Armchair Detectives

I don't watch hardly any daytime TV, apart from Father Brown, but this intrigued me, as a big fan of Murder mysteries and suspense stories, I found the premise quite interesting. When you think back to Whodunit from the Seventies and Cluedo from the Nineties the format works. It's a good afternoon distraction, the best thing I've seen Susan Calman doing, to be fair to her she adds the entertainment. The mysteries themselves are naturally nonsense and everything is very woolly and mainstream, but that's the whole point.

So it's not Whodunit or Cluedo, but it's been an enjoyable few weeks watching it. BRING CLUEDO BACK :-)

Watchable fun 7/10

I really enjoy this series - I didn't see the earlier version of this, so for me, this is a new format and I like trying to guess or work out what happened. It may not be of the highest sophistication in the way of the best crime drama but it's not supposed to be and I live Susan Calman as the host. I look forward to watching many more episodes in the future.

Wow but this is possibly the worst thing I've seen in 10 years. You would have to be at the loosest of loose ends to watch this more than once. A wishy-washy whodunit format with a mumsy tone. Three 'enthusiasts' are presented with flimsy clues in order to guess the ID of the murderer. If they guess correctly they win a golden magnifying glass ("ooooh!") The acting is dreadful, the clues largely silly and the motives for the murders mostly ridiculous. Susan Calman has a game attempt at stringing the whole mess together but it does not move beyond a series of chuckling, witless exchanges and finally the revelation of the murderer - by which time anyone with an ounce of intelligence would have switched off or busied themselves with something else. This is pap aimed at people trapped at home in the daytime - no doubt to punish them for a lack of imagination. I cannot believe they made so many of these - it is truly the nastiest, cheapest, dumbest type of television!

Armchair Detectives is a slow burner. Each episode a new crime case is investigated by the team of DI Knight, DC Slater and SOCO Simmons. Set in the fictional town in Mortcliff (the eagle eyed will recognise various spots around the East Lothian coast) the format is playful and pulls the audience in. It took me a few episodes to understand the game-play element of the show, but it's ever so slightly addictive. I love crime drama and this feels like a cult hit in the making.

This is easily one of the best programs on the BBC at the moment. I've watched the show from the very first episode and take great delight in trying to solve the murder along with the armchair detectives themselves. You can play along at home by taking notes and putting the clues together in order to answer the question of "Whodunit?" The cast is also really good, with Stephen Billington as DI Knight, Roger Nsengiyumva as DC Slater, and Sarah Baxendale as SOCO Simmons. Susan Calman does a fantastic job as the shows presenter, she doesn't know who the killer is so also plays along with the three armchair detectives. If you get the chance you must watch the show, it really is one of the best shows on the BBC, hope they make another series next year. Without doubt a great show that will keep you wanting to watch till the very end. You would have to be completely unimaginative and lacking any patience (prylands-389-567480) not to appreciate it.