The Last Detective [2003] [DVD]

The stories are all well paced and not without humour in their well written plots. The upporting cast is a who's who of British film and televison with a regular cast that includes Emma Amos as Davies' estranged wife and Rob Spendlove as his bullyboy boss.

The first story finds our hero, in what is still one of my favourite Leslie Thomas stories, unearthing an age old murder much to his collegues amazement.

Another story has the evergreen Norman Wisdom as a paper collecting tramp with a past.

Four great stories on one DVD - worth every penny in my mind.

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This adapation is not an exact translation from book to television and in this viewer's opinion is none the worse for it. On the screen we get a contemporary DC Davies with a domestic situation and modus vivendi which is much more recognisable to today's acdiences. What has been translated from the book is all that makes them great. Davie's dogged perseverance, faith in human nature and awareness that crime is usually petty but its consequences never are.

Davies does not relatvise people or crimes. Every person he encounters gets his respect as a human being. Likewise, the apparent loss of an old tramp's pram promts the same serious investigation as the unsolved disappearance of a young girl 20 years previously. Davies' infinite capacity to care is the secret of his detecting success as the overlooked myseteris lead him to the solution of further truths. This egalitarianism is also the reason his career is stuck. His collegues struggle to persuade him of their own more complex agendas and he cannot help but treat then exactly as he does everyone else he encounters, not with that little extra 'respect'. Despite being a very kind man he cannot seem to make his wife happy. She too does not feel any more special than anyone else around him. Despite, perhaps because of, his kindness and understanding Davies is quite a lonely figure.

Peter Davison superbly realises this character on the screen - a man who is believable as an excellent detective with a hopeless career. You can understand why his collegues deride him but still you like and respect him. Emma Amos, as his estranged wife, has a sympathetic line in infuriated affection, but still you find yourself wishing she could reach beyond that to the love they obviously still have for each other. Sean Hughs, as Davies' friend Mod, manages to companionably inhabit Davies' world but with a more cunning sense of self-preservation.

It is Rob Spendlove, as Davies' boss, who steals the show with Davison. He is a man in whom Davies invariably brings the worst out of, which is a source of frustration to them both. Despite this their have an understanding that keeps the working relationship believable and provides some well crafted comic flourishes.

In The Last Detective we are given a detective show which inhabits the familiar but is not mundane. The crimes have a recognisable context and motivation and are all the more disturbing and sad for this. There are no psychotic berzerkers or middle class high-jinks over wills. The detecting unfolds logically and is undertaken by the detective who solves the crime without the jarring aid of a contrived plot device where the culprit usually gives themselves away.

However, perhaps the biggest mystery and greatest crime of all is that only the first series is available on DVD. Series 2 and 3 have not been released. Amid shelves of less worthy stalwarts such as Poirot, Miss Marple, Midsomer Murders and A Touch of Frost Dangerous Davies is indeed The Last Detective, the last detective you would want missing from your DVD collection.

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