Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby, Lisa McGrillis, Jody Latham, Elizabeth Carling, Simon Hubbard, Danny Cunningham, Patrick Mcnamee, Annabel Scholey, Tom Hutch, Emma Lundy, Rosie Wyatt, Lucian Msamati, William Graham, Paul Hamilton.

For every generation must come a time when it watches those who will replace them with wonder, dread and in some cases frightened to death of what will happen to them and those not wishing to follow in their size nines. For those that lived through the Second World War and fought for the peace that was won afterwards, to see the actions of some of the young, untempered by the hardships and reality of fighting against an enemy that wanted to destroy you but who in turn wanted to sweep away everything that you had fought desperately for, must have been like watching a tidal wave of exhausting hatred and bile.

For every generation must end at some point, the embers need to be replaced by a new fire and the sound of distant drums and in the case of the late 1960s and early 70s the rise of something less palatable comes riding over the hill.

Anger is certainly something that Inspector George Gently and John Bacchus are used to dealing with on the streets and county lanes of Durham and Newcastle and yet the rise of the skin head is something new and it is a subject matter that is dealt with great trepidation and respect to the cultures that surrounded the new wave in Son of a Gun.

Writers Jim Keeble and Dudi Appleton spare no punches in this look at the war that was brewing internally as the country started to rip itself apart as the 1960s started to close its doors and the two fingers of the oppressed were quickly raised and the sound of leather boots, once feared as a symbol of Fascist dictatorship kicking in the doors of those who argued against them, was now turned inward as a section of the youth in society quickly dismissed all that happened before.

This particular episode, the final one in the latest series, was one that really brought home the changing times that were felt keenly, the old guard not understanding the frustrations of the young, the young not compelled to show empathy to a group of people who had fought and suffered to give them the freedom to rebel. It is an episode in which Martin Shaw excels in and in which a new sense of maturity and mutual respect can be seen in the relationship between Bacchus and Gently.

With Jody Latham giving an exceptional performance as Jonjo Burdon, the leader of the new breed of young men undeterred by history, the sheer force of will and disaffection of society comes crawling off the screen and is a palpable reminder of the division that the marked the new decade, one in which a new shift in the dynamic of the fabric of society was to cause much debate.

Arguably one of the better series of a truly great detective programme, Inspector George Gently cannot be accused of shirking in its responsibility to highlighting the past. One of the few good reasons to own a television.

Ian D. Hall