What do you actually like about English TV murder mysteries?

I find them relaxing

I love murder. I just do.

Midsomers Murder I think the reason that many on here fall asleep while watching, myself included, is that the music enhances delta brain waves.

I like the dark, urban, unconventional ones. "Luther" is top-notch.

The acting. Superb.

And not everyone looks like they walked out of a plastic surgeon’s office.

I like them because they are all so different. There are intense ones that go in depth and explain how victims died (Midsomer Murders, Messiah), there are ones that are historical in nature (Whitechapel), there are ones that are light and campy (Father Brown, Shakespeare & Hathaway, Murder Most Horrid).

Whitechapel was amazing, R6.

1. Inspector Morse 2. Foyle's War 3. Taggart 4. Prime Suspect

Great writing, great acting.

Foyle's War is brilliant R8.

I think it's so strange that neither the detectives nor the constables (like in Midsomer) carry guns.

Here you go - there's a lot of stuff discussed here.

Thanks, R11 - but I'm looking for answers to these specific questions - and so far the responses are very interesting.

I like the escapism of shows like Midsomer Murders. It seems like it would be wonderful to live in a place called Midsomer Worthy, for example, even with all the murders.

Escapism also here. I would love to be part of a dykey pair of gardeners driving around England in an old Land Rover.

Some of the acting is great, but some of the acting is awful. David Tennant is the worst ham alive in "Broadchurch"--I eventually had to stop watching in the 2nd season because he's so ridiculous.

What I love best is either a) great local color (Shetland, Happy Valley) or great time period flavor (Foyle's War, Endeavour). If you have great acting on top of either of those, it's best of all.

I don't like too light (Midsomer Murders is not a favorite), but oddly enough if it gets much too dark (like hinterland) I stop watching. I like it darker rather than lighter, though.

[quote]I would love to be part of a dykey pair of gardeners driving around England in an old Land Rover.

I'm sure that's a dream that could be achieved, R14.

I liked Cadfael due to its long ago time period. Like the genre because you know it will be solved, but the mystery and misdirection keep it exciting to the end.

Excellent acting. Better consistency in the writing, I suspect because the series don't go on and on. They're set in a foreign country, but it's not so foreign that I'm perplexed. Foreign enough to make the story more interesting.

1. Prime Suspect 2. Foyle's War 3. Endeavour 4. Inspector Morse

I'm currently working my way through DCI Banks, which is okay. I liked the Jeremy Brett Sherlock series. I watched Ripper Street for a few seasons, but Matthew McFadyen got too annoying and the story line too convoluted.

I prefer the period mysteries. In the "Poirot" episodes starring David Suchet, Clive Exton who adapted Wodehouse's "Jeeves" stories for television also put in some cute "banter" moments between Hastings and Poirot. I like the costuming and the locations. Right now I'm making my way through the series. More recently, I started watching "Endeavour" because I am a Roger Allam fan.

Yes, Roger Allan is a tasty specimen of male pulchitrude.

Morse, Endeavor, Lewis, Happy Valley, Foyle’s War, Broadchurch, George Gently are all favorites.

I’ve seen some of them many times over. Early seasons of Midsomer are quaint and don’t take themselves too seriously.

Quirky. Funny. Not testosterone addled like some shows..Actors in the superb Brit tradition, who bring texture to even the smallest role..I'm an Anglophile anyway.

They’re mostly not flashy. Very few car chases; not interested in slick production values; the women cops aren’t wearing low cut, tight fitting shirts (that no female cop would wear unless undercover as a hooker); no corny jokes; the actors aren’t sculpted by plastic surgery, their aren’t 17 gun fights with bad guys. American cop shows are too obviously phony & unrealistic. Which is not to say that UK crime shows are never unrealistic. Just aren’t as obvious.

I like the period piece crime dramas because they remind me of things I forgot existed, like phone directories, telephone operators, secretaries, meter readers, milkmen, extensive train travel, transatlantic travel by ship, people mending their clothes & shoes instead of throwing them away....

I wish PBS would air their shows in 45 minute episodes instead of 90 minute episodes. I don’t have TiVo and I need to pee, or yell at the cats, or answer a question from my husband, who always wants to launch into one of his “tell you a funny story” drones during the most crucial moments. (The stories aren’t funny. They’re boring dreck about nothing).

I can’t help noticing lately how many Americanisms they use in these shows nowadays. It’s jarring in historical dramas.

[quote]I can’t help noticing lately how many Americanisms they use in these shows nowadays. It’s jarring in historical dramas.

Yes! LOL

[quote] if it gets much too dark (like hinterland)

I stopped watching hinterland after the second episode because it was so deliberately dark & morose that it actually became a satire on itself. Rain, mud, old dank houses, dirty wallpaper, rain, dark skies, frowns, dark baggy clothes, rain, glowering moods, ennui, depression, mildew...I finally started laughing and couldn’t stop.

Being from the US, I love the peak into UK towns. In Broadchurch, the seaside town that’s almost a version of a New England small town. The countryside in Midsomer Murders. The latter is also an easy watch, there’s no heavy investment and the lead is charming (I’ve only watched the older seasons with the blue eyed detective). There’s a charm to that show that doesn’t exist on American tv.

I enjoyed Luther but it can be so heavy and depressing that I need to take breaks from it.

It's just great to be nice and cozy at home on the couch watching them--mindless entertainment and the acting is usually good. I like most of these shows but a few can be boring duds.

More literate than the usual American crap and yet don't take as much out of you as Handmaid's Tale or Billions or something like that.

The TV equivalent of the sort of books I like for beach reading.

Oh, and James Norton shirtless. That helps too.

The UK version of Wallander was horrible. Branagh’s hammy existentialism, his knee jerk liberalism made me roll my eyes - I’m progressive, but with a brain. I hate knee jerk liberalism more than conservatives do because it gives progressives a bad name. We get it Kenny - there’s bad stuff in the world and it makes you so angsty you want to get violent, but violence is never the answer. Got it. Refugees are always oppressed, Neo nazis are bad, traditional gender roles are crappy, injustice stinks, murder is really, really bad. So bad it makes you overact and look to the heavens for solace....but there’s nothing there. And only Wallander cares.

New Tricks. Anyone else loves this show? It’s similar to Cold Case.

"I’m progressive, but with a brain. I hate knee jerk liberalism more than conservatives do because it gives progressives a bad name. "

[quote] I wish PBS would air their shows in 45 minute episodes instead of 90 minute episodes.

They do in Washington. Midsomer Murders, Foyle's War, Waking the Dead. I'm trying to think of any others. Though sometimes they show two 45 minute episodes in a row. Iit deoends on when it's shown. The first time they run it, it's usually in one long episode. When they rerun it again they break it up.

The countryside sceneries. The 70s period nostalgia.

Like American sitcoms, I don't have to watch English TV murder mysteries too closely. I can cook, do housework, laundry, etc. They are relaxing and they put in a little bit of everything for all their publics. There is usually some eye candy for me.

Foyle's War was pretty good the first few episodes but got to be a drag after a while, sort of the same old shit. Father Brown mysteries are sort of darkly amusing--the idea of a vicar or priest solving mysteries, whatever...some of those can be boring too.

I like Endeavour and George Gently. The Poirot series was excellent.

I don't like police procedurals, those shows where you linger on the crime scene and the music goes "DUM DUM.......DUM DUM..........DUM DUM".

My favorite is R14 's dykey gardener show, Rosemary and Thyme. Tons of plot holes, but beautiful colors. They also address the dyke issue in one show where an unpleasant policeman infers that they are lesbians. It's very amusing, they handle it well.

If you haven't seen it all the episodes are on Youtube. Here's they lesbian themed show.

For formulaic mysteries I prefer the American true crime investigation shows.

I wouldn't enjoy them half as much if closed-captioning hadn't been invented. And sometimes I have to make a list of the many Britishisms I don't understand and look them up afterward.

Foods I’ve learned about from UK tv dramas

Horlicks

Scotch eggs

Cheese & pickle sandwiches (really cheese & chutney sandwiches)

Fish paste

Makintosh’s Good News - sort of the UK Whitman’s sampler, including such flavors as creme tangerine, montelimart, ginger sling, coffee dessert, and of course, the savoy truffle.

Babycham

Victoria sandwich

Barley sugar

Blancmange

All takeout Indian food seems to be called “a curry.”

All desserts are puddings

r40 watches "Call the Midwife."

Ugh, Call the Midwife is one of the few I just won't watch at all.

I like the premise of "prim and proper" facades getting cracks and reveal the dark and sinister truths behind them.

It’s not a mystery show but I love Doc Martin. And Mrs Brown too.

Yes, r44 Doc Martin is very well done. It was best when Stephanie Cole played his aunt. There was one episode where his parents (his father was her brother, I think) and his aunt have it out over who really cared for Doc Martin as a boy--that was probably the best acting I have ever seen in a TV series.

R45 I found out there are many international versions of Doc Martin

I haven't followed any British crime dramas in years..thanks for the clip, R37 I have always enjoyed Felicity Kendall and in that opening scene it's like she is reprising her long-ago role as Barbara Good in "Good Life" (Good Neighbors stateside).

R39 My mom always had those same complaints. "What are you laughing about?" "I can't understand what they're saying". As a kid in the late 60s, early 70s, I was immersed in the output of Pinewood Studios, Thames TV and ITV. It was all over the place in syndication on US TV . And thanks to the British Invasion, we couldn't get enough of it. It was almost an ESL course.

The well-regarded Haynes automotive manuals always had a British glossary and an American one. It was fun to compare the definitions, especially the terms we had in common, that often had VERY different meanings in each "language'"

Does anyone here have BritBox? it seems like good value to me-but some reviews have been less than enthusiastic.

[quote]All takeout Indian food seems to be called “a curry.”

Not just takeout or rather, "takeaway" - "Let's go for a curry."

[quote]All desserts are puddings

The lower classes say dessert. The upper classes laugh at people who do.

The Fall was really well done. Even though you know who the murderer is from the outset, they kept the tension up. Great a ting, even from the kids and teens. Dark but very enjoyable. And the fact that each season is only 6 or 8 episodes means that your commitment has an end in sight.

r48 I assume you are a Brit. While surfing the net, I once saw someone use the phrase "vindaloo arse acher" as a pun on Peterloo Massacre. Can you confirm the arse burning effect of vindaloo?

I have Britbox. It's been somewhat disappointing.

R29 I hope you at least got a laugh out of Tom Hiddleston's hideous hair in Wallander. His character was also written to be somewhat of a stupid prick, they really made him unappealing.

I just started Midsomer Murders. That's a house where a "poor schoolteacher" lives? And why "Beekeeper Cottage"?

[quote]I just started Midsomer Murders. That's a house where a "poor schoolteacher" lives?

Sometimes schools own the houses where the teacher lives and they rent it, cheap.

[quote]Like American sitcoms, I don't have to watch English TV murder mysteries too closely. I can cook, do housework, laundry, etc. They are relaxing and they put in a little bit of everything for all their publics. There is usually some eye candy for me.

Really, you don't have to follow a murder mystery "closely"? I thought that's the whole point of a murder mystery, you can't be distracted for a second...or you'll miss something VERY IMPORTANT.

The only one I watched was 'Happy Valley', mostly because of Sarah Lancashire's phenomenal acting. I also enjoyed Steve Pemberton in season 1, whom I only knew from 'League of Gentlemen' and was surprised to see him playing a 'normal' character. And James Norton was an interesting choice: a gorgeous man to play a reprehensible monster.

If you like Steve Pemberton, see him in Whitechapel. You'll stay for the Rupert Penis-Jones.

While I do appreciate the gritty drama of modern Brit noir crime shows and their foggy, anxiety building atmospheres, nothing beats classic Brit TV murder mysteries for building a homey ambiance and pulling you into a cozy comfort zone, where you're comfortable just sitting and thinking.

I love "Hetty Wainthropp Investigates" because besides Routledge always being entertaining, it's like you're visiting Grandma but also having your head jogged to solve a mystery, at the same time. Toast and marmalade for tea, Grammy and mystery. It helps that I've always had a good relationship with my Grandma and this reminds me of it.

[quote]All desserts are puddings

The Pudding Club at the Devington School is best avoided.

The acting is very good as a general rule. Nowhere near a slick as American shows. It's just refreshing to see people who look like real people, no cookie cutter plastic surgery noses, bolted on boobs etc. I remember on Midsomer episode in particular, with a "sexpot" barmaid who looked just like the women I see from time to time, older, droopy, bleached blonde. In other words a real person.

There is often a strong sense of place and time, whereas many American shows are set in Generic City USA. I enjoy the local colour touches.

R60 Couldn’t agree more

This the REAL secret confessions board of DL. Admitting that you like to make a cup of tea and watch retro Brit crime dramas like "Hetty Winthropp Investigates. "

R62 Nah it’s trendy to love the Brits. Unlike the more commercial Ame.

"Ame."?

[quote]bolted on boobs etc.

LOL

[quote]There is often a strong sense of place and time, whereas many American shows are set in Generic City USA.

Probably because they're shot in Canada pretending to be the USA

R64 American shows

1. I recognize many of the actors from other shows. Doctor Who has graduated a number of actors

2. The plots seem to be written for mystery fans who understand convention so we get fascinating twists that work on their own but blow my mind when taken in context

3. The seasons are shorter - especially appreciated when we have to deal with multi-episode stories

4. I don't follow British TV gossip so I'm willing to suspend disbelief

Most importantly

5. Orthodontia: While they don't have awful teeth, naturally shaped teeth are less unsettling than the same set of Hollywood chompers jammed into differently sized bobble heads

R68, I agree with everything except #2 and#3.

The plots are often recycled. If I see the plot about dirty dealings that happened at the home for boys 20 years ago which now implicates high-powered politicians today, I am going to scream. Also, they have got into the habit of making the murder either the person that appears to have the least motive or the person who appears for three minutes at the beginning of the program and the is not seen until the last 15 min. Somewhere on DL there is a thread I started about the cliches of British mystery TV programs.

As to #3, the shows are often two-six part series. They are clearly padded to fill the format. Very few are single episodes.

That said, I love the acting, I love the scenery, and I love the sense of place. I completely agree about the teeth. I wills say though that the actors are getting to look more plastic in the most recent programs.

My reasons have already been listed. Good acting, real character faces, interesting plots that don't rely on lots of guns and car chases, insight into British life and a longstanding bias that anything said with a British accent sounds more intelligent. Also, adore Roger Allam.

Found it

What I like about English murder mysteries is that they usually mix old people with young people and have a wide range of murder suspects. It's like Love Boat with less singing and dancing, but with murder!

On Midsomer Murders I like all these pubs with their distinct names that hint of a really interesting backstory (you sadly never find out).

R55 none of it is that important and there is very little narrative integrity anyway. What R72 says, is the attraction.

I love Rosemary & Thyme's opening theme and the episodes where the gals take trips outside England. I was really bummed out when I read that it was canceled (clearly they wanted to do something with Laura and her ex-husband and the box of personal belongings that vanished in one episode).

I gave up trying to figure out who the murder is a long time ago. I just enjoy the locations and the acting. If I were rich I'd totally move to a place like Midsomer and enjoy my tea and the murder investigation right in my front yard.

Sorry, ... who the MURDERER is a long time ago.

R75, Midsomer is a total fantasy. The producer got in hot water (and was fired?) because the show is so white. Nobody seemed to get the point that the show was a fictional, cozy English village with real world murder problems. It wasn't a docudrama. I loved the early episodes with the over-the-top characters such as those played by Richard Cant.

My favorite is Chasing Shadows. This is another program that was cancelled mid-storyline. I would love to know the reason.

IMO the best WTF moment on Midsomer Murder was when they had a black country singer performing. You just knew that the producer was really mocking the new diversity casting guidelines.

Bold. Daring. Creative.

Whether it's mystery, drama, or comedy, the English are not afraid to try new things. And it certainly has paid of well for us !

What's not to 💟 ?

[quote]I also enjoyed Steve Pemberton in season 1, whom I only knew from 'League of Gentlemen' and was surprised to see him playing a 'normal' character.

If you like Steve Pemberton, search out the first few seasons of Benidorm. He plays the husband of Siobhan Finneran (the ladies maid from Downton Abbey).

[quote][R75], Midsomer is a total fantasy. The producer got in hot water (and was fired?) because the show is so white.

This is the new thing, isn't it? It's not as though the Cotswolds are teeming with black people in real life. I lived in the Cotswolds for a couple of years a (failed) experiment, with my parents...and there were and are villages and towns much like Midsomer. Great Tew, springs to mind. > >

Ditto to R79!

Also some of the actors are so good looking. James Norton is sexy as hell. I also fell in lust with Craig McLachlan from the Australian series "Dr. Blake." Unfortunately, he has been accused by several women of sexual harassment and assault. McLachlan has disputed the allegations, but he has been dropped from the production.

[quote] If I were rich I'd totally move to a place like Midsomer and enjoy my tea and the murder investigation right in my front yard.

This place is wating for you in Great Tew, R75.

If I lived in great Tew I'd befriend the people who live in the manor house.

LOL - when I first came to DL I couldn't understand why on the "where would you live if you could live anywhere?" threads so many people wrote, The Cotswolds.

One day I dared ask and someone explained about...the people on this thread.

I understand the original premise of Midsomer Murders was that these small Cotswold type villages had a lot of eccentric people in them. And there's also a lot of class envy which the British love. The show is in the genre of the eccentric characters that Agatha Christie invented.

I can also understand the diversity complaint. Couldn't they hire a non-white sidekick? They finally hired an Indian woman as the coroner but that seems another role they could have cast non-white from the beginning. I imagine John Nettles had approval of the sidekick casting. There was one that showed up for about 2 minutes and then was gone. But it also makes sense that it's difficult to cast an old British family living in a generational home and fill it with non-white people.

[quote]LOL - when I first came to DL I couldn't understand why on the "where would you live if you could live anywhere?" threads so many people wrote, The Cotswolds.

You wouldn't believe how many Americans think they want to live in a small village like the Cotswolds. And the second choice seems to be a small town like Mayberry (Andy Griffith Show).

When I visited the Cotswolds, I had a nice time. But I don't think I would want to live there permanently. I think I would get bored.

Never got into Midsomer M. though. The main characters seemed pretty bland.

R88, I don’t think you could call the characters in the first few seasons “bland”. There were some really eccentric characters.

Fun fact: the instrument that they play the Midsomer Murders theme song on, a Theremin, is played without touching it.

The Theremin was also used in the first Started Trek theme.

It's also used for the original Doctor Who theme.

The cook who is always a simpleton whoooore? Found DEAD with a fish in her mouth next to a Theremin device.

R89, I meant the detective and his sidekick and the wife. I've only seen a couple episodes though. Tone-wise, it's similar to Father Brown. It took while for me to appreciate that show but I do like the moral dilemmas which give the show more depth.

R94, in my opinion the very ordinary qualities of the reoccurring characters is to counterbalance the episode specific ones. There are some interesting in jokes if you look such a the Barnabys kitchen is different in every season.

That said, can we please talk about other programs.

I find UK TV shows to be much more realistic due to the actors they use. Whenever I see a character that is purported to be poor I never have any difficulty believing it. In America the "poor" people always look like models playing poor.

[quote]That said, can we please talk about other programs.

Grul, the whole point of this thread is that YOU name the shows YOU like - if you want to talk about them, name them.

R97, I have. I also linked to the previous DL thread.

I didn't like DCI Banks. Didn't like the lead actor.

Has anyone seen Line Of Duty? Very gritty, suspenseful, complicated. Not cozy. I've watched the first two seasons.

Another fun fact: Léon Theremin, who invented the Theremin, was a Soviet spy. He came to the US in 1927, worked for all sorts of businesses & non businesses (he developed a metal detector for Alcatraz). RCA was one of the major companies he worked for. He invented a bug, or listening device, that the head of the NKVD, Beria, planted in embassies of the US, Britain & France. He invented another listening device called The Thing that was planted in a wood carving of The Great Seal of the United States, given as a gift to Averrell Harriman from Soviet schoolchildren. It hung in Harriman’s Moscow office for 7 years before it was discovered, transmitting all conversations to the NKVD/KGB.

Theremin was hustled out of the US in 1938 by Russians. He was arrested back home and supposedly spent years in a gulag science lab, developing electronics for the KGB. He was “released” from the gulag (quotation marks from Wikipedia) in 1947 and was “rehabilitated” under Khrushchev. He chose to stay with the KGB well into the 1960s. In the 1970s, he was a physics professor at Moscow University. He died in 1993 at age 97.

[quote]Has anyone seen Line Of Duty?

I've watched it but it gets a bit complicated to follow. I still don't understand the season with Keeley Hawes. Was she responsible or not?

I can't believe only one person mentioned Taggart!

[quote] (clearly they wanted to do something with Laura and her ex-husband and the box of personal belongings that vanished in one episode).

What did they do with her?

Others have said this, but I love that many of the actors are character actors who show up in different shows. The Laura in Rosemary and Thyme has been in, I think, two Dickens adaptations and a ton of other movies that I wouldn't expect to see her in.

I once saw Anton Lesser in 3 different crime shows playing 3 different characters in one week on my PBS station. Not to mention he is also the evil Maester Qyburn on Game of Thrones.

These mystery shows are like an old, comfortable bathrobe. My mom worked at night & when she came home she took off her shoes, put on her bathrobe, made a cup of tea, put up her feet and turned on PBS to watch whatever comedy, drama or procedural was on. She always made sure to get pastry from the local bakery after church on Sunday so that when she came home that night we could “have something for a cup of tea”

R104, it's almost made for a drinking game.

Anton Lesser is faaabulous. He was Thomas More in Wolf Hall. Not a cozy mystery but absolutely fascinating to watch if you like history and intrigue.

THIS will probably interest you gurls.

OH HELL YES

I just saw Anton Lesser on an old Poirot episode

R110, details..? Which one? Plot?

r111, this is it. He was playing a detective, similar to his role on Endeavour!

R112, I looked at your link and saw the photo of Adam Croasdell who's in the film. What a handsome guy.

I never particularly cared for Agatha Christie, or the whodunnit schlock such as "Murder, She Wrote", and a lot of the UK shows tread the same territory even now in 2018 ("Midsomer Murders", "Death In Paradise", "Father Brown" and what have you) It's formulaic mental candy floss.

What I like are more complex UK crime dramas where a single story arc stretches over an entire season, with good acting, and with intelligent writing. Some examples: "Happy Valley", "The Unforgotten", "Marcella", Seasons 1 and 2 of "The Fall", "Collateral", to name a few. Then, there are those shows which still owe a bit to the Miss Marple genre of British crime dramas such as "Shetland" and "Hinterland", but which make up for that with interesting locales and strong performances.

Speaking on long arcs (re: R114), I know it's not a murder mystery, but I absolutely became addicted to MI5 (Spooks was the UK title) when they put it on Netflix. Unlike our favorite whodunits here, international/urban (not rural), tightly written, with characters who are meant to be AND sound intelligent.

(I particularly loved the actress from the Duchess of Duke street who played a retired spy.)

[quote]the actress from the Duchess of Duke street

OMG - that seemed to run for years and I had not the slightest clue what they were going on about.

I liked Spooks well enough the first few seasons but they kept killing everyone off. The first funeral was effective, everyone there in church for their fellow "office worker" and then all their cell phones went off simultaneously.

I just started Shetland and, bloody hell, why are subtitles even optional?

I just watched the new "Ordeal By Innocence" on Amazon and learned what a "bedsit" is. It seems to be what we'd call a studio apartment or an efficiency.

Isn't a bedsit like an old "servants" bedroom--very small, just room for a bed, possibly in the attic, no bathroom?

A bedsit is usually in a home rather than an apartment building. It's basically a tiny room with a bed, a chair and possibly a sink. Usually cooking is done on a hotplate. The toilet is in the hall shared with others. It's usually smaller than the American studio apartment.

I haven't heard the term in ages but maybe a sink in the room, and a hot plate but shared bathroom down the hall.

Haha jinx r120

I just started Ordeal by Innocence. Twin Luke Treadaway plays a pivotal role, plus there are Matthew Goode, Anthony Boyle, and Christian Cooke to look at. I haven't watched enough yet to know if I like the storytelling.

It's on Amazon Prime.

Don’t forget the coin operated electricity meter in your bedsit.

I switch the channel whenever Richard E Grant’s horrendous daughter shows up. It’s just not worth sitting through a show where I have to wince every time she shows up on screen.

[quote]A bedsit is usually in a home rather than an apartment building. It's basically a tiny room with a bed, a chair and possibly a sink. Usually cooking is done on a hotplate. The toilet is in the hall shared with others. It's usually smaller than the American studio apartment.

Not just, it's more usual to have a whole building full of bedsits and they can be quite a large room. You're describing "lodgings".

I had the misfortune to live in a few bedsits in my youth. Cheaper than renting an apartment and without the downsides of sharing. But yes, shared loo on the landing. Mine had its own little kitchen and a bathtub in the kitchen. But was in a very nice part of London. Most of those types of houses have now been converted back into fancy multi-million-pound homes.

(I knew people in NYC in the 80s who had apartments with the loo in the corridor and a tub in the kitchen.)

If someone came to visit you, you were given a "code" - four short rings on the bell etc,,.

Also of course in those days, one pay phone for the whole house and they looked like THIS >

[quote]Also of course in those days, one pay phone for the whole house and they looked like THIS >

I hope some kind soul tacked a pencil on string nearby for us pencil-dialers.

Is anyone watching Bletchley Circle: SF. I just finished the second episode and it was so implausible. I cannot believe they actually filmed that script.

r128 I loved the original Bletchley Circle. Where is the other one available (in the US)?

R126, it is on Britbox. I liked the first British one. The second, not so much. I am trying to give the SF version a chance. The actresses are wonderful, but the scripts... OY!

What's SF mean?

San Francisco

btw, I found some episodes of Morse on YouTube.

First four seasons of Endeavor are free on amazon Prime.

Agree with all the comments on Midsomer Murders. The best episodes are the ones that Brian True May directed, with Renny Rye a closed second.

May is the one who got in trouble for lack of diversity. Sadly, he’s no longer involved.

The first ten seasons are the best.

I just finished the new "Ordeal by Innocence" and now I'm going to re-watch the Marple version from a while back (it's on Hulu.) If I recall correctly, they're very different, especially with respect to the Gwenda character and the fact that Marple is not even in the original book or the new adaptation.

Lesbian here.

I desperately want to take apart that thing at R124 with a screwdriver and see what's inside.

Just finished "Ordeal by Innocence." Not a completely satisfying ending.

A touch of Frost : gritty and humane

[quote]I stopped watching hinterland after the second episode

I've worked with the main actor in that series, Richard. He's a very nice man. The series is Welsh, however, made by the dreadful Welsh TV channel known as S4C. Its dreariness is an obvious attempt to replicate the very popular 'Scandi Noir' procedurals, such as The Bridge and The Killing. He was good also in the BBC adaptation of Dickens' Bleak House, which also boasts a stunning turn by Gillian Anderson.

I am cursing you bitches as this thread got me to fire up the first ever season of Prime Suspect on Netflix. Now I can't stop watching it. Takes me back to living in a small dump in NW London in a bitter winter in the early 90s. Me and my friends would huddle around the little television set with an aerial sticking out the top to watch it. In between going to Heaven and being fabulous club gays, you know.

R140, funny, I like Hinterland. I have no trouble with the accents at all.

Like R142, I have no problem with Scottish or Welsh accents. On the other hand, if I watch a show with Mancunian characters, I have to turn on close captioning in order to get everything.

I hope the film of The Little Stranger does justice to the book, which is a creepy and mysterious page turner.

The Little Stranger is top notch, du Maurier meets Christie

The Brits look things in the face and talk about them.

In the Morse universe, the corruption caused by Masons is acknowledged whereas none of our crime shows discuss how priests get away with molesting kids because the police force and DAs offices in many of our cities are solidly Catholic.

DL fave Charlotte Rampling!!

[quote]none of our crime shows discuss how priests get away with molesting kids because the police force and DAs offices in many of our cities are solidly Catholic.

I saw this link addressed in the Netflix docuseries, The Keepers

[quote]I once saw Anton Lesser in 3 different crime shows playing 3 different characters in one week on my PBS station.

That guy will always have work. He's outstanding as Thomas More in Wolf Hall if you've not caught that.

It is indeed R145. The scene where the mother is locked in the old nursery is very eerie. And it's always nice to see Ms Rampling in something.

Back to the more traditional British mysteries, I thought the relatively recent adaptation of And Then There Were None was very good.

Yes I must catch that R150. Good old Charlie Dance has perfected that upper-crust persona. He's actually from a rough, working-class background.

Charles Dance, first saw him in Jewel in the Crown and everybody loved him in that role. Since then he's only played characters who were utter shits.

I loved The Missing on Starz. Julien Baptiste is one great detective character. Very suspenseful with good endings.

Yes, I forgot to add "The Missing" to my list. Two UK crime mini-series that I really enjoyed were "Thirteen" and "Retribution" (in the UK, it was named "One Of Us"), both available on Netflix. "Thirteen" is very reminiscent of S2 of "The Missing."

Ooh, I loved Rosemary and Thyme.

Mostly for the scenery. Made me wish England looked like that all the time.

I wish Endeavour wasn't so determined to march through the years. It's a ticking time bomb. It should've stayed in some fuzzy early 60s time period. Maybe the producers didn't think it would be so successful but now, for the next season, they've had to jury rig an explanation for Thursday not retiring and somehow still working with Morse despite the latter's promotion plus moving to the new police station and losing Anton Lesser's character.

R156, is that season available in the USA?

No, r157. It's not even available in England yet, AFAIK. I don't even know if it's been shot yet.

Midsummer Murders is more relaxing than Heroin. I also like Hetty Wainthrop Investigates.

[quote]Midsomer Murders is more relaxing than Heroin.

While I have never relaxed to heroin, I can say I fell asleep during each of the first two episodes, so I switched to something else (which I also slept through).

Midsummer Murders

Be the death of me

Midsummer Murders

It's my wife, and it's my life.

Very few of them are any good. Most of them are dull, one note and repetitive.

Wow. Just re-watched the Marple "Ordeal by Innocence" and boy, did they ever change things! The two versions are barely related, with the exception of the names of most of the characters. Some of the victims are different, as is the murderer. And LOTS of plot differences.

There's also a movie version of "Ordeal" with DL fave Faye Dunaway.

Agatha Raisin was like watching the Hallmark channel. Snoozer.

I couldn’t sit through one episode of Agatha Raisin. Murder in Suburbia isn’t quite as bad, but it stinks.

It’s disconcerting that the OTT idiot top cop on Father Brown plays a serious cop on DCI Banks.

I've watched several episodes of Shetland now. Sympathetic cast, wonderful accents but unfortunately formulaic. Two murders per episode. The biggest draw is the location. High cliffs, green turf, peat, grey stone buildings, lots of mist. So far everyone has worn a jacket/rain jacket so not sure if it ever gets warm enough to do without.

If Midsomer gets the murder capital of the world complaint then this show deserves it even more, especially considering how isolated it is. The small population means a lot of people are related or know each other. One episode was set on Fair Isle (it's a real place not just a type of sweater) which is even more isolated and has a population of between 55-75 people.

It's worth watching for the scenery and to wonder what it would be like to live in a place like that, halfway between Scotland and Norway.

R167, as I recall, the mystery that spans the entire season turns out to be a tired old chestnut that has done better and completely in a one hour episode.

One episode of Agatha Raisin was more than enough.

I found Murder in Suburbia watchable primarily because it costarred Caroline Katz from Doc Martin - and also because I thought the boss was attractive.

I find them terribly grim and memsahibish!

[quote]If Midsomer gets the murder capital of the world complaint then this show deserves it even more, especially considering how isolated it is.

Aren't we in the running?

We all know Cabot Cove, Maine is the murder capital of the world

[quote] Caroline Katz

It’s Caroline Catz

And her real name is Caroline Caplan.

I guess Jewish surnames get C instead of K in the UK

Yes r171, very similar formula except Death in Paradise has the ol' Poirot trick of everyone sitting around while he recaps the plot and lists every suspect in turn.

Maybe do a police show in an exotic locale where the focus isn't just on murder.

I believe most viewers watch these British murder mysteries more for the comfort viewing experience than the exitement of finding out who the murderer is. I think there is something very serene about someone being interviewed for a murder investigation while drinking tea in his or her back garden and then finding out that someone so cordial and restraint turned out to be a vicious serial killer (who killed people just to cover up either the first murder or just the previous murder, because you don't want to get that sort of bad rep on the countryside!).

[quote]Death in Paradise has the ol' Poirot trick of everyone sitting around while he recaps the plot and lists every suspect in turn.

And none of them ever complain about having to sit out in the heat and listen to that longwinded gasbag go on and on.

Right now watching Save Me with Lenny James and finding it very well done. I like kidnap thrillers.

I've quite enjoyed some of the terrible fake American accents.

I finished all 5 seasons of Scott & Bailey and loved it. Does anyone know why they stopped filming after episode 3 in season 5?

[quote]I've quite enjoyed some of the terrible fake American accents.

With the men, they all seem to think that an American accent is really heavy. So they end up talking like someone from Brooklyn.

Yes, funny - R180, especially in older shows like Tales Of The Unexpected - when fewer Brits had ever even been to America.

Also, British men play Americans with a lot of swagger. It's really funny to see. It's like they're using John Wayne as their acting template.

I loved Tales of the Unexpected

This isn't a mystery, but it has the worst "American" accent I've heard in a British production. It's about a photo archive that needs to be bought out to survive. I liked it. I just found the accent enjoyably awful. Very hard on Rs. I thought the actor might be trying for some urban accent I was unfamiliar with. Then the character announced he was from Virginia and I cracked up laughing.

And I forgot the link to [italic]Shooting the Past[/italic].

Loved Shooting the Past. The writer/diector Stephen Poliakoff has done some amazing series. The ones I've seen are well worth watching. They are never basic or boring.

Vera fan here. Good plots. Blethyn is great and she always has her make sidekick with her. Not great to be a female detective: transfer, die, disappear without a trace (Shep)....

I'm watching Poirot as I type. I find it relaxing and like good old company

For the most part English tv shows are better than U.S. tv shows in recreating a bygone era. Also, they seem to have actors who look like real people and not wannabe movie stars.