Items25The creator’s order
  1. 1Death in Paradise (2011)Death in Paradise (2011) 7.8/10 on IMDbFirst aired Oct 25, 2011The fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie supplies the sunshine, a run of fish-out-of-water British detectives supplies the comedy, and nearly every case ends with the classic gather-the-suspects reveal. Each episode is a tidy, self-contained puzzle, so you can dip in anywhere without homework.…0
  2. 2Father Brown (2013)Father Brown (2013) 7.8/10 on IMDbFirst aired Jan 14, 2013Mark Williams plays G. K. Chesterton's Catholic priest as a kindly busybody in the fictional 1950s Cotswold village of Kembleford, cycling between tea, gossip and murder scenes. What sets it apart is that Father Brown cares as much about the culprit's soul as about the arrest, which gives the…0
  3. 3Murder, She Wrote (1984)Murder, She Wrote (1984) 7.3/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 30, 1984Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher is the patron saint of the genre: a widowed mystery novelist from the Maine town of Cabot Cove who keeps tripping over bodies and quietly outthinking the police. The formula never varies much, which is exactly its appeal, with sunny locations, a parade of guest…0
  4. 4Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989) 8.6/10 on IMDbFirst aired Jan 8, 1989David Suchet's fussy, vain, brilliant Belgian is the most complete screen version of Christie's detective: across 70 episodes and nearly 25 years, the series filmed nearly every Poirot novel and story. The early hour-long episodes, with Hugh Fraser's Hastings and Philip Jackson's Inspector Japp,…0
  5. 5Miss Marple (1984)Miss Marple (1984) 8.5/10 on IMDbFirst aired Dec 26, 1984Joan Hickson's Jane Marple looks like a harmless lady with her knitting, which is exactly why suspects talk in front of her. This BBC series adapts all twelve Marple novels, and its unhurried pace, real English villages and memorable theme tune make it feel like a well-thumbed paperback. Christie…0
  6. 6Midsomer Murders (1997)Midsomer Murders (1997) 7.9/10 on IMDbFirst aired Mar 23, 1997The county of Midsomer has the prettiest villages and the highest murder rate in England, and the show knows exactly how funny that is. Fêtes, garden competitions, bell-ringing societies and village feuds supply the motives, while a steady Barnaby (John Nettles, then Neil Dudgeon as his cousin) and…0
  7. 7Columbo (1971)Columbo (1971) 8.3/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 15, 1971You watch the murder in the opening minutes, so the fun is never who but how: how Peter Falk's rumpled lieutenant, with his raincoat, cigar and "just one more thing," will needle a smug rich killer into the mistake that convicts them. The crimes are tidy, bloodless affairs among Los Angeles…0
  8. 8Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012)Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012) 8.2/10 on IMDbFirst aired Feb 24, 2012Essie Davis's Phryne Fisher solves murders in late-1920s Melbourne in beaded gowns, with a pearl-handled pistol, a sharp wit and a long line of admirers. The costumes, jazz clubs and flirtatious sparring with Nathan Page's Detective Inspector Jack Robinson make this the most glamorous show here,…0
  9. 9Rosemary & Thyme (2003)Rosemary & Thyme (2003) 7.6/10 on IMDbFirst aired Aug 31, 2003A plant pathologist and a former police constable go into business as gardeners, and somehow every stately lawn or hotel border they take on comes with a corpse. Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris make a lovely double act, trading dry remarks over pruning shears, and the gardens themselves, in England…0
  10. 10Agatha Raisin (2016)Agatha Raisin (2016) 7.3/10 on IMDbFirst aired Jun 7, 2016Ashley Jensen plays M. C. Beaton's brash London PR executive who retires to a Cotswold village, enters a shop-bought quiche in a baking contest and becomes a suspect when the judge dies. Agatha is vain, impatient and often wrong before she is right, which makes her far funnier than the usual…0