Blu-ray Review: George Gently: Series 5

The year was 1968. Unrest crested in both North America and Europe. Riots and demonstrations dotted the landscape of the United States with the murders of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy adding fuel to the fire. In Paris France a student led rebellion saw running battles between demonstrators and police continue for weeks on end. Even communist Eastern Europe wasn’t immune as the Prague Spring saw the people of Czechoslovakia temporarily throw off their dictatorial rule only to see their revolution crushed by Russian tanks. While most of the protests were taking place in major metropolitan areas, the repercussions of change was felt everywhere.

In Great Britain things never quite reached the boiling point they did in other countries. However it doesn’t mean there weren’t changes. For those whose jobs brought them into contact with all levels of society the changes were there to be seen if one looked. The time period and situation is brought to life in the new Blu-Ray release from Acorn Media, George Gently: Series 5.

Chief Inspector George Gently  and his sergeant Lee Ingleby not only have crimes to solve but the problems arising from the changes the world around them is going through.

The first three episodes of the four on this two disc set each depict the ways in which English society was either changing or being shook up. Whether something obvious like the issue of race  which comes boiling to a head in “Gently Northern Soul” or the more subtle issue of class as expressed in “Gently With Class”, each 90 minute episode not only has our detectives doing their best to solve the crime which has occurred but manages to capture the tenor of the times without sentiment or preaching. As we see most of what’s going on through the eyes of the two lead characters, their opinions and attitudes are what help shape our impressions of the times.

In <i>GentlyNorthern Soul</i> when a young black woman turns up dead beside a road near a graveyard, an area where prostitutes often take their clients, Bacchus makes the assumption the girl was “on the game”. However, when the officers learn she was dating a young white man, the son of a known racist, and was pregnant as well, their investigation changes. Bacchus is sent undercover to attend a weekly dance party where DJs play American soul music and attract a mixed race crowd.

In 1968, England’s black population was primarily first or second generation immigrants from Jamaica. They had either come over to serve in the British army in WW II or right after the war looking for a better life. While the sitting government was trying to pass equal rights legislation in order to protect people of colour from racial discrimination, the far right, led by a Conservative Party politician named Enoch Powell, were pushing to have all “coloured” immigrants sent back to where they came from. Throughout the course of the investigation into the young woman’s death the issue of race continues to raise its head and both officers gain a better understanding of the abuse immigrants are dealing with.

England’s class system had withstood civil war, world wars and a stock market crash. The one thing it couldn’t stand against was public opinion. By the end of the 1960s fewer and fewer people were willing to accept hereditary titles and land as reasons for anyone to expect special treatment. When a young woman’s body is found abandoned in the passenger seat of a wrecked car registered in the name of a local lord suspicion falls on the man’s son. Bacchus had tried to arrest the son previously for drunken driving but strings had been pulled behind the scenes and he’d been let off. Deeply resentful of the way the family had used privilege to prevent their son from being charged Bacchus is determined to get a result this time, even if it means stretching the rules.

We can understand his feelings more once we meet the family, especially the young man’s mother. A horrible snob who acts like she and her son deserve to be treated differently from others she tries to pull strings to ensure no blame falls on anybody in her family. However, in spite of her trying to suppress the investigation by appealing to Gently’s superior officer, neither he nor Bacchus refuse to be cowed and continue on until they discover who was in the driver’s seat of the car.

As in previous seasons of this series the cases the two officers tackle are only part of what the show is about. For with each episode we scratch a little deeper under the skin of each of our characters. While Bacchus always comes across as brash and more than a little cocky over the course of the four episodes in this set we begin to see beneath his exterior shell more and more. Ingleby does a fantastic job of showing us first the cracks showing up in his character’s facade and then the vulnerability and strength laying beneath the skin. For not only does Bacchus begin to allow himself to have emotional reactions to what he experiences on the job, he also finds the fortitude to stand up for what he believes in and the strength of character to not let personal ambition blind him to what’s right.

While Gently’s wife was murdered way back in the opening episode of the series, he’s always seemed to keep his grief compartmentalized. However, it doesn’t mean he misses her any less then the day he buried her. For some reason a case of a missing child, episode three “The Lost Child”, seems to trigger his dormant grief and brings the ache to the surface again. Shaw somehow manages to retain his character’s stolid exterior while at the same time giving us clues to the extent of Gently’s loneliness. It’s little things like the way his eye seems to glance at the picture of his late wife on his desk a little more often and linger a little longer and how he has to almost shake himself to escape the pull of his memories and come back to the present that make his performance so believable.

The bonus features included with the Blu-ray version of the series is limited to one short, three minute, behind the scenes featurette. However, the real bonus comes in watching the series on Blu-ray. It was actually an accident I received a Blu-ray version of this set, but through a series of events stranger than fiction I had to replace my old DVD player with a new Blu-ray machine a couple of days after it arrived. The difference in picture and sound quality between watching a DVD and a Blu-ray was astonishing. Instead of the usual battle between soundtrack and dialogue resulting in having to turn the volume up and down in order to hear the actors talking and to avoid being pummelled by incidental music, everything was perfectly balanced. You could not only hear every word the actors were saying, you could hear individual sounds like a match being struck or an actor’s feet scraping along the gravel in a driveway. I have to admit I had my doubts about the difference in quality when it came to Blu-ray versus DVD. However, now I’ve seen something created in high definition specifically for the new technology I’m convinced of its superiority.

Over the course of its life the George Gently series has not only continued to impress, it has continued to improve. The scripts have become increasingly complex as the characters deal with both the cases they are trying to solve and a society undergoing constant changes. We’ve also seen the lead characters continue to grow and their relationship change as they have developed. However, most of the enjoyment in watching this series is due to the superlative work of both lead actors and the producers’ willingness to surround them with a strong supporting cast of special guests and regulars. “George Gently: Series 5” proves once again this is one of the best ongoing police procedurals on television today. Thankfully series six is already being aired in Great Britain so we can look forward to seeing more of Chief Inspector George Gently and Sergeant John Bacchus in the future.