By this stage, you may feel you've had enough of "cosy crime", said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian, a genre that has been rather overdone lately.
But this six-part series, set in 1946, is a standout pleasure (on U&Alibi). Mark Gatiss – who created and co-wrote the series – stars as Gabriel Book, an antiquarian bookseller with brilliant crime-solving abilities. He has performed some heroic but "mysterious" service during the War, and carries a letter from Churchill which grants him permission to take part in police investigations.
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As a veteran of "Sherlock", Gatiss has form with detective drama, said Carol Midgley in The Times. This one is so full of genre clichés, it shouldn't work: but he is brilliant in it, and the dialogue – particularly between Book and his wife – is superb. The show has "depth, wit, campness, a gorgeous 1946 aesthetic – and dark bite". What's not to like?
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