Review for Mr Rose: The Complete Series 3

William Mervyn’s pompous and smug portrayal of Scotland Yard’s Chief Inspector Rose was first introduced in The Odd Man and It’s Dark Outside, Granada’s cult crime series of the early ’60s, and was so popular that he was called back, kicking and screaming in retirement, to solve yet more mysteries and mete justice to wrong doers. The series was called ‘Mr. Rose’ and the idea was that retired Chief Inspector (who suspiciously drives a splendid Rolls Royce for transport) has given up policing in order to write his memoirs.

I had never seen the character before watching Series 3 but knowing the back-story is not important when watching these hour long (bar ad breaks) self-contained individual story episodes.


He is aided throughout by a handsome new side-kick, Robert Trent, who spends most his time wise-cracking whilst shadowing Rose thought each and every waking hour, paid by Rose’s publishers to help Rose finish the great work as he has fallen hopelessly behind with agreed manuscript submission dates.


The two of them get into unimaginable scrapes though Rose is persistently smug and cool-headed throughout. By today’s standards they are very wordy dramas, generally in interior studio settings which often feel stagey. But despite some 50 years since broadcast (well, nearly) the episodes are presented here in excellent shape – very watchable. Having said that, I was surprised at how brief the season was at a mere five episodes, somehow housed on two check discs though this may not reflect the release format.



Episodes
Episode 1 - The Less-than-Iron-Duke (Originally aired 11/7/68)
Harry Duke is not the man that Mr. Rose remembers him as. And what does he have to do with the races anyway? Mr. Rose kicks off the series in enigmatic style!



Episode 2 - The Bogeyman (Originally aired 11/14/68)
A wonderfully surreal episode where Mr Rose sees a man killed in a road traffic accident, but the same man was killed in a similar accident two years earlier. Rose sets out to investigate and soon discovers that nothing is quite what it seems.


Episode 3 - The Missing Chapter (Originally aired 11/21/68)
Blackmail is in the air though it is not clear for some time just who is being blackmailed. When Rose suspects that it is his own publisher he realises that he must do all he can to put an end to the blackmail.


Episode 4 - The Jolly Good Fellow (Originally aired 11/28/68)
Mr. Rose is invited to a University to lecture on criminology but is kidnapped by prankster students as part of their rag week fun. Once released, Rose learns that a new painting is to be donated to the University though his suspicions are aroused when the container it arrives in looks ready to be used to relieve the University of a Far More Valuable painting. This episode has a curious ending which involves Rose making a deal that saves face for the University but which leaves the crook to go free.



Episode 5 - Free and Easy (Originally aired 12/5/68)
A highly surreal episode that really reminded me of Emma Peel era Avengers. A doppelganger of Rose (played by Mervyn) takes on the theatrical role as the detective in a stage version of an episode published in one of his memoirs. Featuring a preenin , pretentious Director and a cast of loveys, the digs to the profession come thick and fast. Amazingly, Mervyn manages to camp his role up even more than normal when playing an actor who is supposedly playing himself! However, the actor is not all that he seems. As an ex-soldier of the empire he hankers after a Britain of yesteryear and has started a revolutionary outfit called ‘Free and Easy’ who intend to assassinate Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The MI5 goons on his trail have more in common with the Thomson and Thompson in Tin-Tin than with real-life Civil Servants. Pure ham but very enjoyable nonetheless.