Who Do You Think You are Alex Kingston September 2012

I also enjoyed last nights Who you think you are with Alex Kingston. Just about to celebrate her 50^th birthday she remains a sexually attractive woman who divided herself as going through a period of instability in her life diving time between the UK and the USA. She is separated from her second husband with whom they have a daughter who lives in the US and she was previously married to Ralph Fiennes the classical actor with whom they lives for ten years since student fays before marriage. He left her for the Francesca Annis another heavenly creature who I would say is similar to Kingston in terms of her physical appearance and performance persona. She is reported to have taken the break up of their marriage badly.

She has never made the top as a film actress and is mostly known for TV roles with ER in the States and twelve Dr Who appearances and counting here with a long range of other TV series including the remake of Upstairs and Downstairs this years Marchlands 2011, Law and Order and Hope Springs 2009, The Knock in 1996 and 4 episodes of the Bill in 1988. We were back to World War and Passechendaele for the first investigation for a great grandfather a photographer who started as a magic lantern slide maker, She did not know what a magic lantern was which I found extraordinary given her age. There was a moving moment when she was able first read a brief account of the death of the relative in a book about the role of Engineers in relation to detecting the location of enemy guns by recording the sound waves on film and later identifying the death in the official record of the engagement although his individual military papers is one of the hundreds of thousands lost through World War II bombing

However it was the second investigation which as she admitted established both the Jewishness of part of her background and also the whore. Her words I emphasise. An early relative was widowed young in the early 1900 around 1824 with four children under 10 years and was found in a census running a lodging house in a row of lodging houses all run by single woman as owner occupiers in an era where all the property of a married woman belonged to her husband. The suggestions was therefore these lodging houses were of ill repute. There were two newsprint items which indicated this was so when early on she was brought to magistrates and found guilty for keep a lewd house and then there was suicide by poisoning which referred to a property owned by her but where she was not mentioned.

Her Will revealed that she owned a large number of properties which she left in trust to her grand daughter thus preventing them going to her son who sounds a wastrel or to any future husband of the daughter. That she grown from being a widow without pension to owning the property suggests the success of her occupation and that by also moving up in terms of location she may have achieved protect via her clients and which accounted that she was not referred to in the later incident. This tickled Kingston pink rather than the red of her golden red curls

　

Romanzo Criminale Series 2 episodes 1 and 2

I made the mistake of watching the first episodes of the second series of Romanzo Criminale without refreshing my memory about the first which was developed after the successful 2005 film.

The fictitious crime drama series does follow actual events in Rome

’s crime history and the role of corrupt politicians. The Crime gang whose history is featured in the two series was in fact a combination of two gangs of young men who dreamed of becoming big time and eventually controlled drug distribution throughout Rome, leading the high life of fast cars and gambling but also attempt to establish themselves through financial investments.

The first series ended with the leader of the combined group known as Lebanese who was rejected by his mother because of his criminality and is gunned down by two brothers, why I cannot remember. The first two episodes deal with the aftermath of the killing. Towards the end of series Lebanese had become wild and unstable and with the second in command attempting to go straight because of a serious relationship with a young woman who had previously been the girl friend of his brother who he had worked hard to keep in college and out of trouble. The impact of the girl turning to Freddo led the brother to dropping out of higher education and taking drugs.

The death of Leban and the instinctive need for revenge results in Freddo abandoning plans to leave Rome with Roberta and to become unofficial leader. The gang are not members of the Mafia but have an arrangement as they have with right wing political gigues and their placed men in position of power in the police and judiciary. They want to give authority to Dandi, a young man with a liking for fine things especially Patrizia originally a high class beautiful whore but now runs a whore house for him with the help of her male gay companion

The complication is that the young police detective Commissario Scialoja has a grand passion for her and she had shown interest in him. His hands are not clean and is regarded as a Communist sympathizer because his sister was part of a communist action group and who arranged to leave Italy when she was about to be arrested.

In these two second series episodes the vultures gather over what appears the breaking up if the gang, They kill one man for boasting he was responsible for the Libanese’s death and then one of the two brothers thought to be responsible.

The Commissioner then picks up Freddo’s brother and holds him in jail knowing that there will be an attempt to get to him by enemies of the Freddo and that Freddo will be forced into action. Freddo’s attempts to protect his brother in jail while he gets his lawyer to seek the release fails and the young man is beaten up and susceptible to pressure from the Commissioner and agrees to wear a wire and attempt to trap his brother. This does not work and Freddo sends his brother packing.

Freddo is also at sixes and sevens with Roberto infuriating her when he abandon the trip away but she then gives him alibi for the killing of one of the brother thought responsible for Libanese. Later when she appears to waiver he sends her away knowing what he has to and the likely implications, especially with the Commissioner hot on his trail.

The second series opened with a flash back to how Libanese and two other formed the nucleus of their gang as boys. There is anger when they discovers that Libanese’s cars have gone and when they discover they have been taken by his father he is given the opportunity to save himself not by getting back the expensive ones but the Mini which they used in the early days. This is then pushed down a mountainside so that no one else can use the vehicle.

They also insist on the immediate liquidation of his assets in order to provide a funeral fit for a king but his mother rejects the money and one of his closest friends steals the coffin which he places in the best available so he and the other have a wake. They do this with special food and drink before returning the coffin to the mother and attending the formal funeral where the Commissioner also attends.

The police take the other brother to stop him being killed by the group and to test for evidence of his guilt but the secret power group delay returning the findings but let Freddo see a copy in order to enable the group to get their revenge and settle things. Freddo then agrees that Dandi as the driver and two other should undertake the assassination of the other brother once he is released from custody. When this starts to go wrong Dandi freezes from putting himself in the firing line to pick up the under fire other two one of whom is wounded. Dandi returns to Patrizia to lick his wounds having been approached to take over the gang by other interests. However he may not have bargained that one of the two others getting away by taking a hostage.

Freddo also tracks down to person who sold the brother the drugs and finds that she is a feisty female who points out the brother was an established addict in need and that she is best local distributor than all the others. Freddo’s makes enquiries and puts her in charge of the area previously managed by the Libanese much to the anger of another of the hangs with whom the Roman group had previous problems.

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

Hillsborough the Truth, September 2012

Channel Five Live special on Hillsborough the Truth.

This was the powerful and emotional rendering case against the police and ambulance service over the failure to deal with the situation which emerged leading to 41 individuals who could have survived with the proper attention dying. There was also the organised cover up by senior officers of the police action on the day involving the altering of police statements wither by threats or without their knowledge. The calls for a new Inquest and criminal proceedings grows louder. There were scenes of the present Liverpool away supporters visiting Sunderland where the crowd response was disappointing. I guess the hone side without wins for nearly a dozen games did not want too much sympathy for the visitors although sharing in their anger and concern about what had been revealed. A major contributor was the doctor who was present with his sons now Professor John Ashton and who clearly is one of the important behind the scenes figures pressing for truth and justice over the past two decades.

The killing of two police women becomes more and more murky as the man being hidden at the house was wanted re murders and on police bail because the evidence was not available to hold him in custody to be charged, so why did they initiate the call which led to two unarmed policewomen attending. This has brought sympathy to the police again after Hillsborough revelations and the way the policeman who killed the news vendors has been let pensioned off after the criminal trial jury appears to have been fixed in the way the prosecution service handled the case.

Who do you think you are? 2012 series part one

Having thought I had listed all there was to experience, remember and write about before the London trip last Friday I had forgotten about one of the most engaging series on the BBC which commenced a month ago Who do you think you are? I find this oversight extraordinary given the amount of work undertaken since 1999 to discover the background of the family of my mother who lived for 100 years and of my father, both born in Gibraltar, one of a Wiltshire, Spanish and Italian ancestry and the other Maltese. The other aspect is that when the series was an advertised I noted that the majority of the personalities involved were people I knew about and admired.

This was very true Wednesday week when the programme Annie Lennox took precedence over the Paralympics. Annie is known first for her work as a singer with the Eurhythmics a duo with Dave Stewart from Sunderland and then as an International humanitarian particularly concerned with AIDS becoming a UNESCO ambassador and with poverty and human rights in general.

Annie set out to discover about the grandfather she knew only as a little girl but where she had established a good connection remembering all her life to date that he had caught and cooked for her a fresh salmon. There was an associated issue that he had been illegitimate. Annie comes from Aberdeen and the first surprise was that her grandfather had worked as a game keeper/Gillie on the Balmoral estate and because of this the BBC arranged for her to visit to the castle and speak with a specialist with access to the castle and its grounds. She discovered that there is a record of his employment on the estate as there is of his wife who also worked in the house. There is record that as a young man he was one of those chosen to dance with the Queen’s mother at the Gillies’ ball when she was in residence.

　

The grand father was legitimate but it was his father who had been brought up with his single parent mother. While I thought I had paid close attention I am now confused about the two branches of the family she explored although I remember the details of one instance.

This was of a young woman who grew up in the town of Banff on the coast and who was summoned before the elders of the Kirk to explain her immorality in giving birth to a child outside of marriage. Eight years later she had appeared before the same group of men again, although on this occasion she volunteered the appearance to try an obtain justice from a man who had promised marriage disclosed to other members of the family but had gone off when the pregnancy was realised. She had later lived on her own in an isolated cottage with a beautiful Grampian vista keeping poultry until her eighties and becoming eligible for a state pension when it was introduced a couple of years before her death.

I believe the other single parent situation involved the grandmother’s branch of the family and was brought up in a town close to Aberdeen. The story begins with a young woman who has a child by a local solicitor who appears to have become engaged a short while before her child was born. This is where my memory is hazy but my present understanding is that when the mother died the child was placed in care and with the sister of the solicitor. The child appears to have stayed for a few years but when she was 10 years the woman returned the girl to the parish because she was no longer of use and the girl was then placed in lodgings working at large flax making factory the ruins of the building still in existence and was visited by Annie in the programme.

The programme provided insights into Victorian rural and town poverty with Annie concluding that both were horrible but which perhaps explains aspect of her own approach to life and interests.

There was a similar connecting link between present day and past personalities in the programme on the life of Patrick Stewart, now Sir Patrick, who became internationally known from his work at Captain Piccard in the follow up TV series to the original Star Trek and subsequent films and then the X Men series of films. In fact Patrick has remained a major classical actor.

It was evident from the outset that Patrick and his older brother had found their father very difficult with Patrick meeting him effectively on this return from World War II having before this had wonderful memories of his relationship with his mother and older brother. The importance of the programme was the level of the depth into his father’s character and the cause of his behaviour which changed his perception regretting that this knowledge had come to him and to his brother after the death of their father and mother.

His father had run off and joined the army when his brother was born and his mother had to summon his father to court to obtain maintenance being awarded ten shillings a week. His father had joined the military police and only later married his mother. When World War II was declared he had been called up as a reservist and attached to a support regiment of men who were given the minimum of training, so as an experienced soldier he was given responsibility for helping and organising other men. He was sent to France with expeditionary force to provide manual work support behind the front lines but was caught in the German advance into France when the Panzer division came from the south and attacked Abbeville raising the town to the ground with aerial as well as tank bombardment. The train which they been travelling in was stopped and they moved into nearby fields where they witnessed the attack on the town and they then had experienced the plight of the refugees and the way German planes had slaughtered men women and children as they attempted to escape the fighting. Patrick is shown a newspaper article revealing that his father had suffered shell shock on returning home. Patrick had worked as a cub reporter for the same newspaper without previous knowledge of the article.

At the age of 38 his father has volunteered for the new Para 2 regiment and had dropped in the South of France in advance of the allied assault from the sea. His role had been to defend the HQ team and also to take charge of surrendering German prisoners. What was considered unusual and commendable is that he had volunteered at age when most would have looked for role which did not involve such danger. Para 2 was also involved in the ill fated Anaheim drop when a large number were killed, injured or captured. His father had been promoted to the rank of Sergeant Major and was asked to take responsibility for rebuilding the regiment with men as well as equipment where it is reported he was regarded as a father figure with pastoral responsibilities.

The background previously unknown to Stewart enabled him to reappraise his father. He then relayed the information to his brother who indicated he would need time to reflect on what had been learned.

George Wallace

was only known to me through being a judge in the Master Chef programmes and from this I knew he had been greengrocer who now runs his own restaurant. His interest was his great grandfather who had abandoned his wife and children including his grandfather and therefore his impression of the man was not favourable so he wanted to find out the circumstances. What he discovered significantly changed his understanding and feelings. He found that the mans wife had been guilty of infidelity and that the man experienced a series of tragedies in his life. There was a similar story relating to his great grand mother which involved a placement in an institution. I was interested by the aspect that the three times married celebrity had such an interest in the impact of a man who was alleged to have left his wife and child.

Samantha Womack

featured in the first episode, a minor actress in the great history of actressing, famed for her role Ronnie Mitchell in Eastenders. I was put off by her girlish wonderment which meant that I paid less attention although the subjects were of interest although no longer remembered.

This brings me to someone else who again I regarded as a minor personality Hugh Dennis and although the subject of last night’s programme was a well trodden track along the reality of the First World War, the story of his great grandparents experience was of interest.

I am struck by the reported comment of Hugh’s first wife that he was boring, restrained and unexciting. I see what she meant although this will be viewed by many people as responsible maturity.

He followed the lives of two grant parents, possibly great grandparents. The first on the paternal side was the more interesting in the son of a miner, gained a place at a grammar school and went on to Officer training for six months at Cambridge University before landing in France a couple of months before the war ended before being wounded out. His maternal relative had entered the Great War early on with the first tasks burying the dead at what is now a memorial cemetery, followed by involvement in Ypres and Passechendaele and then in remaining in control of hill on the basis of the order of no retreat in which he was one of nine who survived and where from the regiment three quarters had perished or become badly injured. Neither man had talked of their experiences with latter never happier working in the garden.

George Gently

I have written about the first episode of the George Gently new series recently, an episode which engaged and was well constructed. Last night I looked forward to viewing the subsequent episode on the BBCi player and was disappointed at the time although on the reflection this was not justified. The subject was well worn, the ability of the aristocracy and those with power to protect themselves. In this instance it was Northumbrian aristos where the Lady of the manor insisted on being addressed as her Ladyship but was an over protective slut prepared to do anything to protect her son and the family good name. She demonstrated contempt for everyone else including her husband and the dead young woman who had drowned in one of the eight or was it nine cars on the estate and used by those who worked there with keys left in the ignition. The car had gone off the road and the girl had been trapped by a leg unable to get out of the vehicle as the water rose. The main plot issue concerned who had been in the car with the girl and then walked away.

However from my viewpoint the issue was the behaviour of the Sergeant who spouted all the anti aristo prejudices of the post war period, in this instance with justification as twice before he had arrested the son for drunk driving and the case had never got to court because of the influence of the family with the authorities. In this instance an assistant Chief Constable intervened insisting on being in attendance while the son with his mother was interviewed and refusing to allow the Sergeant to participate in the questioning. However the Sergeant later placed a smear of the special blood type of the young man on the vehicle which led to the death of the girl in order to get justice. He was wrong of course both in his actions and in the facts although at first the son appeared the prime suspect because of nasty knock on his forehead.

The anti aristos theme was reinforced by the father of the dead girl who has a job on the estate after losing his job as a pitman and who was full of invective with a background of supporting Eileen Wilkinson and the Jarrow march the one time pride of Jarrow but where local politicians have worked hard to bring the community into the contemporary world in terms of jobs and living standards. There is a great work of art about the march outside the large supermarket although I suspect the nasty smell from the local chemical works still affects residents from time to time as it did when I lived there for a short period after arriving on Tyneside.

The dead girl sang folk protest songs and played the violin, now lived in London where it emerged she had a new boyfriend thus eliminating the young man of the house and another young man on the estate who was being groomed for political stardoom in the Tory Party through a liaison with her ladyship. The girl was left of the left and it when the writer attempts to enter the world of the revolutionaries and politicos that scripts never ring quite true although they come close.

And the truth in this instance? First the son of the house is gay and the product of mother’s tendency to take her pleasure where it can be found. She smothered and controlled the boy who had been persuaded to go to London with the girl to break free from the woman leading to the row after he had said he would drive her in his own car. When her Ladyship stopped the boy leaving it was his Lordship who had followed to drive the girl to catch a coach and they had stopped to talk and he had discovered that he had never recovered from the loss of his first wife, having little in common with his second other than protecting the family interest. He had the driven too fast and after the accident but he had held her hand when unable to free the girl until she drowned. There was a lot more of twists and red herrings and although the Lordship ended in a police cell and son died committing suicide and Sergeant got a reprimand I still feel that the episode failed to measure up and remained a fabrication rather than an honest portrayal of the people and their predicaments.

There was one great truth which came from the lines of Martin Shaw who told the Sergeant with all the benefits of hindsight that the Aristocrats would not longer directly exert the power they once had but they would equip a new generation to carry forward their values. Even in this respect I believe things have not changed to the extent suggested. I had one experience of assessing an application for a grant where it was arranged for me to meet the Committee at a country hotel and where while I waited there was great excitement expressed by hotel staff about who was at the meeting. It was a member of one of the great families of England, someone in tune with the times a million miles from the image presented in the programme; it was the people who maintained the sense of awe, respect and deference. It is the curious aspect about the old and the new English, more than the Scots, the Irish and the Welsh, I believe, which is demonstrated by the support not just for the Queen and her Jubilee, or the patriotic flag waving at the Olympic and Paralympic games but by the resistance to abolishing the House of Lords as we now know it, or renaming the Order of the British Empire something else. If this happens such as the Order of Excellence as proposed by one Commons Committee then the issue of Precedence involved will have to be tackled including the use of Sir and Lady etc. I do not expect to see fundamental change during my lifetime.

New Tricks Season 9 Begins

I begin the catch up with Series 9 of New Tricks the cold case series which featured three of my favourite characters actors of all time. Alun Armstrong plays the recovering alcoholic and brains of the trio of former police officer brought in to help head of team Angela Redmond and her boss solve long standing mysteries where a new event or evidence results in a renewed investigation. Former Minder Dennis Waterman always with one eye on the ladies plays a thrice married former Detective while the man with wisdom and right hand man to the team leader was Likely Lad James Bolam. I say was because the first episode opens with Jack taking mystery phone calls and announcing he is leaving the team. Eventually he discloses to Brian with whom he had an important relationship, more for Brian and himself, that he has only weeks to live and has decided to spend the time at a clinic close the area where he and his wife had one of their happiest times. This affects Brian deeply especially being sworn not to tell the others until afterwards.

According to the available information Jack revealed his intention to leave when the BBC announced they were commissioning series 9 and 10. This aspect made the actual story secondary. A Whitehall representative of the Secret Services insists that the team investigate a 160 year old murder mystery having to blackmail them first into undertaking the work and then insisting that their records on what they discover are handed over.

At the root of this case is a Machiavellian attempt by the government at arms length to prevent a contract being confirmed because the evidence of the murder case suggests that the family money on which the contractor built up their position was based on murder and fraud? Jack who now has nothing to lose is responsible for the leak to a journalist which scuppers the contract. However it emerges that this was the intention all along.

In Old School Ties, a former pupil and now Member of Parliament is to open a new Computer Department with his Daughter another former pupil at the school now acting as his Secretary when a few days before the visit workmen excavating a site near the entrance to the school discover the remains of a Physical Education teacher who originated in New Zealand. His contract had ended and it was assumed he had returned to his homeland.

Time does not permit all the interesting twists and turns and red herrings. The head of the school is granddaughter of a racist, and as Brian points out despite as with other Private Schools, whatever their standing, they have become increasingly dependent on taking non white pupils from overseas to balance the books there are no non whites at the establishment. So how does the school survive and afford the latest computer department?

For the head of the school maintaining the principles of her family and the reputation of the school dominates all that she has done. The PE Teacher was very friendly with one young man who had found out that his girl friend was having an affair with the teacher. The young woman had been self abusive before this and it slowly emerges that she had a blazing row with her closest friend who had alleged she had slept with someone at the school, she admitted this was not true and to cover for the fact she had become fat which was itself a cover for something else.

The row was because between the disturbed girl believed the fat girl had also slept with the PE Teacher. She had then accused the PE Teacher who had honestly denied the accusation and when started to use the knife to harm herself the man had attempted to intervene and she had accidentally stabbed in. She had called the head that had helped her take the body into the woods outside school and bury it with the suggestion that the head had made sure the man was dead when in fact he might have survived the tab wound.

The former schoolboy friend of the PE teacher with the disturbed girl now his mistress had come under suspicion because of finding out about the relationship between the two.

However unrelated to this is the cause of one girl becoming disturbed and self harming, and the other becoming fat, quickly, and which forms the core of what happened subsequently. It emerged that the Member of Parliament had been a contemporary at the school, with the head and had a secret affair with the mother of the disturbed girl when she and his daughter were about 11 and 12 years of age. The story was that mother had been killed in a car accident which understandably affected her daughter greatly but also because the car had been found with its door unlocked something which was said never to have happened if the mother was in the car on her own or out with her daughter. This suggested someone else was in the car and had left the scene

It also emerged that the other girl had been asked to cover for her father that he had been in all night at home when she had seen him return and observed him crying. He had come back to house in the car of the head teacher who he had called from the scene of the accident. The Head had blackmailed the Member of Parliament who had become a Government Minister in arranging for those bidding for government contracts where his department had control to make substantial gifts to the school, including a wealthy Indian man who gained a £20 million contract who donated several hundred thousand to the school despite its racism.

An elderly Latin teacher of 35 years experience provided one red herring when it was discovered that he stole items of clothing and other mementoes from pupils and teachers alike over the past decade since the death of the PE teacher which he kept in a Lock up owned by a local developer whose men had dug up the remains of the PE teacher.

He explained his behaviour as evidence of his existence feeling unappreciated by other teachers and pupils for his work. He had been caught out by the PE teacher which had led to a row on the night of the man’s death,

This teacher of Latin had disclosed to the property developer sufficient of the dark deeds going on for him to pay for a detective to enter the school as a teacher. He has hoped to take over the school to convert into a country club.

The detective had died in a genuine road accident, I think this was separate from the other accident although could have been connected. In any event this happened before she was able to reveal the evidence.

In a further twist, the working class background Matron had got hold of CCTV showing the return the girl and the head leaving the school and then returning by a secret passageway. She had then used this as a means of getting her son a free place at school after he had been reported for drinking at the age of 12 and suspected of also taking drugs. So everyone was arrested and guilty of one thing or another.

All the members of the Team are affected by the absence of Jack particularly Brian who has become distant again from his wife who has to leave him for a few days to help out a relative. The episode closes with Brian unable to keep the burden of the knowledge to himself any longer. Meanwhile Angela is under pressure to advise on short listing the applicants to replace him. She is also finding this difficult to impossible.

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Geroge Gently Great Northern Soul

The first four new episodes of George Gently was screened last night on BBC1 and it one of the best if not the best of this five series drama about which I have written extensively in the past including three of his early books, disappointing only because they are set in East Anglia the home of the author with the TV series set in Northumbria.

Great Northern Soul

is about race bigotry fuelled by the infamous Enoch Powell Rivers of Blood Speech of April 1968. While the character of Gently is played by the likeable Martin Shaw (Judge Deed) also as Lewis Collins News Avengers, Inspector Dalgliesh - PD James and The Chief, Rhodes and Cranford whereas his Sergeant is a weasel young man full of prejudices about everyone and everything.

The scene is set in a 1960’s all nighter to records held at a local hall where 45 play records are also traded, and unlicensed, the only drink on sale is orangeade. The popular club is used by some of the then few black/mixed race young people in the North East which until as late as the eighties racism was rampant at all levels within the regional society and where tribalism still remains a significant feature. The introduction suggests that two men brothers, one who acts as the DJ and another who rents the building for the event, fancy one of two girls, one of whom has West Indian parents with the father settling in the UK after serving in the airforce in World War II. The father is played Ambrose Kenny is played by Eastender Eamonn Walker.

When the girl is found with her head battered in an area known for “working girls” to take their clients Gently’s sidekick assumes she was a Black Prostitute which he leaks to a local press contact to the horror of Gently who was a supporter of the assassinated Marin Luther King. Suspicion causing the death of the girl falls on five men and one woman.

The man who organises these weekly events runs a fish and chip van by day and is the son of a notorious hard man loan shark and white supremacist. This son has a history of GBH. However the most likely candidate is the DJ younger brother who was having an affair with the girl and although the elder brother implied he had sex with the girl, this was talk. The girl was one of those selling drugs at the event to earn money to go to America with her friend wanting to make a career for herself as a singer. Other suspects are the girl’s father and her brother as well as an former variety artist who runs an guest house with a notice saying No Dogs and Whites only and who lives around the corner from the family and who is proved to have sent a note to her father saying the death was good riddance and they all should leave. Gently threatens to close her down once the race relations Act comes into operation.

It with great difficulty the truth is uncovered in part when the Sergeant goes uncover to the all nighter and befriends the best friend of the killed girl as well as the DJ son of the racist criminal. He forms an emotional attachment with the young woman which alters his prejudices. It emerges that the dead girl was pregnant and that on the night of her death the young brother DJ had been told to end the relationship by his father and had become incensed when seeing the girl with the older brother who claimed to have had a sexual relationship with her as well. He had in fact given her £20 from his father to arrange an abortion. The girl had resisted his advances to take her home.

She was also upset on seeing her boyfriend make a successful pass at her best friend and she had set off alone to walk home in the middle of the night. The girl’s father turned out to be different from the story he had presented of himself claiming to have been a pilot with medals when he had remained in a desk job having been refused permission to switch to an active service role. Later he explains he had adopted the role to try and counter the aggro the children were getting at school because of the colour of their skin. The brother is turning to the militant black movement as a reaction to the passivity of his father and the reaction of the white community.

In fact the daughter was not murdered as such but died as a result of a hit and run accident by a drunk driver who was taking a prostitute to the area she used. She came forward after reading that Gently had reminded that the dead girl was someone’s daughter whatever in reality were her true circumstances. Before this is communicated the fascist father of the brothers organises an attack on a vigil being held for the girl and in the ensuing mêlée the older brother is stabbed to death. It emerges that the death was caused by the younger brother. This occurs after the girl’s father tried to confess to this crime after seeing that the knife belonged to his son. The Rivers of Blood speech fuels the feelings in the local community finding support in the police. The guest house owner puts back her sign saying Whites only and the henchmen of the Fascist and now grieving father wreck the home of the West Indian background family. The father gets his war time weapon to kill the Fascist racist but is persuaded by his son and Gently to hand it over. This first of four episodes was made sometime ago, before the Olympic Games when one long distance runner Mohammed Farah and one 30 year old female Boxer Nicola Adams changed the position of migrant and non white citizens in the UK, hopefully for the better and for all time. This proved to be an excellent and potentially significant programme.