Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Martin Shaw to play another policeman

Not content with Doyle, Judge John Deed and Adam Dalgleish it seems Martin Shaw's law enforcement career is to continue with the filming of the 'Gently' series by Alan Hunter.

There's an article in Media Guardian which seems to require registration so I've borrowed the pertinent details:
Martin Shaw, star of the BBC1 series Judge John Deed, may be preparing to hang up his wig and take on a major new BBC drama role - that of 1950s East Anglian copper, George Gently.

The BBC has commissioned drama specialist Company Pictures to develop a series based on the books by Alan Hunter, who died in February last year.

The series has not yet been commissioned, but is almost certain soon to be given the go-ahead on BBC1.

A senior BBC source said: "Martin Shaw is very keen to do this new drama, and if it gets the green light, which is very likely, Judge John Deed will undoubtedly come to an end."

Judge John Deed is made by the corporation's in-house drama department.

Shaw has been optioned to play the chief inspector, who featured in 48 novels Hunter wrote between 1955 and 1999.

The character's name was used in 32 of the books' titles, such as Gently Does it and Landed Gently.

The character of Gently has been likened to that of George Simenon's Inspector Maigret, who was the subject of an ITV adaptation in the early 1990s starring Michael Gambon.

Most of Hunter's novels were inspired by, and set in, his native East Anglia, which is also Shaw's home. In the 1977 novel Gently Instrumental, for example, the chief inspector is called to a music festival, modelled on the Benjamin Britten festival of Aldeburgh in Suffolk, where a clarinettist is found murdered after flouncing out of a rehearsal.

Gently is also said to resemble the author. Both smoked a pipe.
I'd better get my bibliography ready on the Euro Crime website!

In addition, Brian Cooper writes a series (9 so far) about two policeman in 1940s East Anglia. I reviewed The Norfolk Triangle a few years ago but wasn't terribly impressed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought Adam Dalgleish was played by that really tall actor called Roy someone? Ray someone? Played Freddie Laker in a TV biopic, that one.

I haven't watched TV for years, though, so am probably out of date. I have this crazy idea that if I ever manage both to retire and live long enough, I can spend my declining years watching recordings of all the TV series I've missed since 1990 (which is when I stopped watching it).

Karen (Euro Crime) said...

He was played by Roy Marsden all during the 80s/90s in the ITV mini series(es) (I loved the multi part series of the past - up to 6 or even 8 episodes - instead of the current thing of condensing it to 1.5hrs or two 1hr episodes) but the last two have been on the BBC and featured M. Shaw.

Shouldn't you be reading in your 'declining' years :-).

Anonymous said...

Yes indeed -- blog for an hour, read for a couple of hours, watch a movie or TV series, blog again for an hour, read again until bedtime. Repeat next day.

You see, I've got it all planned out ;-)

Anonymous said...

Something funny on blogger? That anonymous up there is me, Maxine, if you hadn't guessed ;-)

(Seems to be working again now, demanding my name this time)