User Reviews

This series is being repeated on a UK cable channel at the moment.

I watched it the first time round (1980s) and even although I love police shows I never liked this very much.

The 2 leads are ok,Brandon plays a cliched character (new york cop) so does Barber (well connected posh women).

The plots are unrealistc.

The scripts are cliched and there are few good performances from anybody.

This is on tv again and available on dvd and the much better Thief Takers is impossible to see,this annoys me.

Is there nothing good about this thing? Well Glynis Barber is beautiful and she wears some great 1980s fashions.

This quirky and memorable '80's cop show represents a rare cross between tough guy TV such as 'The Professionals' and lightweight action fun like 'The Avengers.' Its main visible assets are the well-balanced cast and some decently written scripts. Michael Brandon and Glynis Barber are certainly made for each other. Their initial male/female antagonism is something of an overused movie-plot cliché. He thinks women are unsuited for police work, whilst she regards him as a boorish burden which she must endure. The 'referee' between them is provided by their tough boss, Spikings, played well, and with gruff understatement, by Ray Smith. Whilst being every bit as tough as Dempsey himself, he too disapproves of Dempsey's New York ways and his over-readiness with a gun but, unlike Harriet Makepeace, has a certain natural empathy with him - being a pretty formidable no-nonsense character in his own right.

This show has often been derided by fans of 'serious' cop drama for its (admittedly) somewhat absurd improbabilities and free use of gunplay in a country which doesn't normally assign firearms to police officers. Much of this is cheerfully explained away by the fact that our two heroes are part of a new unit named SI-10. This presumably being some policing experiment which therewith permits its officers to go around shooting up the bad guys as if London were just another suburb of Dempsey's home town New York.

The basics of the plot are that James Dempsey is in hiding from the corruption-ridden NY police department. To keep him alive long enough to testify against the cop bad guys he is sent secretly to London where he is teamed up with the aristocratic glamorous cop, Lady Harriet Makepeace. Of course this is all highly improbable nonsense; but it serves to provide the framework for the show and sets the stage for all that follows throughout the three series.

To some extent this unlikely situation setting would appear to be inspired by the 1970's John Wayne movie 'Brannigan,' in which the Duke is let loose in England with a female partner (Judy Geeson) to keep a wary eye on him, as he wreaks havoc upon sundry bad guys; finds time to organise a traditional western bar-room brawl, whilst simply making up the rules as he goes along. In this context Michael Brandon's character plays John Wayne, whilst his own female partner initially rides shotgun on him, keeping him marginally under some moderate sort of control, whilst gradually, and ironically, becoming ever more like him in his/her free-shooting ways. By the time we reach series two - or thereabouts - any plot pretensions are rendered pretty much redundant, with the pair having evidently reached some understanding, and mutually despatching the baddies whilst exchanging quips and the occasional sexual innuendo. She begins to appreciate, and trust, Dempsey's innate decency, courage and integrity; whilst he realises that maybe he has underestimated her all along. The subtext, to the viewer anyway, is an underlying emotional and romantic attachment between them, which remains (wisely) unstated throughout the entire run of the show.

Whilst being lively and entertaining; visually this show suffers badly from the era in which it was made. The 1980's as a decade has not aged well; the typically awful fashions and hair styles of the period are unfortunately on full display; and the sight of an attractive woman like Glynis Barber attired in men's business suits is something that any sane heterosexual male viewer can easily do without. I know that most people will wear any old rubbish in the name of fashion, but what on earth were the wardrobe department (and indeed the 1980's) thinking of??? Possibly someone in the production team had similar misgivings, as this aspect of the show's 'look' becomes (somewhat) less visually offensive as we reach the latter part of the first series.

Overall, this is all just good unpretentious action and fun. Dempsey is a man of many skills; really whatever the occasion demands. He can sky-dive - with or without a parachute - he is something of a motorcycle stunt-rider, and is even skilled in bomb deactivation. She is always ice-cool under pressure and, overlooking her dreadful fashion sense, never has a hair out of place whatever the situation. Of course it's all completely bonkers, and far removed from any semblance of reality, even by the standards of television cop shows past and present. It cannot, and should not, be judged harshly in comparison with any of the purportedly 'serious' cop shows - which are, in themselves, absurdly unrealistic; albeit in a different way. This is well cast, well acted, and well done in its own way.

Fashions aside, this show is stylish, classy, and definitely worth watching; in no small part due to the charisma and charm of the personable actors involved, and their innate personal compatibility. Take it all lightly and you'll have a good time viewing.

Watching the ridiculous, but funny "Keen Eddie: (on Fox) last night made me think about D&M and how wonderful it was. We got to see 20 of the 29 episodes produced and they ran as a syndicated show during the fall of 1985. Unfortunately the remaining shows didn't make it over here. Michael Brandon and Glynis Barber had tremendous on-screen chemistry (which eventually carried off-screen as they got married), and the writing, location shooting, directing, and acting were top notch. Dempsey's character was an no-nonsence action guy, who often had a hard time with the stiff rigid ways of Scotland Yard. Makepeace, on the other hand, though by the book on the job, was a wild society dame after hours, which took Dempsey a while to adjust too. I would like to see the final 9 episodes to see if D&M's sexual tension finally resulted in them "closing the deal"!!! I wonder if this marvelous show will ever show up in re-runs?

This little 80's-era cop series was elevated by the performance and (obvious) skillful additional writing done by the cast. It was one of the earlier U.K. imports to be played on commercial TV for U.S. audiences (as opposed to public TV like PBS). Those that saw it loved the over-the-top action and smooth, seductive style of Michael Brandon's no-nonsense Brooklyn cop, Dempsey. His counterpart, Makepeace, is the Sloaney skirt who is annoyed by the brash New Yorker's style, but can't quite seem to hate him because he's not only witty, but has good police skills. The chemistry between the Bensonhurst Badboy and the Upper Crusty Lady Makepeace heats up as the seasons progress. The other critical ingredient to the success of this project was (Ray Smith) Gordon Spikings character who is consistently yelling and dropping the hammer on one person or another, as the commander of the unit. Lots of gunplay, explosions, and stunts. Character-wise, it has a flavor not wholly unlike Scarecrow and Mrs. King, which is of a similar vintage. Ironically, the Brits espouse an anti-gun sensibility and create a cop character that fires his .357 revolver at absolutely EVERYTHING - even if he doesn't have a clean shot. As of 2010, there is no region 1 (USA) DVD commercially available from the series. An unfortunate oversight on the part of the owners, since even a small fan base here in the U.S. is as big as a large fan base in another country. They are overlooking the opportunity to re-purpose this content.

Go you You tube and Google Dempsey and Makepeace and you will find all 30 show available to watch...

Dempsey & Makepeace.

This series can be considered to be the original Remington Steele. Dempsey & Makepeace had great chemistry, Makepeace with the brains and Dempsey with the mouth. If you are not too much into serious police procedures and details, you will enjoy this show. Most of the shooting (both with camera and guns) takes place on location in London city.

Glynis Barber, as Sgt. Harry Makepeace, was extremely beautiful, always smartly dressed and from an aristocratic background while Michael Brandon, as Lt. James Dempsey, was handsome and witty with his accent and the love for his weapon, sent over from NYPD on an exchange.

Although the "buddy/buddy" cop show genre of the 1970s (in which "Starsky and Hutch", "The Sweeney" and "The Professionals" were prime exponents) had been hugely successful, most such shows utilised a male/male pairing. In 1983 Britain's southern ITV member company London Weekend Television sought to redress the balance. Additionally, despite sales to almost sixty other countries, no major US broadcaster had ever bought their previous series "The Professionals" (which had ended its six-year run earlier that year), so LWT took the view that they needed an American actor for one of the lead roles. (Despite the fact that the idea had never done Lew Grade's ITC organisation much good!)...

The result was "Dempsey and Makepeace". The pilot episode laid down the show's raison d'etre: a New York cop, Lieutenant ("Lootenant!") James Dempsey has to take flight when forced to kill his partner after discovering he and one of the city's most senior police officers are embroiled with the Mob. Arriving in England, ostensibly as part of an exchange deal between the two countries, Dempsey is assigned to a police unit named SI10 (the acronym is never explained), set up to tackle major organised crime. The squad is headed by gruff boss Gordon Spikings and Dempsey is partnered with Lady Harriet Makepeace, an aristocrat who oddly chose a career in the force, Mutual antagonism ensued and the series proceeded to show the difficulties of how such different people could work together.

After an interesting start, the series immediately ran into difficulties. It wasn't clear why SI10 actually existed, when its brief seemed so similar to that of the (real-life) Flying Squad. The plots themselves were usually paper-thin. Undoubtedly inspired by the 1975 film "Brannigan", Michael Brandon's Dempsey was a poor man's John Wayne and simply unlikeable, while Glynis Barber's character hardly developed at all throughout the show's three seasons. The friction between the two characters became predictable and boring, not helped by the inane dialogue. Dempsey's frustration at British Police's procedural approach to villain-taking would have been an interesting angle to explore but the character's response was consistently unrealistically macho and knuckle-headed. Ray Smith's Spikings was a poorly-observed, over-the-top and one-dimensional interpretation of Gordon Jackson's Cowley role in "The Professionals". Tony Osoba played the support role of Sergeant Chas Jarvis but was woefully underused. Other "buddy" series had relied on the two leads sharing and haranguing each other with pithy, witty dialogue - in this show, however, the humour fell flat.

Overall the series was frustratingly shallow and mindless.

In the second season Dempsey and Makepeace's relationship started to gel but it led to many episodes culminating in them looking dewy-eyed at each other while exchanging toe-curlingly saccharine dialogue. The plots were little better, even when "highbrow" writers such as Murray Smith were drafted in. Perhaps the "hightlight" of the season was its final episode in which Dempsey embarked on a personal crusade to catch a psychotic villain, with Chas warning Spikings about the American's obsessive behaviour and Makepeace noting that he and the villain are remarkably alike in some ways. That's how deep the "pathos" ever got in this show! At least Ray Smith was allowed to tone down Spikings: he became the most likable character in the show! The third season was an improvement overall. The opener saw the New York mob finally catch up with Dempsey. (Oddly it had taken them three years yet one of Dempsey's ex-girlfriends had tracked him down easily enough in a previous season: "I just called your mom!"). Another story dealt, albeit with little depth, with a mentally-subnormal man being dragged into the world of armed crime and weapons dealing.

But there were still problems with plotting. One episode relied on endless injections of footage of the villains driving in to London to fulfill the 50-minute timeslot.

In fairness to the series, it was reasonably popular in its day but seasons comprising of just ten episodes each - the minimum other ITV regions would accept - seemed to demonstrate LWT's unwillingness to commit to the show. Indeed they elected to drop it at this point and, tellingly, a repeat run on the ITV network just two years later was pulled after just three episodes with low ratings. (Contrast that with reruns of "The Professionals" which, five years after original transmission, were still achieving a position in the weekly top twenty.) Since then the series has made occasional appearances on minor UK satellite stations.

Given many of its antecedents, "Dempsey and Makepeace" should have been better. Considering the sexual chemistry, wit and sophistication of "The Avengers"/"The New Avengers", the grit and depth of characterisation of "The Sweeney" and the humorously acidic banter, clipped dialogue, complex plotting and stylised action of "The Professionals", it's a mystery why "Dempsey and Makepeace" was so deficient in these attributes. Almost certainly had it been produced by the likes of Euston Films ("The Sweeney") or Mark 1 Productions ("The New Avengers" and "The Professionals"), the results would have been far superior.

To its credit the show mostly avoided the inclusion of shots of London tourist traps - a sure sign that producers are desperate to sell a series overseas! - and Brandon performed much of his own stuntwork. On the other hand his presence did nothing to attract a major American broadcaster.

Britain had a reputation for producing the best television in the world. If this show's shortcomings came about due to a misguided desire to appeal to American audiences, it's a terrible indictment of television executives' opinions of viewers on both sides of the Atlantic, As it is "Dempsey and Makepeace" remains an aberration that not only failed to live up to its own potential but also gave the genre a bad name. But perhaps the biggest tragedy is that it is the only show for which the late Ray Smith will be remembered.

Michael Brandon and Glynis Barber made a great team as they played Dempsey and Makepeace in this exciting cop show from the 1980's.

Dempsey was the tough and streetwise American cop, Makepeace was the educated Detective Sergeant based in England. They were total opposites but that's what made the show great.

The music from this show was one of the best from the 1980's and the action scenes were just brilliant. British criminals just couldn't stand up to the tough Dempsey who was a brilliant fighter and who didn't really get hurt much. Makepeace could also hold her own against the bad guys. They worked for the intense Chief Superintendent Spikings played by the late Ray Smith and aiding them on cases was Detective Sergeant Jarvis played by Tony Osoba.

Brilliant series-especially the pilot episode.

Siverline12 May 2009 This series can be considered to be the original Remington Steele.

Err how did you arrive there ? As this 1985, RS 1982.

Any way that off the chest, this was good during the first season, but went down hill fast second season due to Brandon's demands due to Barber his real life GF soon after season 1 ended and soon to be wife. Remember watching a doc on this a while back on ITV, and the director stated he was not allowed to shoot Barber is risky "sexually poses or flirt with other men on the show" or brandon threaten to quit.

I used to watch D&M here in the US in 1985. It was broadcast on the local NBC affiliate after "Saturday Night Live" and was on for about a year. I stumbled upon it by accident and quickly became a fan. I liked the lead actors (Michael Brandon and Glynis Barber, who are married in real life) and the premise of the show (NYC cop who is set up by his partner is sent to work in London on some kind of exchange program for his own safety). The location shots were also terrific and really added to the plot. I really miss it, as I haven't seen any cop show quite like it ever again. I have some VHS tapes of the show. I read some comments about a DVD release, which would be great. I'd love to watch all the episodes over again. I can't believe it's been more than 20 years since I first watched it! Check it out if you get a chance. Highly recommended. I give it 10 out of 10 stars.

My brother first introduced me to this show in 1996 when I was 13 and I have been a hardcore fan ever since!!

From the first episode I watched, I was hooked. I dont think I can praise Michael and Glynis enough for their performances in the show. And Ray and Tony played their parts well too. Even though the show was supposed to be serious - I found the humour and one liners from James and Harri very funny and memorable. Its part of what made the show likable.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Glynis this year and she is really nice and polite, and I am thankful that she agreed to let me meet her as she could have easily had said no. (So thank you Glynis!!)

I could sit and watch this show all day, and I hope that Granada Plus will continue to replay it very soon, as there are still a few episodes that I havent seen.

If there are any hardcore fans out there that read this please get in touch by leaving a message on the message board!!

Ciao

I used to love this show as a kid and recently I've been re-watching some of it and I still think it's as good as I used to.

Micheal Brandon and Glynis Barber are great as James Dempsey and Harry Makepeace. The chemistry is amazing and because it was real all the more interesting to watch.

It's a shame that they only made 3 seasons - although its great to re-watch them all again.

My only complaint is that they never got together romatically and I think that they should have.

I watched Dempsey & Makepeace when I was small (10-12 years, I don't remember) and I loved this series. Few days ago, I've noticed they are repeating it on our TV station and I was very happy to see it again. I like it even more than before. I love this series. It is gorgeous.

The plot of every episode is quite exciting and interesting. It is always something new and original. I have never be bored during watching this series. I think it's quite realistic. They don't shoot so much and if so, watching them is so exciting. I love Dempsey and Makepeace's sense of humor. It should be serious but when they say something funny, it is great and I am laughing like I would watch a comedy :) The actors are marvelous. They are playing in such a beautiful style. I love their cars! 1980's Fords are so cool! Especially Makepeace' Escort 1.6i cabriolet. Really nice cars. In Slovakia (my country), our actors have done one of the best Slovak dubbing for Dempsey & Makepeace, ever! I would love to hear the original D&M voices, too.

...This series wasn't so bad. I used to hate it, when shown during the mid '80s. But seeing it again on one of the UK satellite channels at the moment, I realise how good they were. Almost comparable to The Professionals, in style and content, as that show also had two leads ((both male) who antagonised one another. I especially like Dempsey's sexist bit of banter towards Makepeace. Spikings makes for a good Cowley too.

I remember one episode title (Makepeace, Not War) very clearly.