Beer on DVD no 42
Couldn't Organise One
The character played by Denis Waterman was Det Sgt
George Carter in 53 episodes of The Sweeney then Terry McCann in 73
Minders, followed by Thomas Gynn 27 times in Stay Lucky often using
waterway locations around Leeds, 19 times as Tony Carpenter in On The
Up, and now he's Terry Standing retired cop in 83
episodes so far of New Tricks. As so often he gets to sing the title
song.
How I�ve missed the series until our editor pointed
me in the direction of �Couldn�t Organise One� (i.e. the proverbial in a
brewery), I�ll never know. Cronies
Brian Lane (Alun Armstrong,
famous among fans for �Brian Moments� in 80 episodes of New Tricks but
also Flintwich in Little Dorrit and Bucket in Bleak House) and Jack
Halford (James Bolam, a Likely Lad and Whatever) are supposed to be kept
in order by Det Supt Sandra Pullman (Amanda Redman) as they look into
cold cases. This one investigates the death by drowning in an open
fermenter at the family-owned Felspar Brewery (not Felstar � that�s on a
winery in Felsted, Essex). There�s an episode of Morse (called
The Sins of the Fathers, name btw of a
New Tricks 2013 episode) also featuring a drowning in a brewery and
funnily enough John Thaw�s widow Sheila Hancock pops up in "Couldn't
Organise One" as Sandra�s dependent mother.
To say these episodes are probably churned out on a weekly basis, this
one rates very highly among aficionados and has moments of wrenching
emotion. The twists in the plot would be ruined if this article revealed
too much. Some of the location shooting took place at Fullers, with
exterior shots of their brewery tap the Mawson Arms and a
hospitality bar which I�m pretty certain is the brewery�s Hock Cellar.
Other brewery shooting was done at Adnams in Southwold, including that
open fermenter. Exterior twilight shots of Felspar�s Brewery�s arched
gateway may have used a school somewhere in the Ealing area. There�s a
scene in a beer festival back in the days when we all used builders�
scaffolding for our stillage � lots of genuine CAMRA posters, but no way
of telling whether it was really something like Ealing Beer festival. A
gross Trevor Cooper plays Malcolm Hagley (you can tell his life�s been
wrecked by alcoholism because his staple diet has become tinnies of
Special Brew) the erstwhile head brewer at Felspar whose prot�g� Graham
Thomson was the murder victim). Part of the mischief and mayhem stems
from the illicit use of genetically modified barley � curiously
it�s always referred to as barley not malt. Hilarious episodes include
Waterman and Bolam getting increasingly kali�d as they test bottled
samples from the 5 years when Felspar�s Far reaching Bitter won champion
beer of the South of England and then inexplicably bombed
Other threads include a brewing dynastic marriage and incest! Of course
there have to be twists in the plot so the guy what done it is not the
guy what you think done it. In this episode Sandra also learns that the
career the detective father whom she idolised had been about to come
crashing down, disgraced in the Force as a habitual skirtlifter, only
prevented by his death.
If you�re quick you�ll spot a nasty Roger Lloyd Pack, uncredited
(gormless Trigger from Only Fools). You�ll also find Ellie Haddington as
downtrodden ex prostitute Jean Bennett who�s now in Sky One�s The Caf�,
a gentle
sitcom based around a Weston-super-Mare caf� which acts as the social
hub for the seaside town.
Series 5 brand new box sets can be had from the Acorn
Media store for �9.99 or you can do a download of a single episode,
can�t think why.
It�s our
editor�s all-time favourite episode and also rated 12th
in the listing of Amanda Redman�s top film/tv appearances.
printed in O-to-K in 2014 text �RKW