एपिसोड #1.1

When property developer Carwyn Rees is found dead with a gunshot wound to his head. The police initially think it is suicide.

During the course of her enquiries, Detective Sergeant Janie Mallowan meets retired actor John Chapel (Timothy Spall) better known for playing television detective Caesar.

He tells Janie that Rees was murdered, observation based on his time playing a television sleuth. This is later confirmed by the medical examiner.

Now Janie teams up with a reluctant Jih to find the actual culprit.

Death Valley set in Wales shares elements with the other recent BBC detective show Ludwig.

Both have lead characters that are quirky with brains that are razor sharp. It mixes some comedy to the whodunit genre.

This was a promising first episode but maybe not quite out from the gates as Ludwig. This one felt a bit clunky in places.

I am so disappointed in most of the new stuff that's out and this was a great surprise. At first, I wasn't even going to watch it because I don't like much things these days. But this was so fun. Well acted and well written. I hope there are more of these. I do have to have the close caption on, and I sometimes replace things over again because of the Welsh accent. Being an American it can be hard. But this held my interest and I've watched it over again more than once. I haven't seen Timothy Spall in anything since Harry Potter. He is an excellent actor. I wasn't going to hang onto my BritBox subscription, but I am now.

I appreciate this won't be everyone's paned o de (cup of tea) but anyone that knows the Welsh people sod culture will love this.

Gwyneth Keyworth is a capable and likeable Welsh actress but seems to be thd same in most that she does but Timothy Spall is much the same (seeing him on a building site takes you back 40 years to when he was Barry in Auf Wiedersehen Pet) but brings great timing to thd show despite not being the humorous one.

There is humour here but it is the odd offbeat joke that leaves you laughing for ages.

Yes, it's low budget and the simplistic Welsh humour will not go over people's heads but rather under their belts.

Great to see Wales represented on mainstream peak TV after the brilliant The One That Got Away was hidden away on a lesser channel recently.

Silly but fun.

Local property developer Carwyn Rees appears to have taken his own life. DS Jamie Mallowan is running the case. She checks on Rees's reclusive neighbour, who just so happens to be former TV detective star John Chapel of 'Caesar' fame.

I'm a sucker for a Sunday teatime drama, and I could watch Timothy Spall in anything; the omens were good.

It turned out to be bags of fun, easy-going, light, and fluffy entertainment, the perfect drama to take your mind away from work on a Monday morning.

Of course, it's daft and a little over the top, but sometimes we just need a bit of that in our lives. There's enough of a mystery to keep it interesting, in a Father Brown kind of way.

I enjoyed Keyworth's bumbling character; she could easily have been in last year's Gavin and Stacey, along with Dave Coaches. Timothy Spall was terrific.

8/10.

Whilst I love the Cymru references and some of humour, the leading female is unbearably arrogant, ignorant and cruel, and, like other shows, these writers are very unaware of the reality of the housing crisis. In the first two minutes, a character is judged for still living at home when they supposedly have a house deposit - even with 10%, a single person would still need a mortgage of 9 times the average wage! Such talk is long out of date, since banks started taking two salaries into account, and of course there's often tuition fee repayments draining funds too. This show needs to learn from the similar McDonald & Dodds, who got the buying/rental struggles spot on for both younger generations and older divorcees, who can also find themselves with the same problem.

Best line of this debut episode was at the end when the female lead said 'You're an annoying sod' and got the reply 'Takes one to know one' - at least that was spot on.