The Nightlifers

Gideon's Way bows out with a look at the feral youth of swinging 60s London.

Peter Sloane (Anton Rodgers) is the arrogant leader of the gang of bored rich kids with some cod neo fascist philosophy.

Sloane and his followers enjoys wild parties and violence. They beat up an elderly cafe owner and his wife, the man was an old soldier who fought actual Nazis in world war 2.

Tim Coles (Derek Fowlds) is the son of a renowned surgeon who has a bit of a conscience but has no time for his domineering mother.

Elspeth McCrae (Jean Marsh) is the girlfriend of DCI Keen who ends up in danger for bringing Keen to one of Sloane's parties.

It was unusual to see an episode featuring wealthy thugs rather than the Kray type gangsters.

Despite some familiar faces. It all came across as rather silly with the actors looking a bit long on the tooth. They would certainly be no match for the rough east end youths.

Overall 'Gideon's Way' is a good old fashioned slice of 60s crime detection. but this episode is not only a duffer but is unintentionally hilarious with its casting of teenagers Derek Fowlds (27), Annette Andre (25), Jean Marsh (30), Anton Rogers (31 and wearing a Beatle wig in some scenes) - all of whom are out for 'giggles' by beating up various shopkeepers, uncles and errant friends. Even Joyce Carey plays a teenagers mother and she was 66 at the time of filming. One to avoid.

Gideon is on the hunt for a gang of thugs, who attack and rob people seemingly for fun and pleasure. Their leader, Peter Sloane seems to carry out the 'giggles' simply for sadistic pleasure.

It doesn't really surprise me to see this one languishing near the bottom in terms of ratings, it's an episode with a few flaws, but it's not all bad, it has some great elements.

I enjoyed the storyline, sometimes the series has felt a little old fashioned, with crimes that belonged back in the 50's, this did have a more current feel to it, it's very 60's.

I liked the bizarre motive for the crimes, it's about the first time Gideon had to investigate a series of crimes commited simply for fun.

I'm not too sure the villains were actually depicted as teens? I saw them as a group of bored thirty somethings rebelling against society.

The problem for me, was that they didn't make enough of the story, nothing was developed or built on, it was all a bit flat, they really had something, but the ideas never came to life.

Gideon's involvement seemed minor somehow, and why is Joe still retiring two years on.

A lot of well known faces helped, Anton Rodgers, Derek Fowlds and Jean Marsh, they're all good, I'm just not sure they were all well served by the script.

A disappointing way to end this fine series, it's a shame it came to an end here, but I think maybe it had run its course.

6/10.