The British Are Coming...the British Mysteries are Coming!!!

by Ruth Carroll

Missing your favorite British Mystery series???

A&E t.v., BBC America not airing your Brit-picks anymore??

The British Mysteries Are Here!!!

About a year ago I noticed a sudden dearth in televised English mystery series.For a long while, on any given night one could find an evenings programming dedicated to these savvy sleuths. Whether it was A&E t.v's "Poirot", or BBC America's Monday night "Mystery Mania" featuring my personal favorites, "Waking the Dead", "Wire in the Blood: or Robby Coltrane's crusty "Cracker". Unhappily these brilliant series were being edged out by mind numbing reality shows, without any explanation to their loyal, viewing fan base.

After months of their absence, I visited both the A&E & BBC America's mystery links on their websites, only to discover other disgruntled mystery night fans blogging away my exact sentiments! "Why had the networks terminated these classy shows"? Whatever their subtle reasoning was, it all boiled down to "viewer demographics", & sadly it appeared that the British Mystery series was no longer the hot import on the block.

Enter Netflix...

I'd signed up for this amazingly efficient DVD website. At first glance, I was seduced by the utter convenience of Netflix, not to mention their roster of rare foreign and trendy Indie films. It wasn't until a few weeks ago I was running a search for a friend on actor David Suchet, that I stumbled onto his entire "Poirot" mystery series. Soon, it became quite intoxicating revealing other Brit mystery episodes I thought to be "out of circulation", or unavailable in the U.S., full stop. I discovered that one of my favorites, "Midsomer Murders", shot on location entirely in the beautiful Buchinghamshire countryside, was still under syndication & recent episodes were availalable via Netflix. The list went on, classics like, "A Touch of Frost", "Prime Suspect", "Rosemary & Thyme", not to mention a compendium of all the episodes of "Inspector Morse", with the incomparable John Thaw.

Now my Netflix queue is full to the max with a tantalizing mix of Brit mysteries & more...all that would make any hardcore cineaste pea green with envy!