Leslie Thomas created a character of Dangerous Davies, and penned four novels around his exploits. There were two spin offs featuring DC Davies, this movie and the TV series.
As yet I have not read any of the original Thomas novels so unfortunately, I can't really judge just how close the different incarnations comes to Thomas visions for the character.
The nearest I had got to the character was on the box with Peter Davison, portraying the eponymous sleuth.
Tonight the movie popped up on the Talking Pictures TV channel and I simply, couldn't resist watching it just to see what it was like.
Bernard Cribbins is really ideal as Dangerous Davies, his portrayal gives a somewhat different perspective to the character.
After seeing the TV portrayal it's interesting for me to compare the settings around DC Davies, the different characters in his personal and work lives. On TV Davies has to contend with work colleagues and we see, the reasons why they treat him as a pariah.
Which is really the whole baggage that he has to carry around with him, the rational for his moniker of Dangerous.
The stories in each TV Episode are resolved within it, so they are tightly scripted and well put together.
The film differs from the TV Series in the marked way, that whilst DC Davies obviously works in a police station. We never really get to see any of his immediate work colleagues, either Detective Sergeant or Inspector. So we don't really get to see why he has acquired his moniker, it's only ever mentioned obliquely relative to him.
The film format enables more time to develop a story than the TV Series allows, and this movie's plot is interesting and reasonably involved.
Really the only extra characters that are in both film and TV incarnations, are Mod and Dangerous's his ex wife. The ex spouse doesn't really seem to feature all that much, she certainly isn't as central as in the TV programme.
Mod Lewis is ably personified by Bill Maynard and it was great to be able, to see him in something more substantive than I had seen him in.