Inspector George Gently - Episode guide
Adapted for the screen from the George Gently series of novels by Alan Hunter, Martin Shaw stars in Inspector George Gently, set in 1960s Northumberland.
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The series throws Chief Inspector Gently into a maelstrom of murders and mayhem, whilst lovingly recreating the Swinging Sixties as it finally hits the North-East of England, in perfect and nostalgic detail.
Chief Inspector George Gently is the classic unsung hero of detective fiction and in Martin Shaw's expert hands he becomes a passionate, growling, ex-army boxer. With his sidekick, the ambitious and undisciplined Detective Sergeant John Bacchus (Lee Ingleby), they make the perfect police partnership, full of warmth and humour.
> Read our interview with Martin Shaw.
> Read our interview with co-star Lee Ingleby.
Gently Go Man
Sunday 8th April 2007
Britain, 1964: a time when the line between the police and criminals has become increasingly blurred; when the proliferation of drugs is about to change the face of policing forever; when Britain's youth stand on the brink of a social and sexual revolution.
Inspector George Gently is one of the few good men at Scotland Yard, his sense of public duty an increasingly rare commodity in a police force where corruption is rife and unchecked. But his relentless pursuit of notorious gangsters such as Joe Webster (Phil Davis, Bleak House) leads to the murder of Gently's beloved wife Isabella, a killing arranged by Webster himself in an act of revenge upon Gently.
When a grieving Gently learns of the murder of a young biker, Johnny Lister (Christian Cooke, Where The Heart Is), who was part of a Northumberland drugs ring, it has all the hallmarks of a Webster operation and he insists on being given the case, deciding it will be his last...
In Northumberland, George takes on the headstrong young Detective Sergeant Bacchus (Lee Ingleby, The Street), who is convinced that the prime suspect for Johnny Lister's murder is Ricky Deeming (Richard Armitage, Robin Hood), the charismatic leader of the Defenders biker gang. But as the case grows ever more complex, Gently must decide if Bacchus can be trusted – hot-tempered and ambitious, could he too be drawn to the corrupt road taken by so many of his contemporaries? Or can Gently keep Bacchus's integrity intact?
As the case reaches its violent climax, Gently begins to feel that his brand of policing is needed now more than ever – and perhaps he is not ready to call this his last case after all...
The Burning Man
Sunday 6th July 2008
In the opening episode, a badly burnt body is found near RAF Huxford and the only evidence at the scene of the crime is a ring with an engraving from someone called Wanda. Local café owner Wanda Lane identifies the ring and confirms it was a gift from her to the victim, Rauri O'Connell. This marks her as a suspect, but Inspector George Gently and Detective Sergeant John Bacchus are concerned she is being framed.
When Special Branch officer Superintendent Empton joins the investigation, he tells Gently he is involved because he believes it may have been an IRA murder, though Gently is suspicious of him.
Later, local girl Carmel O'Shaugnessy reports her father missing and Gently discovers he had previously been seen arguing with Rauri. Events take a strange turn when they discover O'Shaughnessy's store room has been emptied of guns. With the help of an informant, Gently discovers Rauri was, in fact, a high-profile IRA member – Rauri MacLeish – who was a marksman in the Border Campaign.
Gently and Bacchus go back to Wanda to find out how much she really knows about Rauri's real identity but discovers she has been taken hostage by Rauri's former IRA colleague, who appears to have something to hide. Can Gently bring a peaceful climax to this murderous situation?
Bomber's Moon
Sunday 13th July 2008
The beaten body of Gunter Schmeikel, a rich German businessman, is dragged out of the water, as the crime drama set in Northumberland in 1964 and starring Martin Shaw continues. Inspector Gently and Detective Sergeant John Bacchus arrive at the scene to find Gunter's son, Wilhelm, and Wilhelm's wife, Trudi.
Gently soon discovers that Gunter was a POW in Northumberland, placed at Jim Hardyment's farm. Gently and Bacchus visit the Hardyments, who describe Schmeikel as a dear friend. On his final night, Schmeikel and the Hardyments had a knees-up at the Mariners pub, but that was the last they saw of him. Gently and Bacchus arrest the barman, Chick Shavers, after he admits to urinating in the German's beer. He confesses to going to the quay late that night to damage Gunter's boat, but left because he saw a car parked nearby.
Robert Stratton, a local man, insists that he saw someone loitering by the boat on the night of Gunter's murder. After discovering that Robert and Gunter had previously met, Gently pays a visit to Robert's home, only to discover Robert's wife's body.
Having delved into Robert's past, Bacchus discovers that Robert was a trained killer in the Special Forces in the Army. The case is coming together piece by piece, but Gently and Bacchus are in a race against time and must hunt down their suspect to discover the motive behind the two mysterious deaths.
Gently With The Innocents
Sunday 3rd May 2009
During their investigation of the murder of a lonely old man in his dilapidated mansion, Gently (Martin Shaw) and Bacchus (Lee Ingleby) stumble upon a world which is beyond their initial comprehension and belief. For, as they dig deeper into the history of Harrison House in its previous incarnation as a children's home, they are forced to re-examine the seemingly clear-cut evidence. They are particularly drawn to finding an explanation for the behaviour of their prime suspect, a "Dummy lad" named Harry Carson (Matthew Mcnulty) who was once an inhabitant of the children's home and who has stayed on at Harrison House long after its closure, to tend the garden.
Their investigation is not helped by the fact that everyone around them, including property developer Cora Davidson (Jill Halfpenny), who paid over the odds for Harrison House; will either prove to have a reason to keep the truth hidden, or, choose to remain ignorant rather than face the shocking truth.
Gently With The Innocents continues one of the great themes of Inspector George Gently: a country on the cusp of a radical re-imagining of itself and unsure of how to accomplish it in Sixties Britain. During this very dark investigation into what will eventually be proven to be abuse against children in care, Gently calls on the expertise of an old flame Laura (Sharon Maughan), a paediatrician who treats illness and injury in children, and helps him come to terms with the shocking realities.
Bacchus is thrust into competition with another officer, Seargent Blacksmith (Mark Stobbart) who is also sitting his Inspector's exams. Gently points out that Bacchus should get to know the community he serves, and as Bacchus is keen for promotion he gives a talk at a local school to advocate the merits of a career in the forces.
But, privately, he thinks it's a waste of his time and the kids seem to hold the same opinion. They don't want to join the force, they want to be rock stars… They want a look at his gun, but after that, they're not interested. But one kid Kevin (Dean Logan) takes a shine to Bacchus in a big way. This amuses Gently, who encourages Bacchus to invest in the youth of today – and as the true nature of the investigation is revealed, Bacchus will re-evaluate his responsibility to the boy.
Gently In The Night
Sunday 10th May 2009
Gently (Martin Shaw) and Bacchus (Lee Ingleby) are investigating the murder of a young woman whose body is found in a local church. It transpires that the girl was a "Fox" – a waitress working at the first hostess club in Newcastle, Rakes, run by the smooth American Patrick Donovan (Brendon Coyle) and his wife Helen (Clare Calbraith), an ex-Fox.
Like many of the regular Rakes punters, Joe Bishop (Mark Williams) has some secrets from his religious wife Margaret (Tracey Wilkinson), who leads the locals in a protest against the club.
Gently and Bacchus have to investigate a sexually-charged murder that taps into their and society's differing attitudes towards sex at this time in the early Sixties. Women's rights were not as advanced as they are today; abortion was illegal, resulting in backstreet operations, the term and act of rape was less clearly defined and the argument that "she was up for it" may have been accepted. However, at the same time, the pill, (which was only legally allowed to be prescribed to married women), was beginning to change people's behaviour.
Gently In The Night explores the reality of Larkin's "sexual revolution" colliding with old-fashioned prejudice, bigotry and law. As for Bacchus, his home life has become unexciting and his relationship with his wife stale. So when he's faced with several sexually-confident Fox girls at Rakes, he is simultaneously aroused and intimidated. And, with one suspect in particular, Fawn (Nichola Burley), Bacchus is in danger of having to choose between his desire and his loyalty to the case.
Gently In The Blood
Sunday 17th May 2009
Gently (Martin Shaw) and Bacchus (Lee Ingleby) are investigating a consignment of stolen passports. The case takes an unexpected turn when a young woman who worked at the passport office is found dead on the seashore. Maggie Alderton (Robyn Addison) was raped and strangled and her mixed race baby son had been left freezing, near to death, in his Moses basket next to the body.
When Gently and Bacchus speak to Maggie's colleagues and family they learn of Maggie's supposed affair with an unknown Arab man, whom they believed to be the baby's father. Her family were already disappointed that she had a baby out of wedlock, but when they realised the father was an Arab, they disowned her out of disgust. Her colleagues seem to share the same view; and in her last months of her life Maggie was rejected by those closest to her.
Maggie was dating her childhood-sweetheart Jimmy Cochran (Andrew Lee Potts) at the time of the birth of her son. Maggie had always claimed Jimmy was the father of her child – and Gently discovers that the white Geordie lad was heart broken when he assumed Maggie's mixed race child could not be his. Jimmy is the leader of a local gang and Gently suspects him of being involved in the passport scam.
The investigation takes Gently and Bacchus into the underground world of turf gangs, where Westernised Arab gang members Hamed (Tariq Jordan) and Rand (Jonathan Bonnici) oppose Jimmy's gang for the monopoly on the fake passport business.
Gently In The Blood sees a disintegrating Arab community and a society where racism is fervent on both sides, in a country on the cusp of social change in the Sixties. Sexual jealousy and racial hatred led to the death of this young woman, whose innocence and tolerance could not save her from the forces that surrounded her.
Gently Through The Mill
Sunday 24th May 2009
Rinton, a small town in the North East of England, is shocked and outraged when, in the run up to the general election, the local mill manager, Patrick Fuller, is found hanging from the rafters. It looks like suicide, but Chief Inspector George Gently (Martin Shaw) and his side-kick Bacchus (Lee Ingleby) suspect foul play when Julie (Kate Heppell), the mill's dolly-bird secretary (who catches Bacchus' eye) confirms that there is money missing from the office safe.
With missing money, no suicide note and the rope tied off to a hoist, Gently speculates that it could be a murder, made to look like a suicide, and he quickly lines up several suspects amongst the mill workers: the lazy, insolent foreman Draper (Tom Goodman-Hill), who seems to have a massive chip on his shoulder about authority; his bete noir at the mill, the wayward, jittery mod, Jed Jimpson (Justin McDonald), who has his own personal demons to deal with; the miller, and best friend of the dead man, Henry Blythely (Nicholas Jones); and his much younger, fragile wife (Anne Hornby). Also, the strangely withdrawn Mrs Fuller (Julia Ford), the bitter widow, who accuses her husband of having a sordid affair.
And when forensics discover a lost earring and a snagged pieced of material that matches the dead man's jacket, it seems as if the mill was indeed a hotbed of passion and intrigue. The local Labour candidate for the election, Geoffrey Pershore (Tim McInnerny), and owner of the mill, seems particularly concerned about the missing contents of the safe; and when Bacchus discovers that the dead man was a Mason, Gently and Bacchus realize there is more to this case than meets the eye.
Bacchus suspects corruption, and that the Masons may be responsible for Fuller's death. Gently thinks it's a waste of time and tells him the Masons are impenetrable. But Bacchus goes against his orders, and tries to secretly infiltrate them. This puts further pressure on the already strained relationship between Gently and Bacchus, and, as Gently is unexpectedly drawn into Bacchus' personal life, when Lisa Bacchus (Melanie Clark Pullen) turns up, it looks as if the partnership may not recover.
Gently Evil
Sunday 26th September 2010
It's 1966, and when a loose young woman is found murdered in an idyllic coastal village in Northumberland, Gently and Bacchus find themselves investigating a family with unimaginable secrets.
Initially it appears that the woman's estranged husband, Alan Charlton, father of their enigmatic young daughter Agnes, is responsible for the killing. Then they meet the child's uncle, Darren Paige.
With a rogue reporter, Max Osgood, desperate to get an exclusive story on the family, the police have their work cut out. As Gently and Bacchus investigate the disturbed family, they discover an alarming truth.
In an added complication, Bacchus is having marriage problems and becomes jealous of Gently when he realises how close the older man has become to his wife, Lisa, and toddler Leigh-Ann.
Peace And Love
Sunday 2nd October 2010
The year is 1966 and the football World Cup has come to England. With the USSR due to play at Roker Park and the fear of the "Reds under the bed" exemplified by the upcoming Polaris submarine landing at the nearby Jarrow docks, tensions are running high. CND protestors, led by radical students from Durham University, are the last thing the police need when the world media is on their doorstep awaiting the upcoming football match.
Gently and Bacchus investigate the murder of well-known left-wing academic Fraser Barratt, found dead in the docks after a CND rally which he had led with his colleague, lecturer Mallory Brown.
This takes them onto the Durham University campus – an ancient temple of learning struggling to come to terms with the varied influx of students from the working class to brash, radical academics. Here they meet university caretaker and ex-army officer Charles Hoxton as well as sexually forward-thinking students Elizabeth Higgs and Adriana Doyle.
Sexual and social rebellion is in the air and, to the young and optimistic, these forces seem inevitable and unstoppable. Bacchus is horrified yet fascinated by the promiscuity on display. Gently more shrewdly recognises that liberation is not always an unmixed blessing...
