Mayo

I made these comments to the BBC drama site just in the hope.

Mayo is currently being replayed here (in Australia) on ABC. I missed most of the original showings but made a special effort not to miss the replays.

As it is one of the best shows I have seen on television, I have just investigated the length of the series and any further series.

I was horrified to find that only 8 episodes were made. Is there any possibility of further episodes being made? Is it possible that a DVD will be released?

I am sure many others before me have pointed out what makes this program so good. And I am equally sure that you know what makes most programs available for viewing so appalling.

As far as I can tell from comment sites it seems there are just not enough thinking television viewers left on the planet. Therefore, I guess, we are stuck with all the 'loud', 'confrontational', 'realistic' programs which seem to be the norm these days.

What a pleasure it was to watch today's episode with its clever repartee and subtle humour.

Maybe people are just too involved in the so-called reality programs to truly appreciate the quirky attrbutes of this show, but it was so short-lived it could not possibly have been given a real chance at success. Pity. Some have likened it to the Scooby Doo crew -- and they're right. Some have found it a bit trite, and they're right. But it was damned good fun and I'm glad I found it on BritBox.

My wife and I loved this show. It certainly deserves a DVD release of the series. It was smart and witty, not only in dialogue but visually as well.

Even to a male the wardrobe variety of the main female lead was something to amuse and savor. Always she looked really good. Her quirky relationship with Mayo was something quite beyond cliché and held one's fascination by never being adequately explained.

Mayo's grammatical pedantry was brilliant in an age which no longer pays attention to such matters. Indeed, writers seem to go in the opposite direction just to follow the mob.

Shows of this quality are unfortunately very different and very rare. Please let's buy the DVDs.

It appears I'm one of the few who found this TV series - called "The Gil Mayo Mysteries" in Australia - to be addictive and entertaining. No, it's not "Dalziel and Pascoe", but perhaps it's more 'The Last Detective' with a twist. However you define it, it's an acquired taste, and obviously not everyone's cup of tea. Whatever, I love it, and am saddened by the news that a second series is not to follow.

On the surface, the combination of wise and droll boss, with pretty, but quirkily-dressed side-kick, accompanied by klutzy young Welsh dude and cyber-nerdy-girl-trouble-shooter seems a trifle familiar, and even clichéd. Heck, I love a good cliché, so long as it's well done, and for me, this series is well done. It's improbable, yes, but I don't watch TV for reality - if I want reality I can step outside my front door.

I enjoy it for that which is expected - like Mayo's fastidious attention to correct grammar and pronunciation, or the next 50's hair style of Alex's (who in their right mind would go to such bother just to go to work?), or Mayo's daughter's next indication that she's more an adult than anyone else in the story? You'll love it or hate it, but one should see it just for the experience alone.

Those who have knocked this series have merely proved that they simply are so unused to being required to look beyond the surface (despite The Simpsons) in a television programme that they are no longer capable of seeing the joke.

This is a surreal world with real world concerns, a joke at the expense not only of English stereotypes, but of the very concept of detective drama. It is never intended that you should believe that the four central characters would, in the real world, be ranking police officers. This is an alternative universe where forensic pathologists hang about in a police caravan (which appears, as if by magic, at the scene of the crime) with detectives and comes up with a detailed analysis without ever entering a lab, and the West Midlands contains a street full of old school friends who speak with thick Lancastrian accents! What this 'unreal' setting does, as is the case in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, for example, is to free the writers to use the characters to gently mock those traits which so painfully reflect our own idiosyncrasies (repressed emotion, ebay addiction, our inability to escape those social conventions which we know to be ridiculous, all come in for laser accurate mockery that is nevertheless affectionate and always acknowledges that when a finger is pointed at anyone, there are three more pointing back at us.

The central characters are lovingly crafted by writers and actors, the 'jokes' are subtle and knowing, and the series greatly rewards those prepared to look beyond the focus and read between the lines. It's a work of pure television heaven that sadly may be cast into the outer darkness because it does not appeal to the lazy viewer who, despite its public service credentials, the BBC seems so desperate to attract.