Last updated 09:21, Saturday, 19 July 2008

Set in Northumberland in 1964, George Gently – BBC1’s latest Sunday evening cop drama – promised a bit of a telly treat. Retro story-telling with maybe some groovy backdrop music. Like Heartbeat without the cocoa and slippers, right?

Better days: Martin Shaw as Judge John Deed

Wrong. The nearest to genuine retro we got was a shot of two detectives sitting in a hospital corridor, chain-smoking while awaiting news of a patient’s condition. Did people really used to do that?

“How’s he doing Sister?”

“He was fine until he passed out from your fog, Inspector.”

In fact the north country cop mystery was something of a dead loss all round. To tell the truth, it was like an am-dram effort in a badly lit village hall.

Convoluted plot – used as a thin excuse to revisit the tangled politics of Ireland’s troubles – shockingly poor acting made worse by a dreadfully stilted script. And attempts to preach tolerance – because of today’s demands for a politically correct approach to the IRA’s standpoint, no doubt – was so very non-1960s as to be laughable.

Martin Shaw as George Gently was joined once again by ambitious Detective Sergeant John Bacchus (played by Lee Ingleby). In this opening episode, a badly burnt body was found near RAF Huxford and the only evidence at the scene of the crime was a ring with an engraving from someone called Wanda – who turned out conveniently to be a local cafe owner.

The two cops found themselves embroiled in an IRA gun-running plot and at the mercy of a snooty Special Branch officer, who was short only of the word ‘evil’ tattooed across his brow to mark him out as a double-dealer.

Tedious, shot darkly and dismally – probably deliberately as a mark of the north – and with writing not at all worthy of Martin Shaw’s talents as an elegant actor, the remainder of this series would benefit from bypass – gently done, of course.