Gideon's Way

For years, Edwin Astley's theme song from Gideon's Way stuck in my mind. I remembered it as well as John Gregson's splendid performance as the show's title character. Imagine my delight at finding Gideon's Way on DVD. Although produced over forty years ago, the show is as compelling as any recent TV offering. I think John Gregson captures the essence of the character he plays. He's surrounded by a solid supporting cast and guest stars like a very young John Hurt. The black and white photography is an asset to the programme; it gives Gideon's Way a gritty realism. Some of the prints used for the DVD seem a bit soft, but all are watchable. Movies and TV shows that survive as more than quaint time capsules do so because they are still relevant in some way. The human drama of Gideon's Way proves this.

The 'Gideon's Way' TV series was based on a series of novels by John Creasey. The series was written/published, under the pseudonym of J J Marrick, between 1955 ('Gideon's Day') and 1976 ('Gideon's Drive'). I picked up another Gideon novel at an op shop (thrift shop) which was written and published after after John Creasey's death but was written by someone else using the pseudonym J J Marrick (it was very poor).

As with the 60s TV series, 'The Baron', John Creasey is again strangely not credited here as at least the creator of the characters.

You may be interested to know that all 26 episodes of the series have been released on DVD by Granada (UK) (about October 2005). It is superb although' it appears that some of the original films haven't stood up to the passage of time but this does not detract from the viewing. I vaguely remember the original TV showing of these in the mid-60s and the series benefits from getting out of the studio. However, the public standing at the roadside watching the action can be a little distracting. I was given the set as a Christmas (2005) present so I haven't managed to get thru' them all yet but so far it appears that they stick closely to the segments from the original novels on which the episodes are based. In this regard, however, I am disappointed that Gideon's right hand men in the books (Bell & Lematre) do not play the same role in the series. I don't remember 'David Keen' from the books! Given the success of 'Heartbeat' (which dallies from time to time as a police series), I wonder if the series could be re-made today? (John Creasey as) J.J. Marric's novels ran to 26 (including 4 by Vivian Butler) and the series only really used about the first half dozen or thereabouts so there is a lot of scope to take the series on from those days. Of course, the backdrop of London in the mid-60s is no longer there. Who would you cast in the title role? Would it work now in these days of instant ratings success? Anyway, it was a great series, both in its' day and now on DVD.

Strangely the sequence of episodes on the DVDs follow the filming dates and NOT the transmission dates.

John Creasy left a still uncharted ouevre of well over 500 books. Given that number it's not surprising that some of them are of indifferent quality. The Gideon series to me were his strongest books: Creasy is one of the few authors who can write realistic police procedurals from the point of view of a manager rather than the ordinary copper. Gideon is not only in charge of solving crime but also encounters leadership issues and has a lively and large family. This makes the books original reading. Plus in the Gideon books there is interesting comment on the state of the nation- hardly surprising when you know that Creasy was head of a political movement in the 60s. The TV series takes many elements of the books. Needless to say that the 40/45 minutes format does not manage to present a variety of cases at a given moment but rather one case per episode. The interstinmg thing about the series is that within this format there are hardly any flat characters particularly amongst the bad guys. Although there is no sympathy there is a lotof empathy in the complex character sketches: check out the episodes "White Rat" with a great performance by Ray Mcanally as psychotic albino gangster or the episode about a former concentration camp inmate. That's what makes the series so special, this wealth of character. I think only The Sweeney ever managed to get anywhere near that. The stories are well paced, well told and there is an amazing array of really great actors in this series. The other thing is that in view of censorship in the 60s Gideon's Way is quite amazingly open and realistic (particularly compared to US stuff of the time). What really impressed me was the stark contrast of the "new" London of the 1960s and the squalor some people were still living in at the time (Creasy points that out in Gideon's Fire) and the enormous social change going on at the time. My favourite episode is "The thin red line" -not based on a Creasy novel- which is both a fairly touching story but also a scalding satire on the army.

With the arrival of the box set of Gideons Way, hopefully more people will get a view of the superb John Gregson. Jack Hawkins played Gideon in a very flaccid film directed by John Ford. As much as I love Jack Hawkins, John Gregson is the definitive George Gideon. The series really does evoke England of the sixties and there is a multitude of famous names cropping up in this series. John Gregson was a superb actor and he is largely forgotten now 30 years after his death in Porlock Weir. With this box set and his appearances in Genevieve and Rooney perhaps now people will realise how good he was. There is a web site showcasing the great man designed by his great nephew http://www.johngregson.org.uk/. John Gregson is George Gideon but George Gideon is the great John Gregson