Bridget Andrews

Yet to fulfill their rock and roll destiny, the stakes are higher than ever for the now middle-aged Bill and Ted who set out on a new adventure when a visitor from the future warns them that only their song can save life as we know it.

Shot over six weeks in December 1971, and January 1972, the film consisted of interviews with Protestants, Catholics, politicians, and some soldiers, combined with TV news clips of bombings and violence. The deaths of four individuals formed the central focus of the film, which Ophüls described as ‘an old, middle-aged, humanistic, social-democratic attempt to give people an idea that life after all is not that cheap’. The BBC refused to transmit the completed film on the grounds that it was ‘too pro-Irish’ (Sunday Times, 5 Nov. 1972). (via http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/media/docs/freespeech.htm)

An unconventional team of homicide detectives face various cases, as led by Tessa Vance and Steve Hayden. Hayden is an often light-hearted 'man's man' who is moving up the career hierarchy, while Vance is more introspective and no-nonsense, and often solves the murder with intuition and insight. Their team includes boss Inspector Malcolm Thorne, Constable Dee Suzeraine, forensic services expert Lance Fisk, and unorthodox doctor Imogen 'Tootsie' Soames.