About Inspector George Gently

Britain in the 1960's, 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.

Inspector George Gently

Within this volatile environment stands Inspector George Gently (Martin Shaw). One of the few good men left at Scotland Yard, his sense of public duty is an increasingly rare commodity in a police force where corruption is rife and unchecked. And just when he thought he had left the world of vice and temptation in London behind, he's shocked to find his native North East beginning to catch up.

Gently has seen it all before. The North East hasn't.

With headstrong young Detective Sergeant Bacchus (The Street's Lee Ingleby), series three and four once again throws them both into a maelstrom of murders and mayhem.

The four-part run from series three and four starts when a young woman's body is found in a seemingly idyllic Northumberland coastal village. The investigation leads Gently and Bacchus to suspect the victim's estranged husband is responsible for the killing. However, they soon come to realise her disturbed family is hiding an even more shocking secret.

As the Northumbrian police come under increasing media scrutiny, Sunderland prepares to host a World Cup match involving the USSR. Campaigners are protesting against the proposed landing of the Polaris nuclear submarine at Jarrow docks when an academic is found dead after a CND rally. Gently and Bacchus are dispatched to Durham University to investigate - and find themselves in the midst of a wave of social and sexual rebellion.

A schoolgirl's killing brings Gently into the world of celebrity when it turns out the victim's best friend is a rising TV star. Bacchus suspects the dead girl's music teacher, since rumours persist that she was having an affair with him. But when it seems everyone has a different opinion of the girl, Gently must uncover the truth behind these different faces to find the killer.

Based on the novels of Alan Hunter, and adapted for television by the award-winning Our Friends In The North creator Peter Flannery,Jimmy Gardner and Stewart Harcourt, these episodes of Inspector George Gently features special guests that include Warren Clarke, Sarah Lancashire, Vincent Regan and Neil Morrissey.