If you haven’t seen it, the Mod episode of Gideon’s Way screens tonight on Talking Pictures TV.
Yes, Talking Pictures comes up trumps once again, this time with a Mod oddity and a storyline that’s very of its day.
Gideon’s Way is a British television crime series made in the mid-1960s, starring John Gregson in the title role as Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard.
As a crime series, it’s quite traditional and fairly slow-paced. This was over a decade before The Sweeney hit our screens and most police dramas tended to be like that.
As a series, I wouldn’t give it a great deal of thought, but in August 1964 they made an episode that goes by the name of The Rhyme and the Reason. It put Mods on mainstream TV at a time when they were all over the newspapers due to the seaside riots. Cashing in? Possibly. But Gideon’s Way does it well.
This episode stars Alan Rothwell and Carol White as a couple, Rothwell being the teen Mod and really looking the part in his casual wear and with his customised Vespa GS.
The couple has a row and later the girl (played by Carol White) is found dead. The fashion-based evidence (a Converse shoe) points to the boy. Gideon, as a friend of his sister, is asked to investigate to find out if he really did kill her.
It’s a decent hour of entertainment. Check out Rothwell’s Mod look, his GS and the local rockers, who inevitably get involved in a confrontation. Some lovely scenery of the era too, especially if you want to see 1960s Battersea.
Talking Pictures shows it regularly and it is showing tonight, Tuesday 11th February 2020 at 9pm.
If you are not in the UK, there is a poor quality version of it on YouTube, which you can see below. If you want to own it, you will have to buy the entire series on DVD.
Hello Dave,
Just watched “Rhyme & Reason” — the Mod episode of Gideon’s Way — with my wife, who grew up near Reading 1959-1966 and seemed to recognize many in the case as familiar British character actors.
Any idea who that band was that played in the nightclub — apparently with both mods and rockers dancing (peacefully). To my American ears, they sounded a bit like the Hollies, who perhaps could have appealed to both camps. Alas the band wasn’t listed in the credits.
Stumbling upon this episode of this show reminded me of a scene I’ve never forgotten early in Quadrophenia. Jim the mod gets into a bath house sing-off with a rocker who turns out to be his old school friend. You Really Got Me vs. Be Bop a Lula.
Any idea who that band was?
Many thanks -TTS
Gideon’s Way as a series is very mod and if you want to see lots of early 60s bomb site London it’s worth watching the whole series. In the episode The Firebug, George Cole (Arthur Daley no less) nicks a scooter from a London scooter shop. Another episode Gang War is based on the East End/South London gang that fought for territory for the protection racket schemes and features some very mod looking young men. The episode The Nightlifers is another gang war affair. A brilliant series, that has been over-looked and underrated for years by many writers on old TV programmes. Glad it’s attracting new viewers.