New Scotland Yard

"New Scotland Yard" was a successful series in its day. It lasted for 4 seasons altogether but I don't quite understand why the two leading actors were suddenly replaced. Also, their characters were written out entirely. All this occurred for the last season. Judged on its own merits, "New Scotland Yard" is quite an effective series. John Woodvine and Alan Carlisle are the police officers who work on various criminal cases around London. The former officer is very good at his job and is respected. The latter officer though, is something of a loose cannon. He is prone to being rather overzealous in the execution of his duty and ends up in trouble at one stage. This isn't in the same league of "Sweeney" but is very watchable all the same.

This really is a fine series overall.

The format is standard (Scotland Yard CID called into assist cases that are two difficult or sensitive for the local force) but here is done without screaming car chases and big budgets; more Jack Hawkins than the Sweeney.

The central characters Chief Supt Kingdom and Inspector Ward are well characterized by John Woodvine and John Carlisle. The interplay between them and their fathoming of cases is very subtly done.

Ward's character is perhaps the more interesting but inconsistent. He starts off as stridently anti-authoritarian, but then becomes a mixture of cynical, whimsical, and villain-hater. Each version is well played by Carlilse but there was obviously a struggle in the script editing dept to find quite the right version of the character.

Woodvine as Kingdom is also very good on the detection but weaker when it comes to his home life; attempts to portray angst in his marriage get a bit bogged down and leaden but thankfully there isn't too much of that and the focus is firmly on solving crimes.

Being from the early 70s there is a glorious lack of "background" music so one can enjoy the drama without being aurally assaulted as in most modern stuff.

Apart from the characterisation the main strength is the variety of interesting cases in which the detectives have to ponder a wide range of people and motives.

As others have mentioned, things drop in Series 4 when Carlisle and Woodvine are replaced. The stories are still good but the loss of the two main performances does create a disappointing hole. Presumably Woodvine and Carlisle saw the writing on the wall as series 4 is shorter than the rest and executives at LWT and Thames were no doubt looking for more action-based, bigger budget stuff with the Sweeney in the offing. Still it had a good run - 3.5 series is quite an achievement for a prime-time series.

If you like interesting, cerebral crime-solving, you will enjoy this.

It's a very watchable crime series from the 1970's, a somewhat procedural show, but it has some very interesting moments.

Two central characters, Kingdom and Ward, and what's unusual, is that they have nothing in common, and spend most of their time feuding. With time, you see the relationship cool, and soften, the pair reach an understanding.

There's a good deal of variety, expect to see the duo battling everyday murders, art frauds, even crimes of international and diplomatic themes. For me it's the domestic crimes that work best.

Papa Charlie and Pier stand out for me as the show's best episodes, Papa Charlie is a tense, gritty thriller shot entirely on film, it's a very tense watch. Pier is the final episode of the third series, and curiously the last episode to feature Kingdom and Ward, another murky crime, with a personal involvement for Kingdom.

There are one or two inconsistencies throughout, mainly with Ward's character, sometimes he's harsh, sometimes a little soft, I'd argue some writers got the character better than others.

I'd love to know why everything changed for series four, I'm having a job getting hold of it, but will keep trying. For now though, this review is based on series one to three.

7/10.

I don't know about the rest of the world but one of the joys of living in the UK is that we had charity shops and second hand shops. One of the good things about second hand shops is that you can stumble across old tv shows like this.

I love police shows but was just too young to watch this when it was on tv.

This is not a well remembered cop show. It was made before cop shows started to be action packed and filmed on location.

There is a lot of studio sets in this. But the scripts and acting are pretty good. The stories address then current issues and the police are not shown as saints.

It is always fun to spot actors in early appearances or actors in some of their lesser known roles.

I don't like to sound like an old gent but the scripts assume viewers are not stupid.