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Nov 22, 2016ba_library rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I enjoyed this series especially for the place (northern England) and the time setting (1964) - George Gently an older, by-the-books police detective from London goes north to Durham, England to investigate. He encounters the local police and works with a younger officer, John Bacchus, who is kind of geeky but eager to learn and to impress. The first episode has them dealing with a motorcycle gang, who are all James Dean and Marlon Brandon tough guys (the motorcycles are probably cool given the time era.) Gently is tough on police corruption and something seems to be happening in Durham - police beating interrogation suspects for information and planting evidence. The police setting is so 60s, no cellphones, no computers - I got a laugh out of the giant manual typewriters used by the police. Episode 2 deals with an IRA situation and suspect - Durham, UK is far north near the Scottish border and has an Irish segment from northern Ireland. They make references to the Irish troubles in northern Ireland. Episode 3 deals with a missing German citizen in Durham which brings back a lot of WWII reflections. George fought in WWII, he has a drunken informant in London who he sends for to bring him up to Durham. The informant was in a Nazi prison camp for 5 years and understands German very well. George is a true cop but seems to have a soft side for others - looks after his informant, looking after his geeky Durham cop who gets tempted by a bribe. Other comments thought there were plot holes in the stories, I didn't really notice, the murder mysteries were more of a side plot to the fascinating time period. Will watch future episodes!