GENTLY does it for the first time in the North-East as the TV detective series starring Martin Shaw films in and around Durham City, where the stories are set.

Previous series of Inspector George Gently, written by Our Friends In The North writer Peter Flannery, have been shot in Dublin for financial reasons.

Now a £150,000 cash injection from regional screen agency Northern Film and Media (NFM) enticed the BBC1 series to film in the North-East.

“We’re immensely happy to be up here,” said producer Suzan Harrison yesterday, during filming in Palace Green, at Durham Castle and at the university.

Extras dressed in Sixties clothes – the story is set in 1966 – wandered across the grounds as stars Shaw, who plays Gently, and Lee Ingleby, as sidekick Detective Sergeant John Bacchus, investigate the murder of a professor on campus.

“It’s the first time we’ve had the authentic landscapes and accents. We don’t have to pretend Ireland is the North-East any more,”

said Harrison. The series makers are spending two months filming in and around Durham, where the production base has been established in an old school that doubles as a police station on screen.

The arrival of Gently is part of the revival of film and TV programme-making in the North-East since NFM and One North-East’s content fund was established.

Filming has just been completed in Newcastle on an Alan Plater ITV film, Joe Maddison’s War, starring Kevin Whatley and Robson Green.

Another ITV drama, Vera, with Brenda Blethyn and Gina McKee has also been completed.

The BBC is filming a new series of Tracy Beaker in Newcastle this summer.

But Shaw feels that TV drama in general is in a perilous state because of cutbacks and the economic situation. “Not just in drama, but in our society we are driven by accountancy and not the building blocks of what’s required,” he said.

His other popular BBC1 series Judge John Deed also looks like a casualty of the economic situation.

Craig Wilson, marketing manager of Visit County Durham, said: “It is a positive way of raising awareness of the county and showcasing Durham’s dramatic landscapes, market towns and beauty spots.”