In this review, I will discuss the penultimate episode of Dixon of Dock Green, recently broadcast on Talking Pictures TV. Entitled Legacy, it was originally broadcast on BBC One on 24th April 1976.
The Story…
On the morning that Jack Montelbetti (Tom Adams) is released from prison, he finds a dead body in his flat. He mutters something that makes us believe he knows the dead person, before calling the police.
DS Clayton (Ben Howard) is detailed to go round and collect some information. But not before he has picked up enough information from his colleagues to prejudice him against Montelbetti. He speaks roughly and rudely to Jack, jumping to the conclusion that he must be involved in the death. Jack resolves not to tell Clayton what he knows. He tells him that he would willingly have helped if Clayton had been fairer, more polite and professional.
It gradually comes out that the dead man was set to be Jack’s father-in-law before his most recent conviction. Also that Jack took the blame for that crime for noble reasons. He reconnects with his former fiance, the daughter of the dead man. Initially, she shows him only hate. Things gradually thaw as she finds out that he had nothing to do with the crime her father was involved in. And when he connects the dots between the dead man and a diamond robbery the Dock Green police are working on, he agrees to help them recover the diamonds. His only problem: the man for whom his intended-father-in-law was working also wants the diamonds and threatens Jack if he cooperates with the Police.
Jack finds a way to do both and George Dixon (Jack Warner) informs us at the episode’s close that Jack has managed to get away and marry the girl.
My Impressions…
Legacy follows the pattern of series 22. There is much more sympathy to be found with the supposed villain than with the police. The acting from everyone is strong here, especially Adams and John Savident as the “baddie”. But I cannot get past the idea that we are supposed to be on the side of the Dock Green police.
This final series feels like an anthology of pseudo-crime stories. It should have been produced as such rather than riding on the coat tails of such a mountainous programme as Dixon of Dock Green and dooming its legacy in the process. It cannot be a coincidence that this series has been the butt of jokes for decades, remembered in a completely erroneous image. If it had concluded with that skilful and brilliant close to series 21, Conspiracy, its legacy would surely have been a mightier one.
In Conclusion…
I cannot approve of the way that Dixon of Dock Green was degraded by its final series. Having said that, as its own standalone story, Legacy is fairly compelling and enjoyable. Both this story and the entirety of Dixon deserve better than trying to pair the two together.
