My wife and I have very different tastes in movies and tv shows. About the only thing we watch together are UK, Australian, New Zealand lightweight mystery shows. We had Acorn for the last couple of years, which had loads of stuff we could watch, but it was getting harder to find new stuff so we dropped it and switched to BritBox starting today.
I already know the first show we will watch, Season 9 of Death In Paradise. We loved the seasons with the proper British cop, liked the seasons with the goofy British cop, but we got bored quickly with the third cop and his daughter. I’m not even sure we finished watching the shows with him. It looks like this last season may have a new guy so we are looking forward to it.
Any shows that are easy to watch mysteries that don’t take themselves too seriously, even cozy shows where the crime solver is a baker or a tea shop owner etc.
Episodes are self contained and also Police Procedural with a fair amount of humour.
It is well done.
The series focuses on the work of the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS) – a fictional division within London’s Metropolitan Police Service tasked with re-investigating unsolved crimes. UCOS primarily functioned with a senior police detective overseeing the work of three retired police officers who would handle each case, and who could bring in police support when needed. Each episode focuses on a different investigation, with characters often coping with problems at their age but using their wisdom to overcome hurdles in the original investigation of cold cases. Both creators, McCrery and Mitchell, devised the title of the programme around the proverb “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”.
If you like Death in Paradise, you’ll probably enjoy The Murdoch Mysteries. (Actually Canadian). They take place from 1890s into the 1900s thus far. 14 seasons and 221 episodes already. The show is excellent.
Yep, we watched both of these on Acorn. My quick glance thru BritBox when I signed up showed me there was going to be a lot more overlap with Acorn than I thought there would be. In my experience shows don’t usually play on different pay channels.
Shakespeare and Hathaway Rosemary and Thyme (old) Campion (really old) Hetty Wainthropp (pretty old and also broadcast in US on PBS a few years back.) Vera and Shetland (based on books by mystery writer Ann Cleeves)
Also take look for “Alan Plater” in IMDB under “writer”. He wrote lots of my favorite individual episodes of BBC programs including Marple, Campion, Maigret(Michael Gambon version), Dalziel and Pascoe.
Thanks! Shakespeare goes on the list! Wainthrop goes on the list! Already watched Rosemary & Thyme, Campion and Shetland. Vera was so annoying I wanted to kill her myself.
Seconding Shakepeare and Hathaway – it’s fun, doesn’t take itself seriously, and the characters are hilarious.
If you haven’t already watched it on Acorn, Father Brown is another cozy mystery series, starring Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter films) as a Catholic priest who solves murders.
My wife and I liked The Mallorca Files. German/British odd couple cop show set on a Spanish mediterranean island (where they have jurisdiction for… reasons). We think of it as a low budget, lower stakes Hawaii 5-0.
From my recent thread on cozy mysteries, @GuanoLad recommended a few shows on Britbox. So far, the ones I haven’t seen in this thread are MacDonald and Dodds and Miss Scarlett and the Duke.
In the first sentence, he’s talking about Acorn. After that, the shows are mostly on Britbox.
@MrDibble recommended Jonathan Creek, which is on Britbox.
Even if you’ve already seen the Joan Hickson Miss Marple series, it’s worth a re-watch because it was shot on film and Britbox has it remastered and looking gorgeous. Just watch and marvel. You have never seen tweed like this before. You can practically smell it!
I should have mentioned that I’m surprised Murdoch isn’t featured on Canadian money or mentioned in the history books. Without his hundreds of inventions we would all still be living in wood shacks and driving horse and buggy. Canadians should be proud!
Already saw them when they originally aired in the US. Liked it despite the fact that the guy that plays Sherlock sets my teeth on edge just by watching him.
I just saw that thread a bit after I posted mine. If I had saw it first I would have just piggy-backed on. I put MacDonald and Dodds and Miss Scarlett and the Duke on my list, along with Cadfael, which I saw many years ago but my wife has not seen. So thanks to everyone in that thread!
I don’t know why, but I could never get into any Agatha Christie, books or tv shows. However, this goes on the list because my wife loves anything by Christie. Thanks!
Please let us know which ones you enjoyed. I’m also looking into trying Britbox. I was originally going to go with Acorn, but after looking at the selection and what I can get on Hoopla (library service), Britbox has more that I can’t get anywhere else.
I just ran across this article. If you have some time left on Acorn, here’s some stuff that’s new for July 2021.
I have, only this week, started watching the 2008 series Inspector George Gently. There are 25 episodes starring Martin Shaw and Lee Ingleby over 8 seasons. While they are more serious than the shows that have been mentioned, there have been laugh out loud funny moments in each of the episodes that I have seen. The characters of Gently and Bacchus are beautifully drawn and their byplay is very enjoyable. I assume, well at least hope, that the rest live up to the couple that I have seen.
We watched this on Acorn just a few weeks ago. Very good start, bogs down a bit in the middle but the last season is great. Bacchus was a great character, with his goofy hair styles, sideburns and fashion choices.
I’ll report on them when I finish. Knowing what I know now, I should have just used Acorn to watch the Australian/New Zealand shows and then switched to BritBox. The Brokenwood Mysteries from N.Z. is a must see. We also loved Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries, but the sequel with her grand daughter is just is just awful.
I actually put this on our list last night after seeing it while I was browsing the BritBox site. The plot looks intriguing.
I dont know what Britbox has to offer but Hamish Macbeth, about a police officer in a quaint, quirky fictional Scottish town is a very pleasant way to burn a few hours. Its got Robert Carlyle, who is always a good watch.
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