...as our Jeremy (Clarkson) once regularly used to say. This particular episode was both a surprise and a confirmation.
The surprise was in the context of a long and bafflingly unresolved situation of Dr Blake and his not unattractive live-in house-keeper, Jean, where there is mutual interest, more on her side than his. The questions the situation would have posed an audience in 1958 - and been a certain object of local gossip in reality - as much as it does today are: have they or haven't they? Will they or wont they? But Dr Blake is a modern secular version of a role which would once have been filled by a clergyman or priest - Father Brown perhaps closest - given the good doctor's ability to also act as a police detective - and whose behaviour is way beyond reproach of any kind.
The bombshell is considerable, indeed could hardly have been greater given the lengthy slow burning fuse: the unexpected arrival of his Chinese wife Mae Lin from 1941 for whom he had searched for years after the end of WW2, with whom he had a child and believed was dead.
But this is fictional 1958, an idealised 21st Century reconstruction of an earlier and very different era and things - and values - and it seems also History have changed very much in nearly 60 years. The cars are authentic models from that era but attitudes and behaviour not I think remotely so. Mae Lin's arrival, beyond Dr Blake's trauma, produces a tremor in a teacup but not much more. The policeman discretely and delicately suggests to Dr Blake that the situation "must be difficult" for him. Jean tears up but is hospitable and civilised towards Mae Lin. Dr Blake, Mae Lin, Jean and other local ladies sit down for a meal, the atmosphere is slightly strained because Mae Lin just isn't aware of what goes on the locality but the ladies try to make her feel welcome. Jean accepts the changed situation, the end of all her hopes, bravely and silently.
It's an enjoyable series and Dr Blake's exemplary decency is attractive and a change. It is history but not as we once knew it. In the 60 years since 1958, PC has come to mean more than just Police Constable, indeed something far more pervasive and enthusiastically policed - more in some places than others, it seems. This episode like all others I've seen takes its cue from real life historical facts then views them through the thickest of police constable goggles. The result is comforting, reasurring and audience pleasing. But whatever current floats your boat, or doesn't as the case may be.
The surprise was in the context of a long and bafflingly unresolved situation of Dr Blake and his not unattractive live-in house-keeper, Jean, where there is mutual interest, more on her side than his. The questions the situation would have posed an audience in 1958 - and been a certain object of local gossip in reality - as much as it does today are: have they or haven't they? Will they or wont they? But Dr Blake is a modern secular version of a role which would once have been filled by a clergyman or priest - Father Brown perhaps closest - given the good doctor's ability to also act as a police detective - and whose behaviour is way beyond reproach of any kind.
The bombshell is considerable, indeed could hardly have been greater given the lengthy slow burning fuse: the unexpected arrival of his Chinese wife Mae Lin from 1941 for whom he had searched for years after the end of WW2, with whom he had a child and believed was dead.
But this is fictional 1958, an idealised 21st Century reconstruction of an earlier and very different era and things - and values - and it seems also History have changed very much in nearly 60 years. The cars are authentic models from that era but attitudes and behaviour not I think remotely so. Mae Lin's arrival, beyond Dr Blake's trauma, produces a tremor in a teacup but not much more. The policeman discretely and delicately suggests to Dr Blake that the situation "must be difficult" for him. Jean tears up but is hospitable and civilised towards Mae Lin. Dr Blake, Mae Lin, Jean and other local ladies sit down for a meal, the atmosphere is slightly strained because Mae Lin just isn't aware of what goes on the locality but the ladies try to make her feel welcome. Jean accepts the changed situation, the end of all her hopes, bravely and silently.
It's an enjoyable series and Dr Blake's exemplary decency is attractive and a change. It is history but not as we once knew it. In the 60 years since 1958, PC has come to mean more than just Police Constable, indeed something far more pervasive and enthusiastically policed - more in some places than others, it seems. This episode like all others I've seen takes its cue from real life historical facts then views them through the thickest of police constable goggles. The result is comforting, reasurring and audience pleasing. But whatever current floats your boat, or doesn't as the case may be.