Two British detective series compared

Inspector Morse was one of the most popular detective series ever made in Britain. it has a lot going for it too - a lovely location, excellent classically trained guest actors in every episode and - perhaps its greatest asset - the brooding presence of the excellent - and, sadly, deceased - John Thaw. However, when I bought the series and started to watch it again, I fould it unsatisfying.

Just one incident illustrates the series' shortcomings. In the first ever episode, Morse visits a woman who is reading Oedipus Rex. Soon after, she is found dead. Later again, Morse has a brainwave and announces that he knows who has killed the woman - it was Sophocles. Whereupon Lewis asks "Are we goin' to arrest this Sophocles bloke then?"

The patronising way in which Lewis's character is drawn as a well-meaning yokel is typical of the of the series. It is too Agatha Christie - that is to say, too old-fashioned and genteel. There is very little blood or gore - not a failing in itself but, with all the other elements, it makes for a series that is nice to look at but basically formulaic.

By contrast, in Waking the Dead, when the hero, Boyd, makes a remark about Oedipus, everyone in his team knows what he's talking about and Grace, the team psychologist, simply says "very witty".

The series concerns cold cases - lie the US series of that name, which it pre-dates (and probably inspired). Boyd is simply my favourite police character in book or film. Brilliantly played by Trevor Eve, he has just the right mix of real heroism and nastiness. He has lots of demons (the lack of a stable relationship is, perhaps, a cliché for detective heroes but there's also his missing son). He can be a control freak and a bully towards his team, even though he is ultimately loyal to them. He is ruthless and sometimes violent towards suspects (my favourite is when he invents a twin brother who died of lukemia at the age of 12 in order to manipulate a witness into giving confidences). Some of his jokes are gloriously tasteless (when an unidentified and dessicated corpse is recovered and Grace suggests that it deserves the dignity of a name, he suggests "crispy duck").

There is a wonderful brooding mood about the series - not least in the low-lit office suite where the team works. The stories are set mostly in and around London and cross all sections of society - from the wealthy to the homeless and abused. As with Morse, many well-known, classically-trained actors appear as guests. It merits comparison with Cracker (my second-favourite) in terms of the grittiness and balck humour but it has more style.

Sadly, the last episode aired just a few weeks ago but the first nine series are available on DVD. If you like detective series, you MUST buy them! You will watch them more than once.