Inspector George Gently

Inspector George Gently (also known as George Gently for the pilot and first series) is a British crime drama television series produced by Company Pictures for BBC One, set in the 1960s and loosely based on some of the Inspector Gently novels written by Alan Hunter. The series stars Martin Shaw as the eponymous inspector and Lee Ingleby as Detective Sergeant John Bacchus, with Simon Hubbard and Lisa McGrillis in supporting roles as police constables in the fictitious North East Constabulary.

The series moved the setting of the stories to North East England, centring on Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, and County Durham, as opposed to the Norfolk setting in the books. The death penalty is still in effect in Britain as the series begins, and it is used as a plot feature in some early episodes. The abolition of the death penalty in 1965 is noted in the series. The earliest episodes are set in 1964 with the eighth series taking place in 1970.

After fair ratings for the first three series, the BBC secured funding from the North East Content Fund to produce further episodes. The fourth series was filmed between January and June 2011, and was broadcast that autumn. On 26 March 2012, the BBC announced that four new feature-length episodes were being produced to be shown later the same year. The fifth series ended on a dramatic cliffhanger, with the fate of both leading characters uncertain. However, in September 2012, the lead writer, Peter Flannery, confirmed that a sixth series, consisting of four episodes, had been commissioned. The sixth series was shown in February 2014. A seventh series of four episodes was subsequently commissioned, and began being broadcast in April 2015. The eighth and final series was broadcast in 2017.