Season 2
Martin Shaw returns to Sixties Northumberland in Inspector George Gently in four feature-length films written by Peter Flannery (The Devil's Whore, Our Friends In The North) and Mick Ford (William and Mary).
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.
But even the closest partners can come to blows when Gently and Bacchus enter the boxing ring, to raise monies for the police widow's fund – but who will be knocked out for the count of ten?
In the England of the early Sixties, society is on the cusp of change: homosexuality, abortion, and even prescribing the pill to unmarried women are all illegal, and hanging for murder is still the law.
But the first strip clubs are just opening, teenagers, drugs and The Beatles are just round the corner, and Gently has to police a society where old values clash with new, and generations are at war with each other.
The series also gives a fascinating insight into the difficulties that the police had to face in the Sixties to investigate and solve their crimes – without the help of modern technology.
Gently and Bacchus have to tackle, amongst others, cases involving prostitution and rape in a time when the argument "she was up for it" was acceptable; local corruption, when it was the norm to sweep it under the carpet; racism in a world before political correctness; and paedophilia in a children's home, when the notion of organised sexual abuse was unheard of.
In the first two films Shaw and Ingleby are joined by a strong cast of guest stars including: Sharon Maughan (Holby City), Jill Halfpenny (EastEnders), Mark Williams (The Fast Show, Harry Potter), Paul Copley (The Lakes), Mary Jo Randle (EastEnders), Tracey Wilkinson (Bad Girls), Nicola Burley (Souled Out) and Brendan Coyle (Lark Rise To Candleford) as suspects and victims.
Guest stars in the second two films include: Andrew Lee Potts (Primeval), Tariq Jordan (Law And Order), Tim McInnerny (The Devil's Whore, Blackadder), Tom Goodman-Hill (The Devil's Whore) – and, at last, we meet Mrs John Bacchus played by Melanie Clark Pullen (EastEnders, A Dinner Of Herbs).
Inspector George Gently is made by Company Pictures. The series is executive produced by Peter Flannery, George Faber, Suzan Harrison and Charles Pattinson for Company Pictures, Andrew Lowe for Element Films, and Polly Hill for BBC One.
Produced by Johann Knobel (Shameless, Holby City); dramas one and two are directed by Daniel O'Hara (Paddywhackery, The Clinic) and three and four by Ciaran Donnelly (The Tudors, Robin Hood).
Inspector George Gently is filmed entirely on location in Dublin.
Broadcast Notes
The first three episodes of Season 2 aired daily, from 21-23 July, 2010. The fourth episode of Season 2 aired as a standalone episode on Sunday 26 December 2010, at 20h00.