Auf die sanfte Tour

Before there was detective inspector Jane Tension there was detective inspector Maggie Forbes the first female police detective seven years later prime suspect would debut.

The previous review of this show by "Simon from London", (itself now nearly a decade ago!) pretty much sums up all that needs to be said about this fine series, so all I will add is please release it on DVD - the whole thing! No question there are enough of us out here who remember this superb quality show, made when quality was still a relevant word. Forget "Cagney & Lacey" which came out in the US around the time that the "Gentle Touch" ended, this show had it all. Gritty stories, well acted that kept you hooked in right to the end. I recently purchased the entire 18 disc box set of "The Sweeney" and could think of no better companion piece than a similar set of "The Gentle Touch"

D.I. Maggie Forbes played by Gill Gascoigne and some familiar faces that have graced our screens for over 30 years. I forgot how good this program is! I haven't seen it since the series since it first aired & I have been currently watching series 1 on Talking Pictures TV channel on cable. It makes a nice change from watching the reruns of the sweeney on ITV4! 😉

The Gentle Touch has been all but forgotten in the ephemeral world of television, despite being a serious ratings grabber in its day, a Friday night essential with one of the best theme tunes ever to grace a television series. Yet far from being another straightforward cops and robbers series with a leading lady to make it different, The Gentle Touch was an altogether more complex animal. Occasionally banal, often disturbing and frequently brilliant, this was one of the last great examples of television that was controlled by the scripts. Jill Gascoine made a strong central figure, with a perfect mix of feminine allure and compassion, but a convincingly tough manner that she pulled off far more successfully than most. There were no scenes of her effortlessly arresting six foot thugs...this was the real world, where women police officers are treated with as much derision as males. One of the real bonuses was the casting of William Marlowe as Maggie's boss, Bill Russell. Marlowe's fabulous performance is every inch the seen-it-all, fast talking, unromantic and jaded police officer, and the ensemble playing of the other regulars is a delight. Derek Thompson is a good deal more animated here than he was to be in Casualty, and Brian Gwaspari's repulsive Bob Croft showed a mix of sexism, racism and homophobia that gradually became tempered by a respect for Maggie and a few hard learnt lessons.

All this is second fiddle to the main thrust of The Gentle Touch, which is that a good few years before the Bill was doing "issue of the week" storylines, Maggie's team were regularly wandering into Play For Today scenarios of occasionally shocking bleakness, where there were often no true villains and victims, with everyone a mixture of both. Fine examples include P.J. Hammond's brilliant "Damage", with a tremendous performance by Robert Longden as a manic depressive abandoned by his wife to bring up his child alone and the victim of a neighbourhood hate campaign. Hammond's "Solution" was equally affecting, dealing with euthanasia. "Gifts" was a simple and effective reversal of the usual expectations of the crime drama, whilst "Doubt" has to be Jill Gascoine's finest performance, a chilling tale of Maggie suddenly falling foul to a mugging and wondering if she can really cope with 80s Britain from a policewoman's point of view. She delivers a superb monologue to her son Steve (a nice turn by Nigel Rathbone) that is almost a summary of The Gentle Touch's attitudes to law and order. This is 1980, punks and skinheads are becoming a recognised threat in Britain, race riots are making the news. Does anyone appreciate the job they do any more? "Blade" dealt bravely with homosexuality, whilst "Scapegoat" was an extraordinarily daring examination of anti-semitism.

Definitely a contender for finest episode is "Pressures" with William Marlowe pushing tension to the limits in his rivetting performance, as Russell suffers the early stages of a nervous breakdown. A particularly moving ending leaves quite an impression.

The Gentle Touch did have its down side, especially a rather shoddy final season with less agitation in the scripts and some very hit and miss plots, with the exception of the tense supernatural episode "Cure". The final episode ended proceedings with a whimper rather than a bang. For those who remember it however, The Gentle Touch was marvellous television, the Seven Dials setting perfectly captured in the sensual, dark theme music, and sense of compassion and suffering expertly depicted in the writing and acting.

(See my review for the first series). The show is currently running every Monday night, 10pm, on the UK's Talking Pictures (Freeview Channel 81).

Back in 1980, the second series started airing less than four months after the first finished, probably to capitalise on its success and to not allow the BBC's Juliet Bravo to take all the limelight. Anybody who was worried that they were rushing the next series out would most likely have been relieved that it was better than the first, fleshing out the characters a little more, particularly our heroine Detective Inspector Maggie Forbes.

I can say that Jill Gascoine's portrayal of the embattled Detective Inspector is truly exceptional and although I was quite young at the time, I'm sure she didn't get the recognition she deserved. The pressure on her must have been immense and yet it doesn't show one bit. She manages to find a perfect portrayal of a woman doing a hard job in tough conditions whilst also showing her to be a mother and a human being. Some of this was down to the quality of writing and the excellent support she got from the cast, but plaudits must go to the late Jill Gascoine.

Regarding the second series, I'm pleased to say we see the more memorable opening credits with the faster music that the first series missed out on. Perhaps there is a little more polish to the second series, the writers and the cast feeling more confident and comfortable in their work. The stories are interesting and keep you hooked from start to finish, bearing in mind that these episodes are an hour long with two short advert breaks. If my attention wanders, it's brief, and I'm often engrossed until the final credits start running, leaving me looking forward to the next week.

The second series strikes a good balance between presenting Maggie at work and in her private life, although the two are often linked. It does a good job of showing the human side of our leading lady, plus some interesting but minor development of other major characters. For instance, it's becoming clear that the chill between Maggie and Detective Inspector Bob Croft is thawing as well as the fact that her teenage son is doing some growing up.

It goes without saying that some episodes are stronger than others with my personal favourites being 'Something Blue', 'Decoy', 'Menaces', 'Chance' and 'Shame', with the episode 'Hammer' being the one that didn't click for me. Always interesting as well, as you often get when watching old TV shows, is seeing the familiar faces popping up in roles, quite often before they were famous. The second series has more than its fair share of these.

That's now seventeen Mondays on the trot that I have tuned in at 10pm and my desire to continue watching 'The Gentle Touch' is still unabated. I hope to watch all 56 episodes on this one a week basis and I'm finding it thoroughly enjoyable.

Series 3 will start at 10pm on Monday (5th October 2020), Freeview, Ch81 Talking Pictures. It's not too late to start following the show. There are still 39 episodes to come.

Series 1 - 8/10 Series 2 - 9/10