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They are distinguished by impeccable style, an incomparable, if often old-fashioned atmosphere, excellent camera work and meticulous attention to detail. British detective series have long become a separate genre, and you can watch them more than once – especially on long cold evenings and cloudy weekends.
“Miss Scarlet and the Duke”
What’s a lonely girl to do in wicked old and very conservative Victorian England? Get married, like everyone else, and become a respectable housewife. But Eliza Scarlet rejects this path. After the death of her father, she continues his work and heads a private detective agency.
And since the world in this era is ruled by men, it is necessary to find a partner who would help make an exciting and dangerous business successful and recognized in society. So Eliza gets a partner – Scotland Yard inspector William Wellington, nicknamed the Duke …
“Pale Horse”
A series of mysterious murders, a list of names of victims in a dead flower girl’s shoe, a mysterious house with witches, ghosts and a handsome hero – all the ingredients of a detective story with a hint of mysticism are present and mixed in perfect proportions. Yes, the plot may be reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s novel White Horse Villa. However, even if you perfectly remember the denouement of the book, this is not a reason to deprive yourself of the pleasure of watching an atmospheric and beautiful series.
“Mrs. Bradley”
The 1998 one-season series was based on a 1929 book by Gladys Mitchell. Her heroine is an emancipated and independent woman, married three times, advised the Home Office and became a Lady of the British Empire. She can stand up for herself and is quite good at unraveling riddles. Costumes, interiors and the relationship of the characters – everything is thought out to the smallest detail.
The series is definitely worth watching for women, it helps to restore an easy attitude to life and self-confidence. And certainly distracts from the domestic routine.
“Father Brown”
There is very little left of Chesterton’s stories in the script – except perhaps the main character himself, but this is by no means a shortcoming of the series. Patera is played by Mark Williams, who is remembered by many as “Ron Weasley’s dad”. His partner on the set, Sorcha Cusack, plays the parish secretary, a conservative, not without prejudice, but generally kind woman, infinitely devoted to the priest and ready to take risks with him for the sake of the truth.
Impeccably honest in the main and inventive for innocent tricks, the father-detective manages at the end of some episodes to talk with the criminal in such a way that he is ready to repent and turn himself in to the police. It looks terribly cute and restores faith in humanity.
The series is very atmospheric: plunging into it, you literally move into the post-war English outback, and by the end of the last, seventh season, the characters become family.
Granchester
And again the main character is a priest from the English outback, and the action again takes place in the 1950s. Only this time, the father is young and handsome, and the detective stories are diluted with a love line, which definitely adds charm to the whole story. The series was filmed in 2014 based on the novel by James Rancy.
When serials pose a threat to the psyche
This TV project sets you in a romantic mood and makes you worry along with the main character – however, just a little, because this is England, and the passions here are very English, and the finale … However, we can do without spoilers.
“Murder Code”
Another translation of the title of this mini-series is “Bletchley’s Circle”: during the Second World War, its heroines worked in the Bletchley Park mansion, where the main cipher division of Great Britain was located. Having joined the ranks of respectable housewives and respectable ladies who had returned all the initiative to men, the heroines could not stand aside when society was shocked by a series of murders. The women once again work as a team, risking their lives and using their various talents to catch the killer.
The series will appeal to those who have good taste, appreciate an excellent detective story and are ready to join the investigation – the viewer is involved in solving the puzzle, providing the opportunity to make their own deductive conclusions.
Sherlock
A completely different era, but all the main advantages of the classic British series are available: atmospheric, excellent cast, twisted plot, humor and very good shooting quality – in this case, it is worth highlighting the camera work. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman need no introduction, but the supporting characters in the series are flawlessly chosen. Sherlock’s charisma is taken to the extreme – the result is a sociophobic hero who violates the rules of decency and laws, but is invariably charming – quite in the trend of the cinema of the XNUMXs.
The scriptwriters took the classic stories of Arthur Conan Doyle as a basis and shifted them to modern realities, changing the details of the plot. The result is a series of puzzles, and the viewer either experiences the joy of recognition, or is surprised at unexpected twists and turns.
“Death in Paradise”
The action of the series also takes place in our days and not even in England. However, police inspector Richard Poole arrives in a terrible outback – an island in the Caribbean – straight from London, taking with him British snobbery, specific humor and, of course, brilliant deductive abilities.
In the cold season, it is especially pleasant to look at the Caribbean landscapes bathed in the sun and watch the clash of two worlds and two cultures.
“Purely English Murders”
They say that when the next season of the series came out, the queen herself joked that it would be time to send more police to this Midsomer, otherwise something always happens there. In the fictional county of good old England, someone is really constantly being killed, but local detectives have successfully coped and caught criminals right from 1997 to the present day. The series, which for 20 seasons has retained its style, despite the change of main characters, remains popular both in the United Kingdom and beyond.
“Agatha Christie’s Poirot”
Few people have not seen this movie masterpiece, but you can review it many, many times. The most pleasant thing is to forget who the killer is, and again feel that very intellectual thrill, being included in a tricky puzzle, thought out to the smallest detail by the queen of the detective. The main character performed by David Suchet became the same textbook image as Sherlock Holmes performed by Vasily Livanov. His eccentricity subtly sets off Hastings, and the casting of all the other characters deserves applause.
By the way, plunging into the world of purely English murders and series about them, you can begin to notice familiar faces. For example, in one of the Poirot episodes, the young Sorcha Cusack, Father Brown’s partner, played.
Calling the series atmospheric is an understatement: it has magic – the details, the acting and the script come together into something special. It’s a world to look into… and not emerge until the last episode of the last season.
“Miss Marple Agatha Christie”
The previous version of the series about a typical English old maid with an atypical hobby – unraveling crimes and revealing the secrets of human souls – was filmed back in the 1980s. The image of a prim and slightly “frozen” old-time lady played by Joan Higson was replaced in the 2004-2013 series by a nimble and curious old woman with lively eyes and expressive facial expressions.
Despite the abundance of murders and criminals, the series, as, indeed, all those mentioned in this collection, surprisingly pacifies and sets in a positive way. The secret becomes clear, the mysteries are revealed, the criminals are caught – which means that life goes on.
“Partners in Crime”
Speaking about the series based on the books of Agatha Christie, it is worth mentioning this one, whose main characters – former special agents Mr. and Mrs. Tuppence – take up their old ways and are included in the investigation of a very complicated story about international espionage. Unlike “Poirot” and “Miss Marple”, this 2015 project has only one season, and it went almost unnoticed by a wide audience.
The series will provide a few pleasant evenings for those who respect Agatha Christie in all its manifestations, love moderately action-packed detective stories about spies and appreciate a stylized picture taken in accordance with the era.
Each of the series presented in the list can be an excellent “cinema therapy” for those who love high-quality British intellectual detectives. Enjoy watching!