New Tricks

New Tricks
Genre	Drama
Created by	Nigel McCrery Roy Mitchell
Starring	Alun Armstrong James Bolam Amanda Redman Dennis Waterman Denis Lawson Nicholas Lyndhurst Tamzin Outhwaite Larry Lamb
Theme music composer	Mike Moran
Opening theme	"It's Alright" (vocals by Dennis Waterman)
Ending theme	Reprise
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	12
No. of episodes	107 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Production company(s)	Wall to Wall (2003–14) Headstrong Pictures (2015)
Distributor	Warner Bros. Television Productions UK
Release
Original network	BBC One
Picture format	576i (SDTV) (2003–09) 1080i (HDTV) (2010–15)
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	27 March 2003 (2003-03-27) – 6 October 2015 (2015-10-06)[1]
External links
Website	www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t0qx

The original cast of New Tricks (back: Dennis Waterman, left: Alun Armstrong, right: James Bolam, front: Amanda Redman).

New Tricks is a British television procedural drama, first broadcast in 2003. In February 2015, BBC One announced the show would end after series 12.^[2][3] The show's title is taken from the proverb "You can't teach an old dog new tricks".

The series follows the work of the fictional Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS) of the Metropolitan Police Service, a squad of retired police officers recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes. There have been cast changes, but the squad always consists of three men with a female boss.

Series

New Tricks began as a one-off episode broadcast on 27 March 2003. This attracted sufficient viewers for the BBC to commission a series of six episodes, which began on 1 April 2004. Eight-episode series were subsequently commissioned for 2005, 2006 and 2007. A fifth series was commissioned by the BBC after the audience share rose week upon week for the previous series.^[4] In 2007, an episode from the fourth series received viewing figures of 9.25 million, becoming the second most watched programme on BBC One that week, and the most watched New Tricks episode to that point.^[5] The fifth series continued this good run – on two occasions it was the most watched programme in Britain for the week, and the seventh episode gained a new series high rating of 9.36 million – second only to the X Factor that week.^[6] The fifth series aired from 7 July to 25 August 2008. The sixth series finished location filming on 8 May 2009 in Central London and began airing on 16 July 2009.^[7] The opening episode of series six was watched by 8.07 million, despite clashing with Five's The Mentalist (1.64m) and ITV's Living With Michael Jackson (3.64m). The second episode clashed with The Mentalist and the relaunch of The Bill on ITV, and was watched by 7.59 million.

Series 7 and 8 were commissioned by the BBC in September 2009, ensuring that the show would run until 2011.^[8] The seventh series began airing on 10 September 2010 and completed its run on 12 November. The eighth series opened on 4 July 2011 with 9.2 million viewers, the show's highest rating for three years, and the first since the fifth series to break the 9 million barrier.^[9] The third episode of series 8, "Lost in Translation", was the show's highest rated episode to date with 9.7 million viewers, becoming the most watched television programme of the week in the UK.^[10] Episode 7, "The Gentleman Vanishes," surpassed this figure with 9.87 million viewers, and was again the top programme of the week.^[11]

The BBC confirmed in September 2011 that a further two series, each of ten episodes, had been commissioned, to be broadcast in 2012 and 2013.^[12] James Bolam, who played the part of Jack Halford, left the show, claiming that it had "become stale",^[13] making his final regular appearance in the first episode of Series 9 and a guest appearance in Series 10, episode 8. In the fourth episode, Denis Lawson joined the cast, as the new character of retired DI Steve McAndrew.^[14] Prior to the ninth series premiere, both Amanda Redman^[15] and Alun Armstrong^[16] announced that they would be leaving the show after the tenth series. The first programme of series nine was broadcast on 27 August 2012, and gained 8.52 million viewers, which was the highest rating of the week.^[17] Only Fools and Horses star Nicholas Lyndhurst and EastEnders star Tamzin Outhwaite appeared in Series 10, which was broadcast in Britain between 30 July and 1 October 2013.^[18] The opening episode of the tenth series gained an audience of 8.86 million viewers, making it the twelfth most watched programme of the year.^[19]

Filming for Series 11 began in late 2013,^[20] and Episode 1 of the series was broadcast at 21:00 GMT on BBC One and BBC One HD on 18 August 2014. Ratings fell considerably from season 10 to season 11 when most of the original cast left; season 10 had an average per-episode viewership of 8.35 million, while season 11 managed an average per-episode viewership of 5.75 million.

A twelfth series of the show began filming in the Autumn of 2014, and started broadcasting on 4 August 2015. It was also revealed that Dennis Waterman would be leaving the series in the early episodes. In February 2015 it was announced that the twelfth series would be the last.^[3]

The series is broadcast in at least twenty-five countries, and is also available on DVD and via online streaming. New Tricks is produced by Headstrong Pictures for the BBC. It was formerly produced by Wall to Wall Television between 2003 and 2014.

Cast

Change in cast

In 2011, James Bolam announced to the producers that he would be leaving the show; he was replaced by Denis Lawson. In 2012, both Alun Armstrong and Amanda Redman announced to the producers that they would be leaving the show; they were replaced by Nicholas Lyndhurst and Tamzin Outhwaite respectively. In September 2014, Dennis Waterman announced that he would be leaving the show after filming two episodes of the next series; Larry Lamb replaced him for the rest of the final series.

Overview

Episodes

Themes

Inspirations

Roy Mitchell, creator of the series, being a supporter of the English football team West Bromwich Albion, named numerous characters after past and then-current players. The original three main male characters derived their names from the club's oldest stand, "The Halfords Lane Stand", at The Hawthorns football ground in West Bromwich.^[21]

Music

The theme tune of the program is sung by cast member Dennis Waterman. The song is "It's Alright" (written by Mike Moran). Production music was composed by father and son team Brian and Warren Bennett with technical assistance from Olivia Davies. The British release of the first season DVD contains a cover version of "End of the Line" sung by Dennis Waterman at the end of the pilot episode.

DVD releases

Series one to twelve of New Tricks are available on DVD on Region 2 (UK). These titles are distributed by Acorn Media UK.

References

External links

• New Tricks at BBC Programmes
  
• New Tricks on IMDb
• New Tricks at Wall To Wall, Producers.
• New Tricks at BBC Worldwide Americas, Distributor for United States.