Series 4, just like previous offerings, is set in the late 1960s in Northern England, making it one of the most unique mystery series running. It’s a refreshing change from the modern-day push on American mystery shows, where the past is generally only found in flashbacks, and whatever is of a different time period is usually found on Cold Case. The attention to detail in the late 1960s is remarkable, a budget well spent. It’s not only those efforts, but also Martin Shaw as Detective Inspector George Gently and Lee Ingleby as his partner, Detective Sergeant John Bacchus, that make this series always notable. Shaw lives up to his character’s surname, quiet, considerate, vastly intelligent as he tries to piece together cases that are never, ever easily solved. Where there could be one suspect as a viable lead turns out to be a cold trail, eliminating our thoughts about that being the one and making us question exactly what’s going on here, who could have possibly killed Gently’s ex-informant China in the episode “Goodbye China,” and who killed the schoolgirl Mary Claverton and buried her in Pinnock Woods in the episode “Gently Upside Down.” Ingleby’s Bacchus is the opposite of Gently in many ways, more stylish, more outgoing, and yet just as measured in his response to the case involved, though he doesn’t always see Gently’s reasoning about going over the same path again when it didn’t produce anything usable before. Shaw and Ingleby are perfect together for this reason because it’s not that kind of conflict which keeps them interesting, but rather that mutual respect, the commingling of two different approaches to crime solving that proves their worth together in many instances in each episode. There are times when Gently, when questioning potential suspects, cedes it to Bacchus because he’s more forceful and could most certainly relate more to the younger people being questioned, as it is in “Gently Upside Down.”
George Gently always starts with a body, and yet it’s never that easy, which makes it fascinating. You’d think maybe one of the two girls who knew the dead girl in “Gently Upside Down” had something to do with it, and then there’s another twist, and then another. There’s never a twist for the sake of a twist, though. The mystery grows deeper and deeper and gets us more and more involved. We think we know, which is great for mental calisthenics, and then we’re shown another side that pushes us more in that workout. At the same time, we also watch George Gently and John Bacchus, wondering what they’re thinking. Bacchus always takes his cue from Gently, and there’s a fascinating handoff between the two, when Gently lets go and Bacchus picks up from him. It’s an invisible motion.
What also lifts George Gently up to being a near-great series are the performances by the other actors involved, such as other cops, family members, suspects, and more. There are instances in American mystery shows where it feels like some of the actors are just there to gain a credit to hopefully get them a better job elsewhere, or more jobs at that. The actors who guest-star here are undoubtedly hoping for the same thing, but they’re there to work. They’re there to make the show convincing to viewers, to make them want to try to solve the mystery before Gently gets there, based on what they’re learning. These are people with faces, whose eyes, whose emotions match exactly who their characters are. They truly look like they’re living in 1960s Northern England.
Funnily enough, that’s exactly what production designer Maurice Cain pushes for in the series along with the rest of the crew, as is shown in the 13-minute behind-the-scenes featurette included in this two-disc DVD set. Cain looks over the sets, knows exactly what he wants in them, and sets out to make them exactly as he sees them, in consultation with producers and directors, of course, dispatching his prop buyer, Dominic Smithers, to get all the pieces of the ‘60s that they need. He says that not everyone lived the ‘60s of Carnaby Street, not that glamorous, not that exciting. He sets out to make the 1960s as it actually was. And there’s proof in Martin Shaw saying that when he opens a desk drawer during a scene, he sees flyers for police gatherings and other things that are important to his character. The audience never sees them, but they help him as an actor. The hair designer on the series talks about how she researches the styles, looking in the books provided or on the Internet to know exactly how hair styles looked back then and how they should be for this series.
This is also yet another featurette that Hollywood could learn from, because Shaw and Ingleby’s praise of each other feels genuine, not only for PR purposes to show how wonderful everything is on the set. This is the real deal between them. In order to make the interaction between the two convincing, they also have to like each other off-camera, and while we can’t know that at all, what we see when they’re not filming makes it obvious enough that they work so well together onscreen because they like each other offscreen. But above all, there’s a wealth of footage showing the series in production, and that’s always interesting to watch, especially the use of a steam train that took a bit of wrangling to get.
For mystery fans, George Gently is worth the time, two minutes shy of three hours in fact. For Acorn Media, based on this release, a few past releases I’ve reviewed and what’s being released in the coming months, this may very well be the year that the company totally outshines BBC Home Video in being the foremost authority on British television. BBC Home Video can keep on going with its Doctor Who releases; Acorn Media looks like it has the rest covered.
