So, Inspector George Gently has finally returned to our screens for his seventh season- hurrah, says I! After the last season's good round-up of stories, I decided to become fully invested in this universe and in the characters, and so far all is going well on this front.
The mystery this week revolves around the rape and murder of a young woman who was last seen in the nearby coach station a few miles up from the river, just within the shadow of the ever-present, foreboding cathedral. Gently and Bacchus are called in to investigate, all while they make efforts to discourage to frequenting of a brothel in the same area, and soon the DCI uncovers hundreds of ignored complaints of rape- twenty-one of which were overseen by Walter Nunn. This places the good Sergeant in a spot of bother, since he constantly pops off early to go round to Nunn's house and engage in an affair with Gemma, the rival cop's wife.
While the plot is well-written and the performances are electric, the actual murder- what we have come to see- is side-lined by Gently's emerging illness, although nonetheless his health woes remain affecting, as well as Bacchus' teenage-like fling with Gemma. Those two effortlessly spout out lines like a pair of teens reluctant to return to separate universities after a long summer holiday, but knowing the approximate length of most of John's loves, this one will be done and dusted by the end of the third episode. This is not a weakness, however- at times, it is understandable that Gemma- a woman suffocated by her husband's ignorant ways- would turn to someone else for love, just not Bacchus, who in this episode spends the majority of his time making crass comments about rape ("Right, who's been raping ya then, pet?" he says to a prostitute after offering her a cuppa, before threatening her with charges for wasting police time) and being a little swine to Rachel. Obviously, Lee Ingleby's versatility is boundless, since this is the man who played George Mottershead less than a year ago in Our Zoo! On that subject, Lisa McGrillis is fantastic as Coles- a feisty, spirited, intelligent and grounded young WPC who's more than a match for her pig-ignorant superior. She's quickly becoming my favourite character, next of course to Taylor, who is nowhere to be seen this time around. Oh, and next to John- hypocrite, much?! In all, this was a fairly good episode, but the relationship problems with Bacchus and Gemma need to be resolved, otherwise poor old George will be dead in no time from prolonged exposure to sappy plot lines! Hopefully, the series can only get better from here on out.