Cher Inspecteur

For anyone who's never seen Ron Moody in action, he is nothing short of a genius! He can perform impressions like Frank Gorshin; improvise like Jonathon Winters and gleam madly like John Astin. Bearing in mind I love those guys' work, you'll know how much I respect Moody.

Hart of the Yard was a little weak in places, but for it's era and medium, very, very good overall. It certainly gave Moody the opportunity to demonstrate his ample talents in a variety of ways. He plays the role overall as a rather accident-prone modern Sherlock Holmes. But the different situations each week allowed him to display different aspects of the character and his background.

I would love to see this again! Just checked Amazon and found it's not released on DVD or even video, so let's sort that out TVland, okay?!

It's a pity that this series isn't available for sale on any format. The premise of a pretty clumsy Scotland Yard inspector on loan to the San Francisco PD sets up a background that is well exploited in many episodes, starting with the local detectives laughing at what a lameo they've traded to the Brits in an "exchange" deal. What the Brits send them is Inspector Hart who walks in, introduces himself and promptly puts his umbrella through the glass on the Lt. Gennero's door.

In the following episodes, we meet such characters as "Careful Eddie" who seems to need to go to the ER every time he encounters inspector Hart. Cassis Yates is great in her role as the only female detective who unfortunately gets stuck as being Hart's sidekick.

Of course, in his own bumbling way Inspector Hart manages to solve whatever case he's handed through some of the trickiest plot ploys around.

Too bad the series is not available. I'd buy it.