George is from London – a working class man done good. He saw active service in WWII, where he was in Monty's Eighth Army. He travelled with them through North Africa, Sicily and Italy. He met his wife, Isabella, in Naples and after the war went back to get her. They married and lived in London where he worked for as a Chief Inspector for the Met. They couldn't have children.
During his time in the Met he vociferously opposed corruption. A London gangster, Webster, had 7 high-ranking officers on his payroll, which Gently knew but couldn't prove. His pursuit of this line of corruption resulted in his wife being murdered in a hit and run.
At Isabella's funeral he handed in his notice and told his superior that he felt his job as a copper resulted in his wife's murder. But he took ‘one last case' up in Northumberland to catch Webster and avenge her. On this case he met John Bacchus and decided that there was a wayward streak in this talented young man that could see him becoming a dangerously corrupt cop. So, he decided to stay in the Northumberland constabulary and take Bacchus under his wing. Gently has gone on a couple of dates, but ultimately he will never move on from his wife.
Gently is known for being as straight as a die, but he has broken the rules ‘for the greater good' e.g. he doesn't always attain a search warrant when needed and, when really angry, he has been known to punch the odd suspect. But he would draw the line at falsifying evidence – something Bacchus would do. But ultimately he's an honest, by-the-book cop. His strength as a policeman is that he doesn't make snap presumptions, has a talent for looking into a person's soul to formulate his hunches.
