George Gently, Series 2 Blu-ray offers decent video and solid audio in this overall recommended Blu-ray release
In the second series of this police drama set in Northeast England in the 1960s, Chief Inspector Gently and Sergeant Bacchus investigate cases involving a former school on land slated for redevelopment, a gentleman's club picketed by protesters and a ring selling forged passports.
For more about George Gently, Series 2 and the George Gently, Series 2 Blu-ray release, see the George Gently, Series 2 Blu-ray Review published by Michael Reuben on May 30, 2013 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.
With the release of Series 2 of George Gently on Blu-ray, Acorn Media has now completed the
hi-def collection of the episodes that have aired to date. Series 6 is scheduled to air in the U.K.
this fall. Simultaneously with the release of Series 2, Acorn is also releasing a box set of Series
1-4, as well as Series 5.
A general introduction to the world of George Gently can be found in the review of Series 1. In
Series 2, Chief Inspector Gently and Detective Sergeant John Bacchus are still getting to know
each other, and Bacchus is still technically married, although Bacchus and his wife are clearly
separated by a vast space, even though they share a roof. Lisa Bacchus has become curious about
the working relationship between her husband and his boss, which remains a work-in-progress.
In Series 2, that relationship is tested in numerous ways. What is especially notable about the
cases is how they wind and twist into dark places that surprise even the worldly Gently, who
thought he'd seen it all.
Series 2.1: "Gently with the Innocents" (May 3, 2009) 5/5
At the episode's opening, Bacchus (Lee Ingleby) is suffering through a visit to a local school
where, as part of a community outreach program, he addresses a classroom of bored teenagers
about being a cop. He returns to his office muttering dire predictions about Britain's future to an
amused Gently (Martin Shaw). Schools, teachers and the oversight of young people are crucial
themes in "Gently with the Innocents", as a sense of impending change blows through all of
Britain.
Shortly thereafter, Gently and Bacchus are called to Harrison House, whose owner, Alfred
Peachment (Brian de Salvo), has been found beaten to death in the immaculately tended gardens
behind the huge house. The murder was reported by Cora Davidson (Jill Halfpenny), a real estate
developer who has just closed on the property and was there to inspect it before demolition to
make way for new construction. Suspicion immediately falls on the gardener, Harry Carson
(Matthew McNulty), a strong but mentally challenged young man who is prone to violence if provoked.
Carson is supposed to be at work, but he is nowhere to be found. When he later reappears, his
shirt is covered with the victim's blood.
Gently and Bacchus are not the first on the scene. They arrive to find a young constable, Sergeant
Blacksmith (Mark Stobbart), who is native to the area and seems to know everything and
everbody. Himself the son of a local officer (now deceased), Blacksmith explains that Harrison
House was formerly a school, but closed in 1947 rather than comply with new state regulations.
Peachment wasn't even supposed to be there, but he had resisted selling the property, until the
local planning board forced his hand. Then he stubbornly refused to move out.
Bacchus is particularly annoyed by Blacksmith, because his presentation is so polished. The two
of them are rivals for an inspector's position that has just opened up. Bacchus is even more
disturbed that his own boss seems impressed by his rival's deportment.
Real estate and the wealth that accompanies it have often motivated criminal conduct. Already
sensing something amiss, Gently and Bacchus have their suspicions confirmed when they return
to Harrison House later in the day to find the head of the planning board, Dr. Philip Morgan
(Paul Copley), rifling through the dead man's papers—under the watchful eye of the very proper
Sergeant Blacksmith. Further inquiry reveals that the dead man's widow, Enid Peachment
(Georgine Anderson), from whom he'd been separated for many years, is Dr. Morgan's sister,
and the survey on which the planning board based their decision was performed by Dr. Morgan's
brother. The entire affair begins to look like a plot to get the property away from the old man for
a tidy profit, then murder him when he wouldn't stop protesting.
But as so often happens in George Gently, even the sinister explanations aren't sinister enough.
Like the mute gardener, Harry Carson, none of the people in "Gently with the Innocents" are
truly speaking; they're just making noise. Harrison House has secrets that have been carefully
locked away and that even Gently and Bacchus can't interpret when they're uncovered without
forcing the truth out of several witnesses whose reluctance to speak is embedded in every fiber of
their being. In 1964, certain crimes were so unthinkable that Gently gets suspended even for
raising the possibility that they might have occurred. True to his nature, he keeps investigating anyway.
Series 2.2 "Gently in the Night (May 10, 2009) 4.5/5
What if Hugh Hefner had chosen a fox instead of a bunny as the emblem of his Playboy empire?
A Playboy-like club called Rakes operated by an American who's a cross between Hefner and
Hustler's Larry Flynt is at the center of "Gently in the Night", which begins with the discovery of
a young woman's body delicately laid on a church altar.
The victim, Audrey Chadwick (Sian Breckin), told her parents (Bill Fellows and Mary Jo
Randle) and her landlady that she worked as a nurse. Bacchus, however, recognizes her from
Rakes, where the unhappily married sergeant is embarrassed to admit that he's been enjoying a
trial membership. The proprietor of Rakes, Patrick Donovan (Brendan Coyle), says that Audrey
was a "perfect" Fox, not unlike his wife, Helen (Clare Calbraith), before he married her. Audrey,
too, saw Rakes as the path to marrying a rich man, but just before she was killed, she'd
announced to her best friend, another Fox named Fawn Granger (Nichola Burley), that she was
moving to London.
The presence of Rakes in the community has not gone unnoticed. The club is routinely picketed
by protesters led by Margaret Bishop (Tracey Wilkinson), who photographs patrons entering and
exiting and hands out prayer cards to the female employees. In a sad comment on the state of the
Bishop marriage, Gently discovers Margaret's husband Joe, an attorney, sitting comfortably in
the office of Rakes's owner, Patrick Donovan, who is a client. As part of his compensation, Joe
Bishop enjoys a membership at Rakes, a fact of which his wife may or may not be aware. Gently
and Bacchus are naturally intrigued by this connection, given the ecclesiastical circumstances in
which Audrey's body was found. But as they both recognize, Margaret Bishop isn't strong
enough to have carried Audrey into the church undetected after killing her somewhere else.
Audrey's former boyfriend, Frank Allingham (Diarmaid Murtagh), certainly would have had the
strength and has the temper to match. For that matter, so does her father, Ronnie Chadwick,
whose wife turns up for a second interview with bruises on her face. Indeed, as the investigation
progresses, Gently and Bacchus encounter a full array of unrepentantly male chauvinist behavior,
expressed without embarrassment in this pre-feminist age (including by Bacchus, who hasn't
exactly been a saint at Rakes). Allegations of rape emerge, as does the issue of abortion, which
was still illegal under British law in 1964.
Although the killer is ultimately identified and captured, the result hardly leaves a sense of justice
served. Audrey Chadwick may have been killed by a single person, but she was the victim of
many. Maybe that's why series creator Peter Flannery chose to end "Gently in the Night" on a
lighter note with an exhibition boxing match between Gently and Bacchus. Everyone needed a a
little comic relief.
Series 2.3: "Gently in the Blood" (May 17, 2009) 4.5/5
The Notting Hill riots of August-September 1958 were a watershed event in the history of British
race relations. They occurred in an area of London heavily populated by immigrants from the
Caribbean and were fueled by attacks from so-called "Teddy boys", many of whom belonged to
groups such as the White Defence League. Forces from the Met were called out nightly to keep
order. Gently was a constable then, and during the course of "Gently in the Blood", he relates his
experiences to Bacchus. He saw things he hopes never to see again on an English street, but their
latest case reveals layers to the issue of race that even Gently couldn't have anticipated.
It begins with stakeout based on an anonymous tip about stolen passports. The seller manages to
escape but the passports are recovered, and they lead to the local passport office headed by Philip
Saint (Joe Simpson). Suspicion immediately falls on Maggie Alderton (Robyn Addison), the
clerk in charge of shipping expired passports to the main office in London for destruction.
Among other things, she's an unwed single mother with a six-week old baby to support. The
infant's picture is on her desk, and Bacchus immediately focuses on the baby's dark skin.
As it happens, the escaped passport seller is Maggie's former boyfriend, Jimmy Cochran
(Andrew Lee Potts), a local gang leader who walked out on the poor girl when the baby was
born, even though she swore she'd been faithful. Jimmy and his crew are engaged in a bitter turf
war with an Arab gang led by Hamed (Tariq Jordan) for control of local petty crime. It was
Hamed who phoned in the tip about the illegal sale, hoping to put his rival behind bars and out of
business.
The day after they visit the passport office, Gently and Bacchus are called to the seashore where
Maggie Alderton has been found dead. Now they have to disentangle the financial motives (the
stolen passport enterprise) from the personal ones (the paternity of Maggie's baby). The task
becomes more difficult as they realize that everyone involved grew up together—with one
exception. An older Arab man named Thomas Ali (Stewart Scudamore) hovers in the
background for much of the episode, his origins and interests a mystery. Hamed claims that he is
the father of Maggie's baby, and he does indeed seem to have taken an unusal interest in her. But
nothing about him suggests a motive for murder.
In William Faulkner's famous phrase, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past." As a chronicler of
the South, Faulkner understood the twists and turns of bloodlines and race relations. He would
have appreciated "Gently in the Blood".
Series 2.4: "Gently Through the Mill" (May 24, 2009) 4/5
The final episode of Series 2 is set in the days leading up to the General Election of 1964, which
was held on October 15. Durham's seat in Parliament is heavily contested between the incumbent
Tory candidate, Nicholas Mundy (Trevor Cooper), and the Labour challenger, Geoffrey Pershore
(Tim McInnerny). Indeed, Gently and Bacchus have to clear the two warring candidates and their
supporters out of the road before they can gain access to the Rinton Mill, where the body of its
manager, Patrick Fuller (Joe Duttine), has been found hanging by his friend Henry Blythely
(Nicholas Jones) and the foreman, Sam Draper (Tom Goodman-Hill).
Murder or suicide? The facts are inconclusive. Fuller left no note, but he'd been suffering
financially for a long time. He used to own the Rinton Mill but was forced to sell it after years of
losses. The buyer was none other than candidate Geoffrey Pershore, who retained Fuller as
manager. Fuller then turned around and appointed Draper as foreman instead of a much more
deserving candidate, Jed Jimpson (Justin McDonald)—a decision that no one at the mill could
understand, since Draper is a lazy, surly fellow, and Jimpson is young and energetic. After being passed over, Jimpson
now spends all his spare time working on the campaign for Pershore, whom he worships as a
surrogate father, ever since his own alcoholic father died of liver failure.
The safe in Fuller's office has been rifled, and all the petty cash is gone. When Gently has
Pershore review the contents, he gets the sense that something else is missing, but Pershore is
evasive. Then he tells Gently that, shortly before Fuller died, the auditors found irregularities in
the mill's accounts. Was Fuller embezzling and about to be caught? If so, where is the money?
A different set of issues arises when Bacchus goes to Fuller's house to notify Mrs. Fuller (Julia
Ford) of her husband's death. She says he was having an affair with his 17-year-old secretary,
Julie (Kate Heppell), on whose attractive figure Bacchus' eye has already lingered. (He didn't
hire her for her secretarial skills, says Mrs. Fuller. "To call her thick as two planks would be
unfair to the planks.") Indeed, evidence at the scene, as well as autopsy results, suggest that
Fuller died shortly after an encounter with a woman.
"Gently Through the Mill" is an atypical episode of George Gently, which generally succeeds in
parsing the complexities of its cases at just the right speed to reach the story's conclusion with
utter clarity about who did what and why. This particular episode feels rushed; indeed, I had to
watch it twice to make sure I understood how all the pieces fit together. Part of the reason is that
the case turns on several interim developments that seem to come from nowhere, including a side
trip into the secretive world of Freemasonry. But the principal cause is the time devoted to the
episode's secondary plot, which is the deteriorating relationship between Gently and Bacchus.
Bacchus has never forgotten that Gently quashed his transfer to the London Met at the end of the
pilot episode. At the beginning of "Gently Through the Mill", he asks the boss's permission to
attend a seminar entitled "A Modern Approach to Policing Crime in London", which Gently
refuses. "I can summarize it for you in two sentences", says the former London detective. "One:
Find out where the villains drink. Two: Ask them for a bribe." Determined to get to London by
any means necessary, Bacchus goes to his father-in-law, the Chief Constable (Mal Whyte), and
has Gently overruled, but by the end he realizes that his father-in-law is actually hoping
he'll disappear to London so that he'll leave the Chief Constable's daughter for good.
Lisa Bacchus (Melanie Clark Pullen) may be reaching the same conclusion. Both we and Gently
meet her in this episode for the first time, and she is gravely concerned about the state of her
marriage. Sergeant Bacchus is clearly at a crossroad in his life, and while it is dramatically
interesting to explore, the exploration takes away essential screen time from a criminal
investigation that's already hard enough to follow.
As previously noted in the review of Series 5,
Acorn Media has changed their approach to video
encoding with the most recent releases of George Gently. Previous releases (that is, Series 1, 3
and 4) have been issued with two episodes per disc
(each episode is approximately 90 minutes
long) on BD-50s. Series 2 and 5, which are being released simultaneously, have the same amount
of content per disc, but the discs are BD-25s. Acorn has achieved excellent images with their
releases of Midsomer Murders using this arrangement, and they apparently have decided to try
the same approach with George Gently.
The approach worked with Series 5, where the content was 1080p, but it doesn't work nearly as
well with Series 2, which like the other series preceding Series 5, arrives in 1080i format. Series 1, 3 and 4
have very good images, despite the interlaced formatting, but on my main display, Series 2 was
covered with an almost continuous layer of video noise, as the much lower bitrate struggled to
keep up with the constant field shifts. The problem was easy to see when I was doing screen
captures, because combing and motion artifacts in the image were much more frequent than in
the previous 1080i series. In normal viewing, a good player will do its best to eliminate such
problems, but it can only do so much; hence the video noise. (Of course, isolating single frames
in captures minimizes the effect.)
There are times when I find the prejudice against 1080i to be unfair. Properly handled, it can
produce a stunning image. But if Series 2 of George Gently is any indication, 1080i cannot reliably tolerate the same degree of
compression as 1080p. Acorn got away with it on the first two volumes (19 and 20) of Midsomer Murders, presumably due to
differences in the source format, but the results for Series 2 of George Gently are nowhere near comparable in quality, either to those
volumes of Midsomer Murders or to other volumes of George Gently.
Colors, black levels and contrast are on a par with the other series of George Gently. But the image as a whole
is subpar compared to every other series, and I am docking the video score accordingly. As I noted
in my review of Series 5, Acorn charges a premium price for what is supposed to be a premium
product. Why would it cut corners with disc capacity when its previous approach to 1080i has
worked so well? George Gently is too good a series, and these episodes are too high quality, to
let this drop in video quality deter anyone, but Acorn avoid mastering 1080i material
with this extreme degree of compression.
Having previously encoded George Gently's audio as PCM, Acorn Media has now switched to
DTS-HD MA 2.0. From the listener's point of view, the difference in lossless formats is moot,
because the track continues to provide the same basic and functional mix, emphasizing dialogue
and essential effects. As on previous episodes, there is a general sense of environmental
ambiance, but otherwise nothing special from the surrounds and no major work for a subwoofer.
Irish composer Ray Harman continued his scoring duties from the pilot episode and Series 1.
Martin Shaw Interview: In text, the actor recalls his own memories of 1964, when he
was studying at drama school in London.
Lee Ingleby Interview: In text, the actor discusses his character, the period and the
episodes.
Producer Johann Knobel Notes: This brief note reads more like an official press
presentation than a personal statement, but it contains relevant information.
1964 Historical Facts: A list of events from 1964 in both world history and popular
culture. Several season sets of Mad Men have included a similar feature, and it's a great
extra for a series that draws on historical references.
With all five series of George Gently now available on Blu-ray (and despite the video
shortcomings of Series 2), it's possible to stand back and appreciate the remarkable arc of the
Gently/Bacchus relationship as it has evolved from the initial hostility and grudging respect of
the pilot episode to the often cantankerous partnership that is essential to the dramatic finale of
"Gently in the Cathedral" in Series 5. These are
two men from opposite worlds, of different eras
and with incompatible temperaments, but like soldiers in war, they share a unique bond forged by
a special type of combat. The Blu-rays of Series 2 may not be up to the technical level of their
compatriots, but they're still highly recommended for their content.
George Gently: Other Seasons
Season 1 2-disc set $29.61
Season 3 1-disc $28.08
Season 4 1-disc $30.27
Season 5 2-disc set $42.38
Blu-ray bundles with George Gently, Series 2 (1 bundle)
Blu-ray.com and Acorn Media are offering four members an opportunity to win a Blu-ray copy of George Gently, Series 5 or Series 2, both of which star Martin Shaw as the British inspector. Both series, along with a Series 1-4 Collection box set, arrive on Blu-ray ...
Acorn Media has detailed the Blu-ray release of George Gently: Series 5 and George Gently: Series 2, each of which features four mysteries, uncompressed audio and several extras. Both sets will be available for purchase online and in stores across the nation on ...
