INSPECTOR George Gently, always one to take an interest in the social issues of the day, turns its attention to the decline of the coal industry in the 1960s.

As Lee Ingleby, who plays Gently’s sidekick Bacchus, points out: “There were more pit closures in that time than Thatcher’s, which is fascinating. I think it was just the way Thatcher went about it that people found shocking.”

For him, it was a story that struck a real chord, especially when he arrived on location in Willington, Northumberland.

“We were filming in an actual pit village that had closed down. It was art imitating life,” says the actor.

“It was quite familiar to me – not that I’m from a colliery village, but I’m from a cotton mill industry where the landscape was built for the workers, so it was back-to-back houses, a bit like a Lowry painting.

“It was quite close to me in a way, that sense of a break-up with people fearing for their jobs.”

The episode is also a particular favourite of Martin Shaw, who plays Gently.

“The mining story spoke to me most because a, I have such a tremendous admiration for the miners and a sense of outrage at the loss to make a political point.

“And b, because of the romantic heritage we have of the miners going down ‘t’ pit’. There’s always a kind of romance to men risking their lives and hacking coal underground to provide energy for the rest of the world.”

But before anyone starts worrying that it’s all sounding a bit earnest, Shaw points out that the episode does have a strong plot going for it as well.

“It’s also a very good story and it was fun and a lot of Boys’ Own stuff; struggling through the pit, heroic rescues, that kind of thing.”

It all starts with a murder. Gently and Bacchus arrive in the colliery town of Burnsend to investigate the death of miner Arthur Hawkes, whose body is discovered in the pit.

The fact that he was not supposed to be working underground rules out a tragic accident.

The police discover that tensions have been running high in Burnsend as the future of the mine hangs in the balance.

While union man Hawkes’ family claim he had been fighting to save his fellow miners’ jobs, it seems he made enemies among his comrades as well as management.

But could the key to the case lie not in the current crisis facing the village, but in a family feud dating back decades?