Airdate: Inspector George Gently

Season 5 of Inspector George Gently begins on ABC1 next week, as Martin Shaw returns to one of the roles for which he is best known.

There are four episodes in this series, which aired in the UK last August.

“Gently Upside Down”
It’s 1966 and the world is changing fast…Martin Shaw plays one of the unsung heroes of detective fiction, Chief Inspector George Gently, whose passionate investigations reveal the dark underbelly of a British society on the cusp of change.

When the body of a missing schoolgirl, Mary Claverton (Shannon Tarbet), is discovered in a shallow grave in the woods, Gently (Martin Shaw) and Bacchus (Lee Ingleby) are thrown into the new world of pop and media celebrity. The dead girl’s best friend, Hazel (Kate Bracken), is the rising star of a popular weekend television show, ‘Upside Down’, much to the chagrin of its old-time presenter, Tony (Neil Morrissey).

The show’s producer, Hogge (Chris Coghill), wants ‘out with the old and in with the new’ and Hazel’s talk of fashion and music is just what he’s looking for. But her father, Peter (Vincent Regan), who is also the deputy head of the girls’ school, is not too keen on her new career aspirations.

Bacchus suspects Mary’s miner father, Joe (Shaun Gilder), and her music teacher, Mr Nugent (Keiran Bew), since rumours abound that Mary was having an affair with him. But who was the real Mary?

It seems most people had a different view of Mary, and Gently must uncover these different faces to get to the truth of her murder.

8:30pm Saturday, 23 March