The Coroner

Nice detective type story, but this time as the title indicates the investigation is led by the Coroner Jane Kennedy (Claire Goose) although she does work closely with local police in the person of Detective Sergeant Davey Higgins (Matt Bardock).

Jane has just recently returned to her childhood home from London with her 15 year old daughter Beth, and in her role as coroner investigates violent or unexplained deaths to determine the cause. Through these investigations she has become reacquainted with Davey her now married childhood sweetheart. Rounding out the regular cast is Jane's mother Judith with whom Jane and Beth are currently living, Judith's boyfriend Mick who runs the local pub and Clint who is Jane's assistant.

This episodes are primarily about the investigation but there is also time given to family dynamics and usually some humor, the episodes run about 45 minutes each. It's a nice group of characters, the investigations are usually interesting, and the cause of death is not always murder. The series ran for two ten episode seasons.

Another strength of the series is the beautiful backdrops of the South Devon coastal locations.

The first problem is I do not understand their Coroner system and they don't explain it. I like learning from British shows. The second one is that this is only 2 seasons! I wanted a couple more. The scenery is lovely and more current than some British shows. The characters are humorous and subtle at the same time. I like the fact that the violence is a lot less than in other shows and it is more intellectual, as if you were solving the murder/death yourself. I'd live in that village any day.

Another one bites...the dust....much too soon ! Seems....the plug gets pulled...on the entertaining ones...before they are fully grown. Few programs even hit their stride....in under three season. This one was never given a chance. The characters...were still developing. The Jane.... Davey...relationship was just getting underway...! Where....was it going to go ??

I really love this program. It feels like summer-time bottled. I really hope there's another series. I was watching these compulsively until I checked and saw only ten episodes, so slowed down to savour them, like a good book or delicious wine, not to be gulped down.

The views and scenery are beautiful. There's an ease about the whole thing. I love the relationships; people are so civilised! What a relief, I get so tired of depressing - supposedly grown-up realistic telly where basically everyone is just a self serving nasty piece of work.

I enjoy the relationship between between the mum and her partner; all he has to do is raise an eyebrow mischievously and I smile. The plots are good. I like the relationships between all the characters. I like the constant sexual frisson between the main two, but they're not at it all the time like dogs on heat, they've managed to translate it into friendship. There's no complications with the police officer's wife moaning and bitching at him constantly about his emotional unfaithfulness. We don't even know if he has kids, which I love because it makes it able to focus on the main characters and story - which I love ( in case you had missed that I really love this series), instead of getting into loads of depressing nonsense about people's grungy messy jealous untrusting grabby relationships, when I wander why they bothered getting together in the first place.

So to sum up; a light, airy delicious fantasy, with attractive intelligent funny people in a beautiful setting where it seems to be always summer. There are miserable sods, but they are well contained and don't contaminate everything with their psychotic yukkiness.

So please can we gave more of this, I love it.

The Coroner is one of those lightweight but entertaining mystery/crime dramas the UK excels at.

Reminiscent of series such as Midsomer Murders, this mystery/crime drama taps into the notion of "polite crime", made famous by authors such as Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle.

Death is done "nicely" with socially respectable people going about their "who dunnit" business of solving crime in a picturesque seaside town. The main lead is a latter day Sherlock Holmes, a coroner who, with the help of her local police counterpart (with whom she shares an almost romantic connection) uncover the causes of deaths bought to her attention.

As is almost always the case with UK series of this kind, the acting is right on the mark. The characters are convincing, if a little clichéd, and carry their respective roles well. I have enjoyed The Coroner so far and plan to keep on watching. Seven out of ten from me.