# BBC mystery series



## Cathbad (Oct 12, 2017)

Are there any bad ones?

Father Brown, Midsomer Murders, Agatha Christie's Marple/Poirot, Dr. Blake, Sherlock, Broadchurch... I like them all!

Makes me wonder if BBC can make a _bad_ mystery series?


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## nixie (Oct 12, 2017)

Erm half of them are ITV productions.


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## Cathbad (Oct 12, 2017)

I don't know the difference.  

Saw them all first on BBC America


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## nixie (Oct 12, 2017)

In the UK every household that has a TV needs a licence the revenue raised goes to the BBC to invest in quality shows (ahem)
ITV generate their income from advertising.
I never thought of the rival channels broadcasting each other shows abroad. Not that it should surprise as in UK, Fox is the home of TWD but I think in States it's AMC and aren't they rivals ?


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## Cathbad (Oct 24, 2017)

I've just finished season 5 of _Midsomer Murders_.  It was tough.  If I hadn't enjoyed the first 4 seasons, I'd have quit it.

Nothing wrong with the formula - it was the number of murders (or deaths, since some turned out not to be murder)!  There were a minimum of here murders _per episode!  _I realize the best mystery authors (like Christie) usually had a second murder occur - usually to cover up the first or silence a witness - but 5??  Is anyone left alive in this region??

Hopefully, Season 6 will be a bit less... _murdersom?_  We'll see.


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## Danny McG (Oct 25, 2017)

It is a somewhat dangerous county
ITV investigates Midsomer murder rate - Visit Midsomer


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## Cathbad (Oct 25, 2017)

*"*With an average of 2.6 murders per episodes and roughly eight episodes per year, it equates to about 32 murders per million inhabitants. That is over three times the rate actually recorded by Thames Valley Constabulary for the area. This makes Midsomer a much more dangerous place to be than the fictional Oxfordshire of Morse or Lewis.*"
*
This is what I thought.  

I wonder what the rate would be on the show without Season 5?


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## Cathbad (Dec 30, 2017)

You know... I've been watching British movies for years.  I've seen every Agatha Christie movie made...

So why does it still confuddle me when I see a car driver get in through the right side of the car??


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## dask (Dec 30, 2017)

My wife and I are hooked on Father Brown. We also like Dr. Blake. There's also a station on our channel 334 that shows a lot of mysteries from places like France, Germany (or maybe it's Belgium) and a Scandinavian country, not sure which. All really good. I don't mind the subtitles but my wife dislikes them profusely.


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## Cathbad (Dec 30, 2017)

I've recently started watching *Doc Martin*.  Yeah, I know it isn't a mystery series, but I'm lazy and didn't want to start a new thread.  

Anyway, I had a question (if anyone else has watched this):  Why the H-E-DOUBLE L does he stay in that village!?  Those people have been supremely rude and disrespectful to him!  I get that they are trying to show _him_ as socially inept, but frankly, they've also shown the town to be full of arses!!

I'm only in the middle of Season One, so perhaps it gets better - I do find myself sympathetic to the Doc - probably because I'm also an introvert.


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## Ursa major (Dec 30, 2017)

Cathbad said:


> So why does it still confuddle me when I see a car driver get in through the right side of the car??


You want them to get in the _wrong_ side of the car...?

​


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## mosaix (Dec 30, 2017)

For high quality, English crime TV Morse is unbeatable.


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## Foxbat (Dec 30, 2017)

Cathbad said:


> Are there any bad ones?
> 
> Father Brown, Midsomer Murders, Agatha Christie's Marple/Poirot, Dr. Blake, Sherlock, Broadchurch... I like them all!
> 
> Makes me wonder if BBC can make a _bad_ mystery series?


It's interesting that you say how much you like these British mysteries because I was watching one of those 'Britain's favourite' programmes and this one was on detectives. Guess what? The British Public voted Columbo as their favourite. Ironic don't ya think


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## Cathbad (Dec 30, 2017)

Foxbat said:


> The British Public voted Columbo as their favourite. Ironic don't ya think





Of American detectives, Columbo was one of my least favorite, just above Jessica Fletcher .  Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin (movies), Thomas Magnum (Magnum P.I.), and Jim Rockford (Rockford Files) are my American favorites (add Paul Drake from Perry Mason, if we're talking books - the t.v. series did not treat him well).


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## HareBrain (Dec 30, 2017)

I was at a charity auction recently where three people paid £18,000 each for a walk-on part in Doc Martin. That's how popular it is. Somehow.

My favourite UK detective series is Endeavour (Morse prequel set in 1960s) mostly because of Roger Allam. But that's ITV. Even more off-topic, my favourite US one has always been The Rockford Files. Possibly because of that Pontiac Firebird, though I'd like to think I'm not quite that shallow.


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## svalbard (Dec 30, 2017)

Cracker and Frost were two favourites of mine, although I think they were ITV productions. I also echo some of the sentiments above about Midsomer. Dodgy spot to visit.

From the US I would have to say Kojak from way,way back. Colombo of course, and Cagney and Lacey was a big one for my parents which meant back in 1 TV per household and 2 Channel land we all got hooked on the same shows.


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## Montero (Dec 30, 2017)

Another one for Endeavour, and Morse, and the sequel to Morse, Lewis.
Likewise Frost.
Also liked Taggart - though you may have to work on your Glaswegian accent.

Foyle's War is wonderful - gentlemanly - about police work in Hastings while WW2 was in progress. There was still crime.

Bletchley Circle - post WW2 murder solving by a group of women who'd been trained in analysis at Bletchley Park. Second series is quite dark.

Also the productions based on Dorothy Sayers "Whimsy", Ngaio Marsh's "Allen" and Marjory Allingham's detective.

(And very politely, for comparison, I find Midsomer Murders not to my taste......)


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## Foxbat (Dec 31, 2017)

Don't know if anybody watches Shetland but I thought that was a pretty good series.


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## AnyaKimlin (Dec 31, 2017)

I liked Shetland. 

ABC made Dr Blake Mysteries although it's shown on the BBC.  It has just been transferred to another Australian channel.


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## Vince W (Dec 31, 2017)

Cathbad said:


> I've recently started watching *Doc Martin*.  Yeah, I know it isn't a mystery series, but I'm lazy and didn't want to start a new thread.
> 
> Anyway, I had a question (if anyone else has watched this):  Why the H-E-DOUBLE L does he stay in that village!?  Those people have been supremely rude and disrespectful to him!  I get that they are trying to show _him_ as socially inept, but frankly, they've also shown the town to be full of arses!!
> 
> I'm only in the middle of Season One, so perhaps it gets better - I do find myself sympathetic to the Doc - probably because I'm also an introvert.



If you can track them down, the Doc Martin tv films present a much more easy going Doc Martin than the series does. More of a Gary Strang (Men Behaving Badly) influenced Doc Martin. I enjoy Doc Martin, but I do wish he was more like the film version.

As for mysteries, Frost has to be my favourite, but Rowan Atkinson's portrayal of *Maigret *(ITV) has been very good I thought. And I have a love for Ian McShane in the *Lovejoy* series.


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## Montero (Dec 31, 2017)

Hamish MacBeth - inspired by the MC Beaton series but more based on characters than following the books. In part because the population of Kyle of Locailsh where it is filmed asked that it wasn't done with a murder every programme because that is so unrealistic. I really like Hamish MacBeth - wonderfully eccentric characters who are also real and an underlying daft humour. I think my favourite is still a road warning sign on a narrow road that says no more than two sheep abreast.


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## Narkalui (Jan 11, 2018)

Cathbad said:


> You know... I've been watching British movies for years.  I've seen every Agatha Christie movie made...
> 
> So why does it still confuddle me when I see a car driver get in through the right side of the car??



I also suffer the same watching anything set in America or Europe.

Line of Duty and No Offense are more ‘Cop Shows’ than ‘Detective Dramas’ but well worth watching.

For those who like Doc Martin you may want to watch the film which inspired it: “Saving Grace” filmed in the same village and Clunes plays pretty much the same character


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## Cathbad (Jan 11, 2018)

Narkalui said:


> For those who like Doc Martin you may want to watch the film which inspired it: “Saving Grace” filmed in the same village and Clunes plays pretty much the same character


T'anks.  I'll look for it!


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