The Gentle Touch

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The Gentle Touch
Main title caption
Genre	Drama
Running time	1 Hour
Creator(s)	Terence Feely
Starring	Jill Gascoine
Country of origin	UK
Original channel	ITV
Original run	1980–1984
No. of episodes	56
IMDb profile

The Gentle Touch is a British television drama made by LWT for ITV. Commencing transmission on the April 11, 1980, the series is notable for being the first to feature a woman police detective as its leading character, beating the BBC series Juliet Bravo by four months.

The series starred Jill Gascoine as Detective Inspector Maggie Forbes, who has worked her way up through the ranks of the police force and is based at the Seven Dials police station in London. Maggie's husband, a police constable, is murdered during the first episode, leaving her to juggle her career with single parenthood, raising her teenaged son.

The Gentle Touch largely dealt with routine police procedural and social issues and was low on action and violence, compared to previous crime series such as The Sweeney. Maggie was usually seen behind the wheel of a stationary car, because in real life actress Jill Gascoine could not drive.

The series concluded in 1984 with Maggie leaving Seven Dials. Jill Gascoine later reprised the role of Maggie for a spin-off series, C.A.T.S. Eyes, made between 1985 and 1987.