The Last Detective - Series 1
by Matthew Evans (III), Douglas Mackinnon, Ferdinand Fairfax, Nick Hurran, Gavin Millar
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DVD details
Actor: Peter Davison, Sean HughesDirector: Douglas Mackinnon, Ferdinand Fairfax, Gavin Millar, Matthew Evans (III), Nick Hurran
Brand: Acorn Media
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Published), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 312 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-04-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: ACORN MEDIA
Product features:
- 2006 - Acorn Media - UK Drama
- The Last Detective - Series 1
- Stars: Peter Davison & Sean Hughes
- 4 Episodes / 2 DVDs
- Limited Edition
DVD Reviews of The Last Detective - Series 1
DVD Review: A pleasant, undemanding mystery series with a fine performance by Bruce Davison
Summary: 4 Stars
Detective Constable Davies (Peter Davison) is a mild-mannered man, easy going, always willing to help others, unwilling to hurt others, easy to take advantage of. He is separated from his wife, Julie (Emma Amos), who is divorcing him. Please note that elements of the plot are discussed. Julie still likes him at times but is utterly tired of his niceness and imperturbability. His boss, Detective Inspector Aspinall (Rob Speedlove), has no use for him, especially since Davies began looking into the disappearance of a 17-year-old girl which took place more than 20 years ago. Davies didn't do a very good job of letting his boss know what was going on, then Davies discovered that the murder was something of an accident and that the murderer was a fellow cop still on the force. "What about me," the man pleads. "I didn't mean to do it. It was 20 years ago." "What about the girl's family?" Davies asks. "They've waited 20 years to find out what happened to their daughter." Davies forces the man to confess. For his troubles, Aspinall tells Davies he'll be the last detective on the force to ever get a major case. Davies' fellow coppers treat him with a mixture of condescension and amused contempt. They've given him the nickname "Dangerous" because he's the least dangerous copper they've ever met. He has one friend, Mod (Sean Hughes), who does odd, strange jobs for a living, has time to help out Davies and who brings a kind of off-the-wall humor to Davies' problems. "I think I'm being stalked," Davies tells Mod one afternoon. "I knew a woman who wouldn't leave me alone," Mod says. "She'd follow me everywhere, buy me clothes and give me money." "Did you go to the police?" Davies asks. "No," Mod says, "it'd be a cruel man who'd turn in his own mother."
Despite never being assigned a major case to solve, circumstances usually come Davies' way that grow into complex mysteries. A missing person, an elderly man who was a dance partner for many older women at a dance club, seems not to be missed much at all by his aging wife. A report of a break-in grows slowly into the deranged fantasies of an unstable and dangerous woman. The accidental death of a homeless man leads to secrets which had been kept hidden for years.
There are two problems, in my view, with this series. First, Davies is so unremittingly nice, so easily walked over by his fellow detectives, so readily dismissed by his boss, so easily used by his wife, that at some point in each story I want to shake him by his labels and tell him to stand-up for himself. The niceness is an appealing story device, but Dangerous Davies becomes a real person only in the last 20 minutes or so of each mystery. This is when he is putting the pieces together, discovering what the mystery was about and, still with niceness, is going to get the bad guy and see that justice is done. The second problem is that, with the exception of Mod, there are no likable or even very interesting regular characters for Davies to react with. All this means is that the stories rise and fall on how skilled an actor Davison is and on how intriguing the mysteries are.
Davison does a first-rate job. His Dangerous Davies is rumpled, out of shape and balding a little. He's a guy you'd like as a neighbor, always willing to pitch in and help. Davison does such a good job with the role that it's easy to believe Davison may be like this in real life. If you've seen him in Campion, All Things Great and Small or as a villain in Mrs. Bradley Mysteries you'll know what a versatile actor he is. The mysteries, however and in my opinion, vary in quality. Some are simply more interesting than others. Well-known actors, such as Sian Phillips, David Troughton and Julia McKenzie, show up now and then. Unfortunately, the series also sometimes provides "acting moments" for them...dramatic monologues where they confess weaknesses, face the truth and come very close to chewing the scenery.
The Last Detective is a well-mounted and undemanding mystery series. If you're prepared not to be too demanding yourself, you'll probably enjoy it. On the whole, I did. The DVD transfer looks very good.
Description of The Last Detective - Series 1
He?s gentle, old-fashioned, and decent; nice even when he?s drunk. But these qualities only earn Detective Constable "Dangerous" Davies (Peter Davison, Dr. Who, All Creatures Great and Small) the scorn of his fellow detectives in a small London police station. His boss tells him straight out that he?s the last detective he would assign to a major crime-solving mission. Unlucky in love, rumpled, and accident prone, Dangerous muddles on and, with the help of his eccentric friend Mod (Sean Hughes, The Commitments), he proves the merits of his dogged, unglamorous method. He likes being a detective and, occasionally, he gets to do some good. Based on the Dangerous Davies novels by Leslie Thomas.Bestsellers in DVD
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