TV I like: George Gently - Series 1, Episode 2

The episode’s title “Bomber’s Moon” refers to a very bright full moon that was used by WWII pilots to increase the accuracy of bombs dropped during air raids. Under such a moon, in 1944, a man’s wife and child died when a bomb dropped on Sunderland caused a watermain to rupture, resulting in their drowning deaths. This is not how the episode begins, it’s the motive. The man whose murder Gently and Bacchus investigate did not drop that bomb, but he is punished for what happened 22 years before. It’s odd, but then we humans are odd creatures, plain and simple. 

Having recently observed Remembrance Day, I am very aware of the position I find myself in in relation to the war that is the subject here: As a German passport-holder, this day is always awkward for me personally because it was my countrymen fighting against the people of the country in which I live. I’m also aware that my generation is pretty much the last generation with direct contact to WWII veterans. This episode addresses post-war British/German relations in a balanced manner. 

In the episode, Bacchus is trying to sell his MG and Gently is on leave, until the latter drives by the harbour, sees people gathered at the water's edge, and arrives on scene. A German couple is also there to report their father missing, the body of whom is found shortly thereafter. The dead man was an ‘important man, the owner of a pharmaceutical company in Bremen’, his unsympathetic son shares with the investigating duo. By halfway through the episode, the son has become a suspect as his father was in the process of disinheriting him by changing the company structure and the police had discovered he was siphoning money from the company. An unsuccessful attempt to flee the country doesn’t help the optics of innocence and guilt. 

On an inter-personal level, Gently has some advice for his young sergeant upon sussing out he has debt problems: “a copper in debt is open to temptation”. When Bacchus comes close to jeopardising his career in connection with the debt he carries, Gently acts. He is keeping his promise to keep Bacchus on the ‘straight and narrow’ very seriously and it does go as far as dipping into his own wallet.    

I think one of the other reasons Gently gets the nickname St George is because he treats every case equally. He’d served in the war, saw action as part of the Middlesex Regiment, and yet, when the former PoW Gunter Schmeickel is murdered, he investigates it just like any other case. There’s plenty of anti-German sentiment to be uncovered in many a quarter and a few red herrings follow. China, still played by Tony Rohr, turns out to be useful more than just as a snitch and more of his history is provided: he had been captured at Dunkirk, spent 5 years in various stalags and in connection with the case is able to act as translator. 

As a German, I appreciate it when German people are portrayed by German actors (Christian Oliver, Wolf Kahler, and Nathalie Boltt), especially when the ‘native tongue’ is spoken. This is universal: actors are paid to be proficient with accents, but rarely do they actually speak the language their accent belongs to.

1964 Contextualisation:
Nothing really, as fingerprinting is not new as a forensic tool.

Familiar faces amongst the guest performers: Kevin Doyle as bird-watching Robert Stratton, Wolf Kahler as the pharmaceutical magnate Gunter Schmeickel, and Tim Healy as salt-of-the-earth Old Jim Hardyment.