#as film roles became less forthcoming. it all ends quite neatly and not exactly unexpectedly‚ but it's a pretty fun outing all told | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mariocki · 2 months ago

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New Scotland Yard: A Gathering of Dust (2.3, LWT, 1972)

"Judging from the wound, the gun was fired from very close range; almost point-blank, I should think. Indicates the possibility of suicide."

"That's right, governor: he blows his brains out, crawls in here, walls himself up, throws the gun away, and dies laughing. That's cos he's got a sense of humour, he knows that a quarter of a bloody century later two stupid coppers are gonna go out of their mind wondering how the hell he did it!"

#new scotland yard #a gathering of dust #1972 #classic tv #don houghton #bryan izzard #john woodvine #john carlisle #roger livesey #tony steedman #liz ashley #geoffrey toone #alan downer #russell napier #kenneth gilbert #bernard gallagher #barrie houghton #derek martin #david billa #I'm writing the tags for these eps put of order so this will make more sense a few eps down the line‚ but i do think this second series is #trying a lot harder to do new and different things each week; this one starts with the discovery of a skeleton‚ a man killed around 1946‚#in the basements of a factory being torn down. whilst investigating‚ the roof collapses and traps Kingdom and Ward with the skeleton; fully #a solid half of this episode is spent in this cramped space‚ as the two attempt to deduct what they can about the crime with just their wit #and no (then) modern forensic tech. Ward is also claustrophobic‚ so the exercise is as much about reducing his panic as solving the case #it's a neat twist on the usual format and i was almost disappointed when they were rescued. once out‚ the focus becomes identifying the #corpse and then understanding the crime. cue many old soldier types‚ including old fave Steedman (actually in his early 40s but always #looking older than he was) and legitimate film star Livesey; this was one of just a handful of tv appearances the actor made in his old age #as film roles became less forthcoming. it all ends quite neatly and not exactly unexpectedly‚ but it's a pretty fun outing all told #derek martin pops up as a worker on the construction site; he'd not long made the switch from stunt man to full time actor‚ having broken #his collar bone working on Elizabeth R in 1971

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