When a miner is found dead in a local pit Gently and Bacchus find themselves investigating a murder eight hundred feet underground. The location means that only those people down the mine at the time could have done it but it is surprising how many of them had a motive. With rumours circulating about the pit's possible closure it emerges that the dead man, who was the shop steward, had been set up with a job elsewhere; apparently helping himself rather than the miners he was meant to be representing. There are other possible motives too; he didn't like a fellow miner his daughter was seeing and had recently come into a sum of money betting on greyhounds he co-owned with two other colleagues.
While the investigation is going on Gently is being pressured to accept a promotion that will see him transferred to the traffic division and WPC Coles doesn't help matters when she accidentally lets slip that Gently has aggravated an old wound while underground. Knowing that he might be forced out Gently suggests to Bacchus that maybe it is time for him to seek promotion too.
This was a solid episode that provided a good finale to the current series the knowledge that there wouldn't be an episode next week certainly increased the tension when Gently was in a dangerous situation underground. Thankfully he survives as Martin Shaw and Lee Ingleby have a good chemistry as Gently and Bacchus, despite their characters' different temperaments. The story was good although the motive turned out to be the sort of cliché that seems to happen more in murder mysteries than in real life! Once again Bacchus provided some good laughs; this time expressing his views on the mining communities; although as the son of a miner he had had some experience of them. Overall this was a decent conclusion to the season; I hope there will be more to come.
While the investigation is going on Gently is being pressured to accept a promotion that will see him transferred to the traffic division and WPC Coles doesn't help matters when she accidentally lets slip that Gently has aggravated an old wound while underground. Knowing that he might be forced out Gently suggests to Bacchus that maybe it is time for him to seek promotion too.
This was a solid episode that provided a good finale to the current series the knowledge that there wouldn't be an episode next week certainly increased the tension when Gently was in a dangerous situation underground. Thankfully he survives as Martin Shaw and Lee Ingleby have a good chemistry as Gently and Bacchus, despite their characters' different temperaments. The story was good although the motive turned out to be the sort of cliché that seems to happen more in murder mysteries than in real life! Once again Bacchus provided some good laughs; this time expressing his views on the mining communities; although as the son of a miner he had had some experience of them. Overall this was a decent conclusion to the season; I hope there will be more to come.
