Dangerous Davies: The Last Detective

Back in my teens I became a big fan of the novels of witty Welshman Leslie Thomas. Rude but never sleazy, funny, bordering on slapstick but never becoming childish, emotive without being mawkish and dramatic enough to make you care. Very few of Thomas' novels appear to make their mark on screen and I reckon that's because too much of Thomas' work would have to be cut, leaving what remained on screen too uninvolving. The Peter Davison TV series of recent years has been OK - I like Davison and that show has been a decent comedy drama but it has rarely felt like classic Thomas. It has taken me some 25 years to view the Cribbins version and I love it! It really is a top class effort that makes the most of everything that made Thomas so great in the first place. The film may look a little dated now but rather than spoiling it, this simply makes the whole thing more nostalgic. And what a cast! A cavalcade of British TV screen greats including Maureen lipman, Bill Maynard, a future Doctor Who and a future Eastender. Check this one out if you are proud of your Brit heritage - if you're an American who likes our sense of humour - and there seems to be quite a few of you - then you'll love it too.

I saw this movie when it was first broadcast on ITV in 1980, and it stuck in my mind for years afterwards as a great movie. Good story, good acting, and just the right amount of humour.

Unfortunately I've never seen it be rerun, and it doesn't appear to be available on VHS/DVD :-(

Leslie Thomas created a character of Dangerous Davies, and penned four novels around his exploits. There were two spin offs featuring DC Davies, this movie and the TV series.

As yet I have not read any of the original Thomas novels so unfortunately, I can't really judge just how close the different incarnations comes to Thomas visions for the character.

The nearest I had got to the character was on the box with Peter Davison, portraying the eponymous sleuth.

Tonight the movie popped up on the Talking Pictures TV channel and I simply, couldn't resist watching it just to see what it was like.

Bernard Cribbins is really ideal as Dangerous Davies, his portrayal gives a somewhat different perspective to the character.

After seeing the TV portrayal it's interesting for me to compare the settings around DC Davies, the different characters in his personal and work lives. On TV Davies has to contend with work colleagues and we see, the reasons why they treat him as a pariah.

Which is really the whole baggage that he has to carry around with him, the rational for his moniker of Dangerous.

The stories in each TV Episode are resolved within it, so they are tightly scripted and well put together.

The film differs from the TV Series in the marked way, that whilst DC Davies obviously works in a police station. We never really get to see any of his immediate work colleagues, either Detective Sergeant or Inspector. So we don't really get to see why he has acquired his moniker, it's only ever mentioned obliquely relative to him.

The film format enables more time to develop a story than the TV Series allows, and this movie's plot is interesting and reasonably involved.

Really the only extra characters that are in both film and TV incarnations, are Mod and Dangerous's his ex wife. The ex spouse doesn't really seem to feature all that much, she certainly isn't as central as in the TV programme.

Mod Lewis is ably personified by Bill Maynard and it was great to be able, to see him in something more substantive than I had seen him in.

Though it does have the odd comedic line or two, this is the only time I recall Bernard Cribbins ever trying to tackle something that required him to speak the word "pants" in anything like a sexual context. He plays a detective constable who is assigned a tough criminal case but soon finds himself embroiled in a fifteen year old cold one involving the disappearance of a young girl. His nickname is "Dangerous" and he spends much of the next two hours - at no small risk to himself - trying to piece together what did happen to that young girl (as well as trying to nail his official quarry too). Bill Maynard - again more noted for his comedy parts - works quite well as his pal "Mod" and there is an additional smattering of familiar faces across the quite enjoyable and characterful mystery adventure. It's a bit too long, maybe we could lose twenty minutes of establishment scenes at the top of the film, but this is quite a fun drama that I rather surprisingly enjoyed.

In some respects this film feels really dated. Not surprising, given that (at the time of writing) it is 25 years old, and that (without giving anything away) the events the film revolves around took place another 15 years before that. It lacks the polish that overwhelmed the British film industry a decade later, but the end result is still watchable and in its own way fascinating. There are elements of almost slapstick comedy, but at the same time there are much darker themes.

Being more used to the ITV television series starring Peter Davidson, the casting of Bernard Cribbins as the lead character was at first a little jarring, but then as you get into the film it becomes clear that he was possibly the ideal choice. For one thing you get a much better understanding of Det. Constable Davies ironic nickname of "Dangerous" and the title "The Last Detective". He's a bumbling fool (or so his colleagues think), who only gets sent into a situation either as a last resort or as cannon-fodder to save the bruises of his fellow officers. Nevertheless, beneath his haphazard demeanour is a man obsessed, and with a combination of dogged - almost pig-headed - determination, keener observation than he is credited with by those around him he finds solutions to a case lesser officers have left long cold, and deemed irrelevant by his obstructive superiors.

Cribbins' portrayal of Davies leaves you understanding him as a man with a heart, determined to find justice for a long-forgotten victim. In some respects this has become a cliché in British police and crime drama, but unlike contemporary dramatisations this character is perfectly capable of callous brutality when he believes the recipient no longer worthy of consideration. The plot relies on a few awkward contrivances to create links in the chain of detection, but overall it's a surprisingly satisfying film.

I wouldn't say this film deserves a "family" categorisation, except with elder teenage children.