THE curtain is closing on a popular long-running television police drama, set and shot on location in the North-East.

Following 23 episodes spread over ten years the first stand-alone film from the final series of the much-loved Inspector George Gently airs on BBC One, at the weekend.

Martin Shaw stars as the eponymous trusty detective chief inspector with his regular side-kick, Lee Ingleby, as Detective Inspector John Bacchus, in a feature-length film, Gently Liberated.

The series, created by Gateshead-born Peter Flannery, and originally based on Alan Hunter’s Gently novels, is made by Company Pictures.

Set in 1970, Gently Liberated sees Det Chief Insp Gently and his team, now including Detective Sergeant Rachel Coles, played by Lisa McGrillis, embark on a murder case re-investigation, which may prove to have originally been a miscarriage of justice.

Executive producer Claire Ingham said the cast and crew have sought to go out with a bang.

“When we started talking about ideas for the final series of Inspector George Gently our ambition was simple, to create a piece of tv history that would be truly memorable, and, get people talking.

“We really wanted to develop an ending that would round off the emotional stories of the leading characters, and make sense of the journey they’ve all been on together.

“We went back to the pilot film for our inspiration, to the moment Gently lost his wife, Isabella, and to the moment at the very end of that film where Gently decides to stay in the North-East and take on Bacchus as his protégé.

“Both of these threads provide the emotional pulse of the final stories and will hopefully leave the audience emotionally satisfied that we’ve made our characters face all their hopes and fears.

“It was a hectic rollercoaster ride across the North-East, filming from Teesside to Newcastle and back again, via our fantastically versatile base in Durham.

“We all froze together on windswept, January beaches, thawed out in sprawling, industrial complexes, and our amazing cast pushed their performances to places where we laughed and cried along with them.

“As Martin Shaw called our final cut with, ‘It’s a wrap’, it genuinely felt like a true moment of tv history.”

It left the lead actor, who turned 72 during filming of the final series, facing life without George Gently.

He said he will most miss, “the companionship and comradeship” of the people who have been part of the series, from the start, particularly his colleagues, Lee Ingleby and Lisa McGrillis, plus Dave Sullivan, his driver, personal assistant and bodyguard.

But, he will specifically miss filming in and around Durham, among the people of the region.

“I love the atmosphere of the North-East, the music of their voices.

“There is a kind of blunt but soft-edged honesty to the way people talk to you.

“I love the countryside. I think it is absolutely gorgeous.

“Durham is a very beautiful city and, every time I drive down and see the cathedral and the castle on the river, I find it extremely uplifting.

“It never fails to inspire me. It’s one of the wonders of the world.

“Durham was an enormous part of this project for all those years and I shall miss it very much.”

** Episode one of Gently Liberated, written by Charlotte Wolf, can be seen on BBC One, on Sunday, at 8.30pm.