Bullet from the Past

One aspect that distinguished the SCOTLAND YARD thrillers was the seemingly endless focus on the past and how it influenced the present. in this episode a detective (Ballard Berkeley] solved a 27-year-old murder, which gives a good excuse for the thriller to most so out London's less-than-salubrious areas in search of clues. Berkeley gives a strong performance completely different from his most famous role as the Major in FAWLTY TOWERS.

When the dead body of Matthew Grant is found in his home.It looks like a suicide.

However according to the forensic lab. The bullet was that killed him was not fired by the gun near his body.

In fact the gun the bullet was fired from was once owned by Audrey Spencer. She was murdered on board a ship 27 years previously. No one was convicted of her killing. Scotland Yard kept such details on their files.

With the neighbours not hearing anything. To crack the case requires a lot of police legwork.

Inspector Berkeley is called into the case. The Royal Mail sorting office workers have to identify a letter with a particular style of handwriting.

A lead that takes Inspector Berkeley to a married couple with links to the dead man.

Another solid instalment of Scotland Yard. Ballard Berkeley plays Inspector Berkeley. He could never forget his character's name. Ironic given that he played the doddery Major in Fawlty Towers.

I think Edgar Lustgarten makes an attempt at humour at this one. Two cases are cracked for the price of one.

Inspector Berkeley investigates a present day murder, a crime that is somehow linked to another murder over twenty years ago.

This one has a real classic, old fashioned whodunnit feel to it, more a mystery than a Police procedural, this is perhaps one of the best of these that I've watched so far, I loved the feel of it.

The story is great, and so is the cast, plenty of names here, plenty of comedy actors, Ballard Berkeley is excellent as the Detective, and it's good to see Rita Webb in a more serious role.

Plenty of humour, Gretchen Franklin's opening sequence is amusing, but that moment with Rita Webb's assistant, I was howling.

Small object coming into contact with the brain.....proceeds to wiggle the corpse's toe, that's a scene that needs to be seen to be believed, the amount of forms he'd need to fill in nowadays for doing that.

Plenty of fun.

8/10.