#back to being more broadly leftist); a postman is murdered in his home‚ but it's revealed he was a former SS officer complicit in war | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mariocki · 2 months ago

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New Scotland Yard: Memory of a Gauntlet (1.3, LWT, 1972)

"I understand this must be a little embarrassing for you, Mr. Bruchner."

"It doesn't embarrass me in the least, I assure you. All this happened over thirty years ago. I, like so many others, was a young and stupid man; I did a lot of immature and stupid things, like becoming an SS trooper."

"Immature?"

"Yeah, of course. I dressed up like a soldier, I had shiny boots, I wore a pistol; I had an elegant uniform, money in my pocket, a little of authority. Plenty of pretty girls. Am I shocking you, Inspector?"

"Just a little, sir."

#new scotland yard #memory of a gauntlet #1972 #lwt #don houghton #christopher hodson #john woodvine #john carlisle #leslie schofield #edward harvey #pauline letts #stuart wilson #jennie paul #george giles #davyd harries #eileen way #cyril shaps #vernon dobtcheff #guy deghy #having gone for genre safety in the previous episode‚ this third ep returns to more challenging fare (and also switches Carlisle's politics #back to being more broadly leftist); a postman is murdered in his home‚ but it's revealed he was a former SS officer complicit in war #crimes‚ and his corpse was daubed with the star of david. what could be a potentially insensitive script is actually mostly well handled‚#steering largely clear of sensationalism and instead settling to focus more on the issue of the uk of 1972 beginning to forget (or at least #to overlook) the nazi atrocities of 30 years prior‚ whether for political expediency‚ personal comfort‚ or detached indifference #Woodvine's chief super was‚ we learn‚ an active solider in ww2 (and indeed present at the liberation of a concentration camp); he's also #apparently a keen gardener‚ which didn't come up in the previous eps but somehow does here. Warren's returning reporter character is absent #and replaced by Schofield fulfilling largely the same purpose; the rest of the guest cast is a typically rewarding who's who of 70s brit tv #types (and notably this one has much stronger roles for women than the last two did). Dobtcheff's tired former mossad agent is a stand out #some of the content and ideas might rankle with a modern audience (bf was present and unimpressed) but for 70s tv this is about as good a #treatment of these themes as you can find I think. Houghton seems to be the writer to watch for on this show

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