Radio Times: Review by:; Alison Graham

The joys of northern soul and the horrors of casual racism arrive in 1968 Newcastle, leaving gruff Inspector Gently and his dullard sidekick, Detective Sergeant Bacchus, facing a wall of prejudice when a young black woman is found dead.

She’d been to a northern soul gig with her best pal (Being Human’s Lenora Crichlow) but, such are the prevailing attitudes that, apart from the victim’s closest family and friends, and Gently (Martin Shaw), no one cares that much. Even Bacchus (Lee Ingleby) is initially dismissive, writing her off as a prostitute. But his lugubrious boss is having none of it.

The handling of such a big, complex issue is well-meaning, but, in the context of a journeyman police drama, it feels lumbering.

About this programme

1/4. Set in 1968 against the backdrop of Martin Luther King's assassination and National Front anti-immigration agitation, Chief Inspector George Gently and his ambitious sergeant John Bacchus investigate the murder of Dolores Kenny, a young black woman. She is a regular attender of a local club's soul all-nighters, events popular with factory workers from across the racial divide. Gently begins to uncover evidence of prejudice within the local community and his own police force as he seeks to identify the victim's killer. Sixties detective drama, starring Martin Shaw and Lee Ingleby, with Lenora Crichlow (Being Human), Craig Conway, Pippa Bennell-Warner, Philip Correia (Doctors) and Maggie O'Neill (Shameless).