Gideon's Way

For years, Edwin Astley's theme song from Gideon's Way stuck in my mind. I remembered it as well as John Gregson's splendid performance as the show's title character. Imagine my delight at finding Gideon's Way on DVD. Although produced over forty years ago, the show is as compelling as any recent TV offering. I think John Gregson captures the essence of the character he plays. He's surrounded by a solid supporting cast and guest stars like a very young John Hurt. The black and white photography is an asset to the programme; it gives Gideon's Way a gritty realism. Some of the prints used for the DVD seem a bit soft, but all are watchable. Movies and TV shows that survive as more than quaint time capsules do so because they are still relevant in some way. The human drama of Gideon's Way proves this.

Long forgotten police drama series featuring the cases and adventures of honest family man copper Inspector Gideon.All the hallmarks of its production company are there,such as easily digestible stories that had an international appeal and production values that were head and shoulders above the well remembered police series of that day such as 'Z Cars' and 'Dixon Of Dock Green'. Shot entirely on film it was possibly one of the first British police series to escape the studio and use extensive location filming. TV stations have prejudice against shows made in black and white so consequently this has probably not been on TV since its first or second showing?

The 'Gideon's Way' TV series was based on a series of novels by John Creasey. The series was written/published, under the pseudonym of J J Marrick, between 1955 ('Gideon's Day') and 1976 ('Gideon's Drive'). I picked up another Gideon novel at an op shop (thrift shop) which was written and published after after John Creasey's death but was written by someone else using the pseudonym J J Marrick (it was very poor).

As with the 60s TV series, 'The Baron', John Creasey is again strangely not credited here as at least the creator of the characters.

I have waited for a long time for this series to come out on DVD and am not sorry for the wait. I saw the series on tele in the 60s and boy what a difference to todays world. John Gregson was an excellent actor who deserved better parts that what he got in his days. What happened to our once loved and respected police from that series. Long gone and nothing like what we have today. Poorly trained, invisible, no ties, failure to wear their headgear when on duty unless visiting royalty and ministers visits. The series was well acted and with good location series and memories of a lot of great actors and actresses of that time it is a joy to watch. Loved the policemen all dressed properly and smart, the police cars that brought fear into our young hearts at the time. The police sergeants out on their bikes inspecting the troops again something long gone. Sad it all gone. Thank god for dvds.

John Creasy left a still uncharted ouevre of well over 500 books. Given that number it's not surprising that some of them are of indifferent quality. The Gideon series to me were his strongest books: Creasy is one of the few authors who can write realistic police procedurals from the point of view of a manager rather than the ordinary copper. Gideon is not only in charge of solving crime but also encounters leadership issues and has a lively and large family. This makes the books original reading. Plus in the Gideon books there is interesting comment on the state of the nation- hardly surprising when you know that Creasy was head of a political movement in the 60s. The TV series takes many elements of the books. Needless to say that the 40/45 minutes format does not manage to present a variety of cases at a given moment but rather one case per episode. The interstinmg thing about the series is that within this format there are hardly any flat characters particularly amongst the bad guys. Although there is no sympathy there is a lotof empathy in the complex character sketches: check out the episodes "White Rat" with a great performance by Ray Mcanally as psychotic albino gangster or the episode about a former concentration camp inmate. That's what makes the series so special, this wealth of character. I think only The Sweeney ever managed to get anywhere near that. The stories are well paced, well told and there is an amazing array of really great actors in this series. The other thing is that in view of censorship in the 60s Gideon's Way is quite amazingly open and realistic (particularly compared to US stuff of the time). What really impressed me was the stark contrast of the "new" London of the 1960s and the squalor some people were still living in at the time (Creasy points that out in Gideon's Fire) and the enormous social change going on at the time. My favourite episode is "The thin red line" -not based on a Creasy novel- which is both a fairly touching story but also a scalding satire on the army.