Inspector George Gently

[Squarewheelbike]

Caught up with this after a few tip offs of filming where I grew up. Interesting stuff, an Officer apparently from Northumbria Police is first on call for murders in the North Riding of Yorkshire, in the last two weeks Saltburn and Redcar. Maybe he's assigned the case because for some bizarre reason these two towns are populated by comedy Geordies with accents to match. I was then astounded to learn in the 60's Redcar boasted a sumptious gay sauna and steep hilly back streets, where said comedy Geordies live! At one point on the Redcar episode, much was made of a trip to Leeds, and complaints that you needed your passport to get into Yorkshire!

And Martin Shaw says he's embarrassed by the Professionals?

[Sits]

Inspector George Gently

Quality work SWB. However it shouldn't go without mention that Shaw's companion piece, Judge John Deed, makes Gently appear as authentic as The Thin Red Line.

Please, don't anyone tell me how inaccurate TTRL is. I know some of it was filmed in our favourite holiday destination, Port Douglas for a start.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Inspector George Gently

JJD was well covered in the professionals thread. It really is extraordinary isn't it? There isn't a single episode of JJD that wouldn't see all involved winding up in jail.

The total madness in inspector george Gently isn't quite as obvious to the non-local, though it's pretty crazy, but JJD is completely off the wall. He's the judge, The prosecutor is his girlfriend, the defence barrister is his daughter. He's investigating the case in the background like a cross between batman and matlock. His ex-wife is married to the home secretary, and they're all feuding.

[Sundeporino]

Inspector George Gently

IGG is weird isnt it?
Ive no idea where Shaws accent is supposed to originate for starters. Plus as their search for locations seems to gets wider every weeek we reckon in our house that theyll soon be rounding up the usual suspects down Stonehenge way.

Being a former local means this stuff is slightly entertaining in a wtf way as of course is/was Spender and Badger and Vera etc.

My former NE local pub used to run a sweep for the first shot of the Tyne Bridge in every Spender episode. The pissheads were gripped with excitement as their choices ticked by Bridgeless.

In Badger the animal cop would regularly announce he was heading up to some forest or other in Northumberland then be shown driving the wrong way over the Tyne Bridge. Also a NE born and based actor mate of mine appeared in Badger and was the only cast member required to "up" the NE quota of his accent to match the cartoonish versions of the rest of the cast.

[Calvert]

Inspector George Gently

That's brilliant about the Tyne Bridge sweepstake.
The Comic Strip did a decent piss-take of absolute toss like Spender etc.

Jimmy Nail is a bit of a cunt, actually.
I had the misfortune to be working at one of his 'country' gigs in the 90's and he was a miserable cranky fuck whom the crew hated. Proper big show it was too.
It just shows how little taste the general public have and further reinforces my unshakeable disdain for them.

Crocodile shoooees

Stupid cunts.

[George]

Inspector George Gently

We could do with a Spender thread on here. I caught an episode a couple of years back (Nail is on surveillance in one of those huge old shipyard cranes) - a sense of cheapness pervades every second.

[Sits]

Inspector George Gently

That disastrous Auf Wiedersehen Pet 'comeback' was something to do with one of those big shipyard cranes wasn't it? Having not made it beyond the first hour I'm not sure.

[George]

Inspector George Gently

The Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge it was. It's storied history includes this incident.

In 1974, the comedy actor Terry Scott, travelling between his hotel in Middlesbrough and a performance at the Billingham Forum, mistook the bridge for a regular toll crossing and drove his car off the end of the roadway, landing in the safety netting beneath.[3]

[sw2borshch]

Inspector George Gently



Local rag teels the tale.

[sw2borshch]

Inspector George Gently

We're currently watching the IGG set in Saltburn, and it's as stupid as SWB suggests, but more than that, it's bloody terrible.

Reading the IGG wiki page, I'm surprised it's lasted from 2007 - who watches this? From reading the synopsis of Episode 1 of this current series, I've realised it's the show that was filming in one of the semi-knocked down Pathfinder bits of Middlesbrough last year, for a storyline about people protesting about the demolition of Newcastle slums in the Sixties. Hmm.

[sw2borshch]

Inspector George Gently

I'm also reminded of the bloody terrible 'Steel River Blues' about Teesside fire bobbies, filmed in Middlesbrough & Leeds. The geographics were daft but inconsequential for non-locals, but stuffed full of comedy Geordies.

And as we all know, 'Auf Wiedersehen Pet' was written by and about Teessiders, but because they couldn't find any comedy Smoggy actors, they filmed it about comedy Geordies instead.

The original 'Boys From The Black Stuff' is mainly filmed in Middlesbrough though, and is great for old-Middlesbrough spotting. There's a bit filmed in a respectable local hotel that suggests the availibility of ladies of the night there, apparently the place was plagued by putative johns for years afterwards.

And od course, 'Johnny Briggs' was set in the Boro, but I can't remember now if it was stuffed full of comedy Geordies.

Was 'When The Boat Comes In' sound on the comedy Mackem front?

[sw2borshch]

Inspector George Gently

From a brief investigate on Youtube, 'Jonny Briggs' was infected by comedy Yorkies. Our Albert sounds more like Kes.

[George]

Inspector George Gently

You mean the BBC 80's Children's kitchen sink drama Jo(h)nny Briggs? It always struck me as being about as Yorkshire has you could get.

This most ridiculous thing about the newer Auf Wiedersehen Pet was how the black guy was browbeaten over successive episodes into liking Dire Straits by the Geordie cast members. The poor bastard.

[sw2borshch]

Inspector George Gently

It was filmed in Bradford, and most of the actors seem to have been from Lancashire, but set in the Boro, from the original books.

Anyone know who used to read it on 'Jackanory'?

[Squarewheelbike]

Inspector George Gently

Big Brother is probably to blame for the "Comedy Geordie" outbreak, though I won't go as far as blaming Marcus Bentley himself. He grew up on Teesside, and was a couple of years behind me at Sixth Form, he just did the voice they wanted to hear and you can't blame him for that. Sadly lots of people now think this is the norm for the North East, and it's probably how it now gets taught in Drama Schools!

[Sits]

Inspector George Gently

We're getting Vera over here for the first time, and as mentioned upthread there's a considerable Comedy Geordie presence. Most noticeably Brenda Blethyn herself. Far too sing-song and she's just pronounced film as "fillum". Pet.

I googled her; turns out she's from Ramsgate.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Inspector George Gently

On the subject of comedy accents and derailing the thread a bit (sorry; I seem to do that all the time), is there a more outrageous comedy accent than John Bishop's Scouse? I've never heard anybody in real life who sounds like that, and it doesn't even sound exactly Scouse...

[Squarewheelbike]

Inspector George Gently

Roderick Spodes black shorts wrote: On the subject of comedy accents and derailing the thread a bit (sorry; I seem to do that all the time), is there a more outrageous comedy accent than John Bishop's Scouse? I've never heard anybody in real life who sounds like that, and it doesn't even sound exactly Scouse...

It's just that no one associates John Bishop with the word "comedy"!