New Tricks: Series 4

With its fifth run recently broadcast on BBC One and a sixth series in production, New Tricks is rapidly becoming one of those massively popular primetime staples that almost inexplicably run on for years to relentless success.

Amanda Redman plays Superintendent Sandra Pullman, a bolshy but brave cop who regularly drafts in three retired male detectives, played by Dennis Waterman, Alun Armstrong and James Bolam, to reinvestigate unsolved cases; mostly murders. Though not in the slightest bit fashionable (and, refreshingly, its makers don’t seem to care), the key to New Tricks’ success is in its consistently strong casting. The four leads are all talented veterans with a natural chemistry that other crime dramas would kill for (pardon the pun).

The tone veers between comedy, tension and outright tragedy deftly as a huge number of long-in-the-tooth but still sprightly big names and lesser names (with faces you’ve seen before a million times) flesh out the sometimes flimsy plotting expertly. This series sees the likes of Oxo mum Lynda Bellingham, Mrs Morse Sheila Hancock and Inspector Wexford himself, George Baker, pop up; all memorable guest appearances that threaten to upstage the regulars.

This could all be too cosy, and likely to make the viewer nod off into their cocoa, but wisely each episode has a modern, darker edge to it than many of the show’s peers. Gritty, controversial subject matter such as paedophilia and euthanasia is touched upon and blended skilfully with traditional issues surrounding growing old: being widowed, mid-life crises, elderly parents living in care homes. This all works splendidly together to make a simultaneously familiar and unique jaunt for the oldies to be proud of.

Extras: Cast biographies.

Released on DVD on 1st September 2008 by Acorn Media.

Written by Nick Aldwinckle.