New Tricks

Iintroduction

 
New Tricks is a BBC detective series with a difference.  Light hearted in it's approach, the series is centred on the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad or UCOS for short.  Led by a high-flying policewoman with a stalled career, Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman (Amanda Redman), UCOS are staffed by a trio of retired police officers who look at unsolved cases with both fresh eyes and years of experience: 
 
Ex-DCS Jack Halford (James Bolam) is the sensible one and is a widower following the murder of his wife by career criminal Ricky Hanson.
 
Ex-DS Gerry Standing (Dennis Waterman) is a bit of a jack-the-lad character with one eye on the women, with three failed marriages behind him - although amazingly all his exes and children, who he is exceedingly proud of, get on with both him and each other.
 
Ex-DI Brian Lane (Alun Armstrong) is a recovering alcoholic who also just happens to be a walking encylopaedia with a photographic memory and is married to the long-suffering Esther.  Brian is prone to immersing himself in his latest fad, to the chagrin and sometimes amusement of his wife and colleagues.
 


Spare Parts - Ricky Hanson's trial begins and the team pick up an old case involving a potential black widow.
 
Final Curtain - It's Sandra Pullman's birthday and the boys seem to have forgotten in the aftermath of the botched trial.  Stickland's nephew, a fast-tracker, brings the team a case of an actor shot whilst on stage.
 
A Face For Radio - With Jack still missing, the team re-look at the fatal fire at local radio station Roxy Radio, leading to the death of shock DJ Johnny Deacon.
 
Loyalties And Royalties - a dying groupie's deathbed confession prompts the team to re-look at the suicide of Bad Faith guitarist Andy Fletcher.
 
Couldn't Organise One - the team enthusiastically investigate a case involving a local brewery and a drowning in a beer vat.
 
Magic Majestic - UCOS re-open the case of a magician's assistant who, after being hynotised to appear in a TV show war game, murdered her husband with a knife.
 
Communal Living - Brian spends some time going organic at a commune to discover how and why an 18 year old IT student was tortured and murdered.
 
Mad Dogs - the UCOS investigative spotlight falls on the Army and a secret testing facility that led to the death of a young soldier.
 

Extras

 
Behind The Scenes - 12 minute featurette with interviews with Cast and Exec Producer on the personal plot lines for each character in this series.
 
Filmographies - limited text filmographies for the four main stars
 
Picture Gallery - short series of production pictures
 

Overall

 
It's alright, it's OK, it doesn't really matter if you're old and grey…
 
New Tricks recently started broadcast of its sixth series, much to the annoyance of many at the BBC if you believe the stories.  New Tricks is quite an unfashionable beast in that it is a light-hearted detective series headed by a trio of old actors who should by rights have shuffled off to TV star retirement homes to be replaced by shiny young vacuous stars.  Except New Tricks has turned out to be one of the most popular series on the BBC reaching approximately 9.25 million people for one episode.
 


With no sign of retirement as yet, in a period where TV shows are being cancelled by the bucketload, New Tricks has something going for it; it's very much a family show that is also extremely funny in places (despite also going darker when it needs to - witness the Jack Halford/Ricky Hanson arc).  The chemistry between the leads is natural and the banter between the four is seemingly effortless.  I guess that New Tricks is the detective genre equivalent of Last of the Summer Wine, in that you have a very strong cast of actors who should be past their prime (in terms of modern television views anyway…) but just continue to do what they do best: entertain in a light-hearted way with Dennis Waterman managing once again to wangle a gig singing the theme tune.
 
New Tricks is a must watch and also attracts some cracking guest stars including Hannah Waterman (in a semi-recurring role as Dennis Waterman's non-biological daughter), Roger Lloyd Pack, Sheila Hancock, Honor Blackman and many others. 
 
The series has an almost universal appeal and hopefully will continue for a few more years…