I found this episode to be very weak and certainly sub-par when compared to the very best. It's not helped by the totally wooden performance given by Gillian Bailey who plays a young murderess just sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a young child, but supposedly whilst mentally disturbed, thus only convicted of manslaughter.
On her way to start her sentence of a minimum 7 years, the police convoy, consisting of just two vehicles is caught up in a road accident whilst travelling down a country lane, and the killer escapes, not having been put in handcuffs for the journey....it was fitting to have the future "Blunder Woman" Bella Emburg playing the blundering woman prison officer supposedly escorting Bailey to jail. It was very weak writing but I suppose they had to have made escape possible or else, no story.
The only half way decent acting here was by Norman Bowler and Walter Gotell. As Task Force are only helping in finding Bailey (and a young child she snatches from a shopping centre) it's Harry Hawkins who is in charge. Handily, he knows the girl, having been the senior officer when Task Force originally arrested her for murder.
The Chief Constable himself, Archie Cullen, attends the sentencing of the girl, and thus, remains present after her escape. Here we get Walter Gotell and Norman Bowler acting with very few words, something Gillian Bailey was singularly unable to do. Barlow, Watt and Cullen have their own ideas of how to locate Bailey's character and the missing child, so Harry Hawkins is under close scrutiny, and doesn't he know it! You can tell he feels uncomfortable and one scene where Walter Gotell (fairly evilly) stares at the back of Norman Bowler's head, in the manner of "You'd better not fail laddie." said more than any dialogue could.
As it's not unknown for episodes of Softly Softly to end in a negative fashion, it wasn't until Harry Hawkins finds the escapee and child, unharmed, that we knew the ending would be one up, for the forces of law and order. And again, Hawkins does it in his own way, quietly re-arresting the killer, yet no handcuffs, but this comes across as pretty daft when she now has a charge of escaping from custody to add to her manslaughter.
In the end, the episode proves to be pretty weak, with too many two-dimensional characters and some very bad acting. Its saving graces were a bit of tension for the ending and the performances of Norman Bowler and Walter Gotell.
On her way to start her sentence of a minimum 7 years, the police convoy, consisting of just two vehicles is caught up in a road accident whilst travelling down a country lane, and the killer escapes, not having been put in handcuffs for the journey....it was fitting to have the future "Blunder Woman" Bella Emburg playing the blundering woman prison officer supposedly escorting Bailey to jail. It was very weak writing but I suppose they had to have made escape possible or else, no story.
The only half way decent acting here was by Norman Bowler and Walter Gotell. As Task Force are only helping in finding Bailey (and a young child she snatches from a shopping centre) it's Harry Hawkins who is in charge. Handily, he knows the girl, having been the senior officer when Task Force originally arrested her for murder.
The Chief Constable himself, Archie Cullen, attends the sentencing of the girl, and thus, remains present after her escape. Here we get Walter Gotell and Norman Bowler acting with very few words, something Gillian Bailey was singularly unable to do. Barlow, Watt and Cullen have their own ideas of how to locate Bailey's character and the missing child, so Harry Hawkins is under close scrutiny, and doesn't he know it! You can tell he feels uncomfortable and one scene where Walter Gotell (fairly evilly) stares at the back of Norman Bowler's head, in the manner of "You'd better not fail laddie." said more than any dialogue could.
As it's not unknown for episodes of Softly Softly to end in a negative fashion, it wasn't until Harry Hawkins finds the escapee and child, unharmed, that we knew the ending would be one up, for the forces of law and order. And again, Hawkins does it in his own way, quietly re-arresting the killer, yet no handcuffs, but this comes across as pretty daft when she now has a charge of escaping from custody to add to her manslaughter.
In the end, the episode proves to be pretty weak, with too many two-dimensional characters and some very bad acting. Its saving graces were a bit of tension for the ending and the performances of Norman Bowler and Walter Gotell.