George Gently

Another of those cop shows the British do so well. Martin Shaw portrays Gently, an Inspector for the constabulary of Northumberland, the northernmost county in England. He is assisted and supplied with a lot of very good comic relief by Sergeant John Bacchus, who is ambitious, impulsive, and no better than he has to be. Gently is a fully realized character, devoted to his job but seldom really obsessive about it, as so many TV cops are. The stories begin in the year 1964, in Swingin’ England at its most mods & rockers, Carnaby Street, Beatles and Stones, Age of Aquarius gloriousness, and progresses year by year until about 1970. The stories are based on a series of novels (46 of them!) by Alan Hunter, who I have never heard of, but the scripts are tight and smart. I recommend this series highly.