More Watching The Detectives Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mysteries

Nathaniel Parker plays Thomas Lynley, an aristocratic, suave, handsome, police detective. He is paired with working-class, unsophisticated, street smart, junior detective Barbara Havers, played by Sharon Small. The combination leads to an interesting balance in the storylines, touching on but never depending on issues of class and gender in both their work and personal relationships, while the crime plots are solid and intriguing.

This seemingly quintessentially English series was deftly created by American author Elizabeth George who has written over twenty "Inspector Lynley" books. The BBC TV series adapted some of them but they also wrote original scripts which George assisted on. The series ran for seven years (2001-2007).

Answer: Hathaway

Frank Hathaway is a retired police detective who has set up as a private investigator. His client Luella Shakespeare invests in the company and together with their assistant Sebastian, an aspiring out-of-work actor, they solve various crimes in where else but Stratford-upon-Avon.

The comic-drama is packed full with Shakespeare allusions. Episode titles are phrases from Shakespeare's plays, the local policeman is named Marlowe, after Christopher Marlowe, and the fictional local pub, "The Mucky Mallard", pays homage to one of Stratford's famous real pubs "The Dirty Duck".

This lighthearted programme was created for the BBC by the same team that produced the "Father Brown" adaptations.

Answer: Creek

"To begin with, all I had was the main character's name. My wife and I had driven around America's deep south a few years earlier and stayed at a place on Kentucky Lake called Jonathan Creek. I'd filed it away as a good title for something further down the line.

Then this idea arose [...] a sort of British Columbo - a cop show about character and ingenious puzzles, with plenty of humour." - creator David Renwick.

Jonathan Creek is an unsociable character, living in a windmill, working as a consultant devising magic tricks for a stage magician. His inventive mind is turned to solving weird and puzzling crimes when an exuberant journalist, Maddy, won't leave him alone until he solves the mysteries she is investigating.

Written by veteran comedy writer David Renwick ("One Foot in the Grave", "The Two Ronnies"), the relationship between Maddy and Jonathan is always humorous while the mysteries they solve are witty and entertaining.

Nicholas Lyndhurst, Rik Mayall, and Hugh Laurie, were all possibles for the part of Creek, but the role went to stand-up comedian Alan Davies ("QI"), while Maddy is played by comedic actress Caroline Quentin ("Men Behaving Badly").

In later series, Maddy is replaced by several other foils for Creek's laconic genius, including Carla played by Julia Sawhala ("Absolutely Fabulous") who incidentally was dating Davies' at the time.

One of BBC's most successful shows, it ran for five series from 1997, plus several specials, the sixth special being in 2016.

Quentin had left to have a baby, and by the time she was ready to come back the show had moved on but she has said she would love to return to it, and in 2023 Davies said, "If David wrote another script, I'd do it like a shot. The show changed my life. And it's the only BAFTA I've ever won."

Renwick worked with US TV networks on scripting an American remake of the show, with Whoopi Goldberg suggested in the Maddy role. It did not come to fruition but Renwick did not close the door on further British episodes.

Answer: Morse

Inspector Morse, played by John Thaw, is the iconic creation of author Colin Dexter. Morse shares his creator's love for cryptic crosswords, classic literature, classic music, and a good cask ale. He solves enigmatic crimes in the picturesque streets and hallowed college grounds of Oxford, his own university days were spent there.

The plots are satisfyingly dotted with false leads and red herrings. Each episode is two broadcast-hours long, ITV made thirty-three episodes between 1987 and 2000. Dexter made cameo appearances in most episodes but, like Hitchcock, it was always uncredited.

An ongoing mystery all those years was Morse's first name, it was never mentioned. Eventually it was revealed that the theme music had used morse code to spell out his first name so in fact it was there all along.

There was a sequel series about Morse's partner, "Lewis", from 2006 to 2015, and a prequel series about Morse as a young man began in 2012, this time the title used his first name: "Endeavour".

John Thaw died in 2002, he was just sixty years old. In 2018, a "Radio Times" poll named "Inspector Morse" as the greatest British crime drama of all time.

Answer: War

"Foyle's War" was specially created by ITV when their highly successful "Inspector Morse" ended and they needed a new star show. Set in World War II, Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle patrols his home town of Hastings, Sussex, fighting off black market dealings and solving grisly murders. He must also navigate the politics of war and the authorities.

By series 7 he moves into solving espionage crimes too, for which he must move to London. While the Sussex location is filmed in Hastings, the London episodes were filmed in Dublin, Ireland, as the director thought it was more like post war London there.

Michael Kitchen plays the enigmatic Foyle, and Honeysuckle Weeks plays his driver, Samantha Stewart. For storylines, writer/creator Anthony Horowitz leaned on the example of his own nanny who had herself been a driver in WWII and told him stories from the war.

Answer: Thyme

Rosemary Boxer (played by Felicity Kendall) is a plant expert with an inquisitive side, and Laura Thyme (played by Pam Ferris) is an ex police officer with a green thumb, together they run a gardening business but they cannot help playing amateur detective whenever they come across strange goings on in their various clients' properties, and they always do come across strange goings on.

The show was created by veteran producer Brian Eastman as something for his wife to watch, she being also a TV producer and a keen gardener. Eastman was also responsible for other ITV hits such as "Poirot" with David Suchet, "Jeeves and Wooster" with Fry & Laurie, as well as the film "Shadowlands" starring Anthony Hopkins.

Answer: Brown

The character of Father Brown was created by author GK Chesterton who wrote fifty-three stories about him between 1910 and 1936. The books have inspired films, plays, and more than one TV series. GK Chesterton himself was inspired by Sherlock Holmes. In turn, Father Brown has inspired the creation of characters in other shows such as the American series, "The Father Dowling Mysteries".

The BBC series is set in the 1950s, with Father Brown as the local priest of the village, and therefore aware of much of the village life and mysteries that a layperson would not know. His detective style is to put moral concerns ahead of the long arm of the law and often his investigations lead to rehabilitation rather than retribution.

Father Brown is played by Mark Williams, also known for "The Fast Show" and as Mr. Weasley in the "Harry Potter" films. The 2013 BBC series was intended as a one-off collection of ten episodes. Ten years later, its popularity resulted in ten seasons of episodes!

Answer: Boniface

Deep in the picturesque 1960s English countryside, the village of Great Slaughter has, as you may imagine, a slight problem with murder. But fear not, for it also has a vespa driving, wine making, crime solving nun with her own forensic lab. Her name is Sister Boniface.

She first appeared on TV as a visiting character in the BBC series "Father Brown". The creators of that show enjoyed her so much they decided to develop her into a spin off show, with comedian Lorna Watson in the role.

The character has a PhD in Forensic Science, and an excellent brain, she worked in Bletchley Park in World War II. After the war she rejects an offer to work for MI5 and instead becomes a nun, but she cannot resist assisting police as a hobby.

The show is a very light hearted comic take on crime solving. Watch out for a cameo by Mark Williams as Father Brown in series 1, episode 4.

Answer: Raisin

Agatha Raisin, played by Ashley Jensen ("Extras, "Ugly Betty"), is a spirited ex PR agent turned amateur detective in the beautiful surrounds of the Cotswalds, Cornwall. The shows are light-hearted, village based murder-whodunnits, with a dose of comedy/romance on the side.

It is based on the novels by M. C. Beaton, in which Agatha differs from the TV version by being middle aged and rather irascible; Penelope Keith played her in the BBC radio adaptations and reads the audio books. Beaton was a prolific author, writing over 160 books including twenty-five in the "Raisin" series. When she died in 2019, her friend Rob Green, with her blessing, took over the job of writing further "Raisin" novels.

Sky first broadcast the Acorn TV pilot, "Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death", in 2014, then the first series in 2016, and further regular series were broadcast from 2019 onwards.

Answer: Suspect

"Prime Suspect", with Helen Mirren as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison, and written by crime queen Lynda La Plante, was a BAFTA award winning show first broadcast on ITV in the nineties.

Unlike most other shows, it was not an annual series but an occasional one. It had just seven series over twenty years, and each series had about three feature length instalments.

The characterisation of Jane Tennison became the standard that future TV female detectives had to meet: real, flawed, deep, complex, intelligent, and leading the action. A prequel series was made about the young Tennison's early career, "Prime Suspect 1973". A long running sub plot of the shows was the sexism Tennison encountered in her job.

Tennison was based on the real life DCI Jackie Malton who was one of the first female DCIs in the UK to lead a murder case. Malton has written an autobiography, and presented a progamme examining real murders, both called "The Real Prime Suspect". She details the systemic sexism and harassment culture she was subjected to as a woman in the police in the '70s: "On a one-to-one, they would sympathise with me," she says, "but in company it was tribal."