Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Dennis Waterman, Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tamzin Outhwaite, Anthony Calf, Tracy Ann Oberman, Amy Nuttall, Bernard Cribbins, Larry Lamb, Garry Cooper, Nigel Cooke, Nigel Betts, Adrian Lukis, Michael Shaeffer, Samuel Oatley, Samuel Collings, Kevin Bishop, Leon Williams, Ishia Bennison.

It may have come too late for New Tricks to be come back after this particular run, the last words have pretty much been said on what has been a tremendous drama, however in Last Man Standing, the two part opener to what is the last series, the team have arguably their finest moment in the sun.

With Dennis Waterman making his position clear and the opportunity to go with a bang from the series after all the other original cast members long since departed from the programme, there was no other way to go for writer Julian Simpson than by delivering one of the most complex and well thought out plots in the entire history of New Tricks.

The smell of Police corruption is never one that gets easier to bear or stomach and when one of the team is accused of a murder of a high ranking officer 30 years before, the smell becomes so foul, so steeped in dishonesty and a web of lies that any version laid out before the team in which to clear the name of their respected colleague is looked upon as just as likely corrupt.

Whilst this was Dennis Waterman’s moment in the sun, his true time to be recognised as the stalwart of the popular programme, the entire cast of the episode gave him that reason to be missed with honour.

With Nicholas Lyndhurst excelling in a rather cheeky and in many respects chilling role as Danny Griffin, the much valued Bernard Cribbins going against type and giving police a bad name and Tracy Ann Oberman slotting in well to the part of forensic scientist Fiona Kennedy, this was a true ensemble piece in which to both revel in and to feel the pangs of disappointment and regret that one of the actors who has long graced television screens for over 50 years has perhaps made one of his last forays into a major role.

Sadly prophetic, Last Man Standing was one of those moments on television that the viewer just knew that Time was going to take a huge bite out of the sentimental and offer very little in return. For New Tricks, the gap will be almost impossible to fill, especially with so little time left to repair the hole.

Ian D. Hall