The Show:
The British seem to have a knack for crafting better than average crime drama, particularly on television. (I may have said this somewhere before.) And when dramatic heavyweight Martin Shaw is in the lead, it’s difficult for a show to fail. Such it is with George Gently: Series 5, in which Shaw reprises his role as the stoic police inspector in Sixties England. It’s not an unreserved success, but it is really, really good.

Inspector Gently is joined by the still sloppy and arrogant, but essentially good hearted, Detective Sergeant Bacchus (Lee Ingleby) and PC Taylor (Simon Hubbard). They investigate crimes, mostly murder but other serious offenses such as kidnapping as well, in the turbulent and changing milieu of the 1960’s. Bacchus is very much the “new man”, wanting to fit into to the new moral and intellectual landscaped. While Gently is of the old guard: not very expressive, calm, studied, principled and straightforward, but with a deep well of compassion and understanding to call upon.

George Gently has always delved into the darker side of human nature, and as a show that deals with the worst impulses of humanity, the urge to murder and worse, it certainly can’t be helped. However, it seems that Series 5 is a bit darker and more cynical than it has been in the past, with less room for a glimmer of redemption to leak through. Particularly bleak is the strong anti-adoption theme in the episode “The Lost Child”, in which the single mothers and their families are innocent angels, and all those involved on the adoption side are lying, manipulative, greedy baddies. George Gently can be counted on having one “preachy” episode per series, and perhaps they’ve just gone a tad overboard on this one, but the tone is a bit off putting. It’s not that the episode is poorly executed, or performed (Helen Baxendale gives perhaps the best performance of Series 5 as the grieving adoptive mother), but it’s hard to puzzle out the why behind the creative choices.

Gently and Bacchus deal with racism, class conflict, corruption, the odd mobster or gangster, and various other immoralities and wickedness. Gently is mostly unflappable, until he is accused of taking bribes and falsifying evidence, and even murder, and has to sort out his enemies from his friends, which turns out to be a difficult task. Bacchus is mostly rash and callow, though perhaps he’s learning something from his years under Gently’s tutelage. The episodes are all well produced, with compelling characters, and sufficiently tricky mysteries to satisfy the fans. Series 5 consists of four episodes on four discs. Below is a list of episodes, with descriptive text as provided on the discs:

Gently Northern Soul
The murder of a black teenager has Gently and Bacchus seeking her killer in a community where racism is never far from the surface. The detectives encounter local prejudice and anti-immigrant sentiment but discover that there may have been other motivations for the crime.

Gently with Class
After a car turns up in a river with a drowned young woman in the passenger seat but no driver, the detectives follow the trail to the home of local aristocrats. Bacchus resents the family, and Gently suspects his sergeant may be crossing the line to get a conviction.

The Lost Child
When an adopted baby is snatched from her crib, suspicion initially falls on the birth mother, who may be having second thoughts about giving up her child. But after a ransom demand turns out to be blackmail, Gently turns his attentions closer to home.

Gently in the Cathedral
Upon his release from prison, a vicious career criminal from Gently’s London days seeks revenge on the detective. Allegations about the inspector start to fly and many people