Inspector George Gently is a British period drama crime anthology television series adapted for television by Peter Flannery, produced by Company Pictures, based on the Inspector Gently novels by Alan Hunter and set in the 1960s which follows the eponymous detective who 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.
In his first literary adaptation for television, Our Friends In The North writer Peter Flannery re-visits Sixties Britain for George Gently, an adaptation of the Inspector Gently series of novels by Alan Hunter.
Martin Shaw stars in the title role, and he is joined by Lee Ingleby as ambitious Detective Sergeant John Bacchus.
Britain, 1960s: 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.
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.
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.
The first two seasons were filmed entirely on location in Dublin. Since Season 3 it has been filmed on location in Durham and the North East.
George Gently is a Company Pictures production, executive produced by Peter Flannery, George Faber and Charles Pattinson for Company Pictures, Andrew Lowe for Element Films, and Polly Hill for BBC One.
Broadcast Notes
The pilot episode (a standalone movie) did not air in South Africa.
The first six season aired on BBC Entertainment. When the channel became defunct in 2015, the show moved to the replacement channel, BBC First.