Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby, Lisa McGrillis, Lee Boardman, Andrea Lowe, Pixie Lott, Lisa Riley, Isabelle Walters, Jodie Comer, Neil McDermott, Sean Kenney, Amelia Young.
The dying days of the 1960s saw the start of the decline of the family holiday parks as the British remembered them. They were going to have to modernise or become ancient history; they were going to have to compete with the cheap family holidays that were becoming the norm as venues in Spain were becoming tourist traps for the British holidaymaker. What wouldn’t have helped is a murder on the doorstep and the police in the shape of crusty cove George Gently investigating and poking his methodical nose into every nook and cranny.
The return to full fitness for both Bacchus and Gently after their injuries sustained in Durham Cathedral and the addition to the team of W.P.C. Rachel Coles, the returning Lisa McGrillis, sees the three police officers investigate the death of aspiring and talented Bluebird Megan Webb and what they find is the worst case of murder, one bought on by jealousy and sex.
Blue for Bluebird may seem tame by comparison to modern detective stories where the lurid becomes blurred with sensationalism, where the story on offer to the viewer is more about ever increasing shock value and almost akin to a case of violent pornography dressed up as serious crime solving. However, for the time Inspector George Gently is set in, the days of the British version of the sexual revolution were not so much seen as glamorous but a pastiche of the flower power days of West Coast America, everybody else thought everybody else was part of it, when really the British reserve probably meant being considered racy was having an extra hot water bottle in the bed.
The episode saw both Martin Shaw and Lee Ingleby back to the very best as the perfect pairing of detectives and a couple of great performances by Lee Boardman as the owner of the holiday camp Todd Stretch and the delightful Pixie Lott as Megan Webb. Lee Boardman is one of those actors who manages to show on screen the very meaning and significance of shifty, it is a tribute to the man’s acting ability that he is able to portray such dishonesty and dubiousness with just a look to the camera, a hard act to be able to pull off without it looking like a parody of human emotion.
Inspector George Gently continues to set the bar high in terms of gritty police drama.
Ian D. Hall