaki faces private turmoil over his engagement to American Emily Ryan, as he and his sister are both Hiroshima survivors.
Episode 7
You're Not Going to Believe This, But...
Feb 17, 1969
Peter Thornton is sent to Malaysia after Mogul's local manager, Andrew Frazer, forces a royal car off the road and insults its passenger, provoking a formal government protest. Frazer's wife, Valerie, confides that he has suffered mood swings and memory lapses for months, while officials press Mogul to change the way the refinery is run.
Episode 8
Take-Over Is Two Four-Letter Words
Feb 24, 1969
Following Mogul's takeover of Javelin Oil, former depot office manager Lionel Grieve occupies the closed Blackwall terminal with a handful of redundant workers and keeps hold of the tanker keys Mogul needs. Willy Izard and Peter Thornton are sent to end the sit-in, while Grieve's letters to the newspapers turn opinion against Mogul and Zenith looks for ways to profit from the embarrassment.
Episode 9
Everybody Is That Kind Of Man
Mar 3, 1969
Alec Stewart learns that Zenith negotiators are on Clydeside courting James MacTavish, the council planner behind an unpublished scheme for a refinery and deep-water harbour. With £200 million at stake, Brian Stead authorises Stewart to compete, and MacTavish, a man of firm socialist principles, finds himself pursued by both oil companies at once.
Episode 10
So You Think You're One Of Us
Mar 10, 1969
Mogul pays heavily for an oil concession in Portuguese Angola, but out at the site engineer Souza and Peter Thornton are seized by MPLA guerrillas, whose leader Nogemba wants Mogul to deal with his movement instead. Against Willy Izard's advice, Brian Stead approves secret talks and sends Amos Tucker, an economist from the West Indies, to help Thornton, a choice that proves more complicated than anyone expected.
Episode 11
They've More Than Their Assets Frozen
Mar 17, 1969
Determined to lift Mogul beyond Zenith's reach, Brian Stead puts Peter Thornton in charge of a secret drilling venture in the Alaskan Arctic. Thornton assembles men and equipment for the long journey across Canada, but in the Arctic one setback follows another, while back in London opposition to the costly gamble grows within the board.
Episode 12
There's This Bird, See...
Mar 24, 1969
Mogul's plan for a drilling base on the Indian Ocean island of Chelat meets fierce opposition, because the island is home to a rare flightless bird, the blue rail. When an alternative site is refused, Willy Izard brings in ornithologist Elka Lingstrum to survey the birds, Peter Thornton takes on an unusual assignment, and Brian Stead finds his own aunt, Maud Price, protesting inside his home.
Episode 13
You Want A Clockwork Nightingale
Mar 31, 1969
Alec Stewart and Willy Izard visit Johannesburg to find out why Mogul's South African sales keep falling despite an ever larger budget. With the marketing department in upheaval, Izard spots talent in the office mail clerk, Zeke 'Nkosi, who has ideas for selling to the country's neglected Black population, and backs him in the face of strong opposition from the local white management.
Episode 14
Don't Ask, Take
Apr 14, 1969
Mogul wants the patents for a new method of transporting oil devised by eccentric inventor Augustus Walker. Peter Thornton gets an introduction through Kelly Lee Marcus, a young American scientist and Walker's protégée, and he and Willy Izard set about winning Walker over, with the threat of a takeover held in reserve. Izard grows uneasy at Brian Stead's ruthless approach, but Walker may have plans of his own.
Episode 15
Dr. Liebling, I Presume
Apr 21, 1969
Peter Thornton visits Papua, where Mogul's costly search for oil has found nothing and London is ready to pull out. Local representative Bill Brough and District Commissioner Mathew Barber both want more time, and Thornton becomes suspicious on learning that Dr. Liebling, an American botanist working in the bush, is funded from Tokyo, raising the possibility that a Japanese rival is prospecting by the back door.
Episode 16
You Can't Trust Women
Apr 28, 1969
As Zenith's merger bid nears its final decision, the death of veteran shareholder Foss leaves his crucial stake to his young widow, Ghislaine. Mogul and Zenith both set out to win her over by whatever means they can, while Alec Stewart, struggling with problems in his private life, finds himself at the centre of Mogul's campaign.
Episode 17
Really. She Did, She Really Did
May 5, 1969
With the vote on Zenith's merger bid due, Brian Stead moves the board meeting beyond the reach of interference by taking the board, wives included, on an ocean voyage. Alec Stewart's marriage troubles colour his conduct, Stead's own feelings become involved, and everything turns on Ghislaine Foss, whose shares will decide the contest and whose intentions nobody can predict.
Episode 18
Some Of The Mud Is Bound To Stick
May 12, 1969
Leaving Algeria after an official visit as a guest of the government, Alec Stewart is detained at the airport over what appears to be a minor currency irregularity. The matter quickly becomes a charge of espionage, and neither Brian Stead nor the British government can secure his release before he is brought to trial.
Episode 19
Lord, What A Tangled Web
May 19, 1969
Brian Stead returns to Berlin for talks on a gas field that extends into East Germany, where the Soviet enterprise Sovneftprom is also present, ostensibly for a trade fair. His former wartime driver, Joachim Schmitt-Klever, attempts blackmail and feeds the West German press a false story about Stead and captured Afrika Korps maps, prompting the West Germans to walk out. Then Nina Kapler approaches Stead with a request.
Episode 20
And One Wise Man Came Out From The East
Jun 2, 1969
Brian Stead sends Peter Thornton straight from Alaska to Western Australia to look quietly into a quarrel among Mogul staff in his home country. When their helicopter strays off course, Thornton and geophysicist Erica Taplow are stranded in the searing heat of the outback with no radio and no salt tablets, an ordeal that leads him to question what working for Mogul is making of him.
Episode 21
Let's All Drop Out Together
Jun 9, 1969
Worn out by Alaska and Australia, Peter Thornton drops out to a quiet life in Fiji, while Willy Izard discovers that he enjoys lecturing students at Berkeley. When an unpopular decision means a Mogul drilling rig must be shifted out of New Zealand for New Guinea, Brian Stead sends Izard home through Fiji, hoping he can persuade Thornton to return and take on the job.
Episode 22
She'll Be Right Mate
Jun 16, 1969
Peter Thornton rejoins Mogul to remove the company's drilling rig from New Zealand, hoping that success will earn him a seat on the board. The rig is run by his old friend Ed Ahu Riri, and the crew refuse to leave, drilling on in the hope of striking oil in time, leaving Thornton torn between admiration for the crew, loyalty to the company and his own ambitions.
Episode 23
A Very Bad Day For Travelling
Jun 23, 1969
On landing in Ceylon, Peter Thornton finds Mogul's local office closed and nobody answering his calls. Mogul wants to expand its installations on the island, but the English manager, Henry Burton, opposes the plan on the advice of his astrologer, and Thornton has to work out whether the stars are really what is holding him back.
Episode 24
This Place Is A Paradise, Mister
Jun 30, 1969
Mogul is drilling off the Caribbean island of Tambego, but its self-styled ruler, King Watt, refuses to grant land facilities. Peter Thornton is sent to negotiate and is promptly held captive, and the same fate awaits Ginny Vickers and Willy Izard when they come after him. Watt's daughter Elizabeth sees Thornton as her way out, while French anthropologist Dr. Leduc fears Mogul will wreck her experiment on the islanders.
Episode 25
They Call Me Israel
Jul 7, 1969
Alec Stewart and his wife Roz go to Israel for a quiet holiday, but Dr. Israel Berg soon asks his advice about drilling a promising field that lies on the Arab side of the border. Stewart wonders why he has been singled out to run the venture until he learns the money behind it comes from Ghislaine Foss, whose interest in him is not purely professional, and Mogul's many Arab contacts mean any link with the project could be costly.
Episode 26
Over The Hill
Jul 14, 1969
With Mogul fighting for its future and Alec Stewart in America discussing a Caribbean partnership with Zenith, a stormy board meeting ends with Brian Stead dismissing Peter Thornton, now a director, before collapsing with what looks like a serious heart attack. From his hospital bed Stead asks Thornton to travel to Paris for talks with a French oil magnate, but Thornton points out that he is no longer a Mogul employee.
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