Floodtide is a British television crime drama was produced by Granada Television, first broadcast on ITV from 14 June 1987 to 12 February 1988. The series focuses on a dogged inspector's pursuit of a group of cocaine smugglers across Europe and his bid to bring them to justice. A total of thirteen episodes aired over the course of nine months. Co-produced and partly filmed in France, it was one of the first ITV dramas to be co-produced with an international production company. Written by acclaimed The Sweeney scriptwriter Roger Marshall, the series was released on DVD by Network DVD for the first time on 19 July 2010. Although further series of the programme were planned, lead actor Phillip Sayer was diagnosed with cancer in 1988 and eventually died in 1989. Marshall concluded that it would be wrong to re-cast the part and instead decided to bring the series to a natural close.