Case of the Reluctant Widow

A woman bursts into a busy café to ask for help, she falls at the feet of proprietor Clive, it's a case for Sergeant Cork.

First one of these I've ever watched, and considering it was made 53 years ago it holds up pretty well, well acted, John Barrie was very good as the lead, not an actor i'm familiar with, but very charismatic, I look forward to more episodes. William Gaunt too is wonderful, I know his work very well, brilliant even in his early years. Hilda Barry's turn as Kate Oxley was fun too.

Great production values, it's actually very well made, quite an intriguing story, all set at a time when the Police force was changing dramatically.

8/10 very watchable.

Bob Marriott (William Gaunt) is a man looking for a career. He wanted to be a doctor but failed his first year medical exams.

Now he has used some connections with someone high up at Scotland Yard to become a detective.

He has been placed on a tryout with the legendary Sergeant Cork at Scotland Yard.

When Marriot first meets Cork, the latter is doing some tests on the new fangled finger prints.

Later they investigate a possible murder case. A man who the medical examiner claimed died of suicide by drinking chloroform. His much younger wife Julie Oxley slept through it all.

Cork is convinced that it was murder. Someone drinking chloroform would be in immense agony.

Cork is convinced that the widow Julie Oxley is in a relationship with someone else.

The series was created by Ted Willis who also created Dixon of Dock Green.

The inspiration was Sherlock Holmes and his imitators.

The way the direction was done, very much leaked what may have happened and who was in a relationship with the widow.

Just saw the first episode, 60 years after it first went out, now showing on the excellent Talking Pictures channel.

I'm pretty sure I never saw this show, I think it was in the early days of us having a TV, we were very poor and had a set that you put coins in (like a gas meter!), and we just couldn't afford to watch too much??

But for the early 60s, it looks OK, strong lead characters and the first story was pretty well done, plus the support cast was good (not always the case back then!).

Yes, you occasionally get shaky sets and a bit of dialogue they didn't bother to do a re-take, that's how it was back then!

But it shows the early days of policing, with better evidence gathering, overall I enjoyed it, APART from the horrible start music!