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Jill Gascoine stars in this 1980s ratings winner as Detective Inspector Maggie Forbes. The series opens with the violent murder of Forbes’s Police Constable husband while she learns of her promotion. She is then left to juggle her important work as a D.I. with single parenthood and raising her teenage son. Though under strict orders to avoid involvement in this painful and highly personal case, Forbes is determined to bring her husband’s murderer to justice. Jill Gascoine delivers a powerful and compelling performance which strikes the perfect balance between feminine allure, compassion and a convincingly tough manner.

The Gentle Touch is notable for being the first series to feature a woman police detective as its lead character. It not only shows the police procedure within a Metropolitan Police CID Unit, but also allows unflinching insights into how a woman might cope with such a role, at a time and place where it is very much a man’s world. This series also features distinguished performances from an ever-reliable cast: William Marlowe (Doctor Who) is Maggie’s jaded, world-weary boss Bill Russell, alongside a delightful ensemble cast of Derek Thompson (Casualty) and Brian Gwaspari (A Bridge too Far).

• Killers Detective Inspector Maggie Forbes and her husband, P.C. Ray Forbes, reach a crossroads in their lives. But before the day is out, their problems are cruelly resolved and Maggie is confronted with unimagined difficulties
• Recoil Detective Inspector Maggie Forbes cannot bear the waiting, and breaches discipline to try and help find her husband’s murderer
• Help Maggie tries to help her friend Susan and her daughter, but doesn’t realise that her own son has started to drink heavily
• Shock When a woman is found dead in a love nest and Maggie Forbes is assigned to the case, several people are in for a shock
• Blade D.I. Maggie Forbes’ efforts to solve a murder are not made any easier by conflict with one of her colleagues
• Rogue Maggie meets a charmer and is torn between her attractive to him and her position as a Detective Inspector
• Melody Maggie and her team investigate the mysterious murder of a glamorous call girl called Melody