Inspector George Gently  is a crime drama  that ran over seven series. Set in the North East of England in the 1960s it centres on Newcastle, Northumberland and County Durham. Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby take the lead roles as Inspector and Detective Sergeant supported by Simon Hubbard and Lisa McGrillis as police constables.

The death penalty is still in effect when in the early episodes but abolished in 1965. The early episodes are set in the early 1960s with the eighth series taking place in 1970. The final series was broadcast in 2017 and has found its way onto the Netflix streaming platform. I have enjoyed dipping back into it over the Christmas holidays,

The storylines played out over 90 minutes insightfully and cleverly written. The viewer is left in some suspense wondering where the next line of action might lie and who amongst the individuals we have been introduced to might be the killer. Motives, personal histories, human vulnerabilities and weaknesses, revenge, anger are all played out in these dramas. Put this alongside the utter unpredictability of how human life take shape or our is tragically misshaped by circumstances and you have a perfect combination of image, story, character, and circumstance. 

I think the acting across the consecutive dramas and series is consistently strong. Martin Shaw inhabits the role with a fataly attractive combination of strength and vulnerability. His move to the Northeast was precipitated by the death of his wife Isabella while he was working in London. The theme of grief and loss and incompleteness runs throughout the music and photography. There are two consistent reminders of his vulnerability and search for answers and completeness. The first I think may will be his smoking but more significant is the steady consumption of large quantities of whisky often late at night -sometimes shared with his colleagues-and sometimes consumed alone in dark offices or lonely bedrooms.

There is also a wonderful and overwhelming sense of a search for truth and a single minded commitment to seeing justice done. In this sense the series acts as a kind of theological reflection on human nature. There are wicked people. There are innocent individuals of families who are terrible victims of crime. Inequality and poverty in these north eastern communities are never very far away from some of the storylines. Getting to the truth and searching out the perpetrators is at the heart of  the work of those who uphold the law.

For this viewer there were two elements of skill at work in the production of the dramas. The first was the way in which the details of this period of life (1960s and 1970s) were carefully attended to – the cars, the interiors of houses, clothes and food. The viewer is taken back into time.

The second is the familiar roads and houses. I am a Durham lad and it was a sheer joy to recognise old haunts. The work in and around the Cathedral and the North East coast line was a sheer delight!

Solving murder is a pianstaking business! Gently i determined in his manner. We note that solving crime is a painstaking carry on!  Ploughing through false names, false leads, false starts, framings and lies forms part of the unfolding discovery! He is helped (and occasionally hindered) by his sergeant, John Bacchus – a lad with flashes of brilliance in between long stretches of cheerful incompetence. We see the process at work and happily ( always happily) we have the criminal brought to justice.

Take a look at Gently and ponder the darker side of life which is made bearable by the triumph of justice. Enjoy too the wonderful North East !