From HIGH SIERRA before to CARLITO'S WAY after, the device of a famously-guilty convict freed on a technicality is nothing new... and the first half of QUEEN'S PAWN has the unapologetic gall of Tony Selby's Johnny Lyon getting Inspector Regan's goat... a whole mountain of them actually...
Surrounded by floozy moll Lynn Dearth, pseudo family man Tony Caunter and eventual weak link married couple Christopher Ellison and Judy Monahan, the episode has John Thaw's Regan and Dennis Waterman as Sgt. Carter putting heat on the Lyon's den of thieves; but the most intimidating is a different kind of crook...
As Lyon's high-price lawyer, classy yet formidable British actor Julian Glover (future villain in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE) wields the hardest edge here, having to deal with his client, who's far too nervous far too soon for his initial vanity to remain a worthwhile antagonist against Regan...
Featuring some of the creepiest masks in history during an attempted kidnapping, QUEEN'S PAWN is a good episode that had the potential for greatness: If only those initial too-cool heavies had kept their cool for longer.