C.B. Strike

Tom Burke and Holiday Grainger are a stand out team in what could easily have been a tawdry run of the mill Detective trawl.

Cormeran Strike is a lovable mess of a reinvented down at heels gumshoe. The pacing manages too drag the fashionable locations and characters into the gutter along with him, humanising them all in his search for the truth over the death of a model.

There is an endearing quality to this show which so readily could have been destroyed by bad casting. Ignore any opinion drawn from knowing the writer. Approach with a fresh face. Definitely a good first outing for Strike.

'Strike: The Cuckoo's Calling' is on the Poirot-Marple-Midsomers branch of the mystery tree with its irresistible stars in the lead roles, its slow but never time-wasting character developments, its high-on- thinking and low-on-physical-violence story, and its beautiful camera work. If you like all of the above features and a good, escape-for-an- hour mystery, please watch this. J.K. Rowling wrote the book and I'm glad that the British television peeps had the great good sense to bring this to us as beautifully as they did. I hope they make more.

I have just watched 'The Cuckoo's Calling'. This is a great take on the hard on his heels private investigator gets an opportunity story. JK Rowling's content is as well written as a John Grisham/Agatha Christie with the added frisson of cool London locations and culture. I particularly like the casting of Tom Bell as the rough-round-the-edges sleuth and the engaging Holliday Grainger as his ever so capable assistant; they are both so watchable. I look forward to the next series (and for any critics of this series yes I am perfectly happy to overlook any plot holes).

I really enjoyed watching this show. Each series within the series had a new mystery bringing about a need for great investigative instinct to solve the mysteries presented. The episodes were complex with twists and turns along the way. Watch this when you have the time to really listen to the dialogue or you will miss a clue or two along the way. At first blush and thereafter this is not a glamourous role for the co-stars, but they have tremendous screen chemistry. The only disappointment was the series was too short. This all takes place in England and shows the real streets of downtown as well as the English countryside. A nice mix of cinematography along the way.

I'd already read the book, but Strike as portrayed was more convincing than my own prior vision.

You get a nice range of people in one limited slice of London, as well as a series of puzzles that get solved.

They improve the ending, giving a better excuse for the murderer doing something I can't detail without giving away the plot.