Hazell and the Deptford Virgin (1979) User Reviews (2)

Hazell and the Deptford Virgin

[Prismark10 · 8/10 · 15 March 2020]

Hazell is a hardboiled detective in the vein of Sam Spade. His patch is London rather than the mean streets of New York.

Written by Leon Griffiths, the creator of Minder. This is a modern pastiche of The Maltese Falcon.

Mel Martin plays the femme fatale Fiona who comes to Hazell to find a worthless statue which has sentimental value. It was taken by a dustman in Deptford. Soon two other people come looking for the same statue.

One of them is the wealthy and somewhat charming Brownlow played by Charles Gray. His variation on Sydney Greenstreet.

If you are going to rip off such a well known story then you might as well make it as good as this.

A very strong episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 18 September 2022]

At home in his new, recently acquired Offices, Hazell gets a case, he's tasked with obtaining a missing statue, but others are after it, and willing to do anything to get it.

So despite the rather intriguing title, The Deptford Virgin, you could be forgiven for expecting a tale of vice, something a little grubby, but the reality is, that it's Hazell playing Sam Spade's part in The Maltese Falcon.

Better than the previous episode, it's well made, very well acted, and actually quite well paced, it moves along nicely, Nicholas Ball impresses once again in the title role. I even quite liked the voice over scenes, sometimes those can feel a little bit lazy.

There's a very nice cast here, Charles Gray, Mel Martin, and of course Peter Miles, Miles I always remember for his role in Genesis of The Daleks, a fine actor.

It looks quite nice, it's full of 70's chic and glamour, nicely made.

A very good episode, 8/10.