Episode #1.1

Finished up "Mdsomer Murders" and the new version of "Dalgliesh". Randomly thought I'd check this out. Kept my interest with a story that had a nice flow building up to the ntense revealing ending.

Very strong casting of the stunning lead Sally Lindsay as Jean White. Little problem with the same supporting characters popping up everywhere Jean goes like clockwork. Also, Jean just meeting Dom Hayes (Steve Edge) literally hours ago forming such a close bond so early was farfetched.

The charm and intrigue were woven together superbly. Wasn't sure if this was my cup of tea but it won me over. I'll definitely continue watching looking forward to the second episode.

Jean White receives a visit from The Police, informing her that her husband Rory, has been in an accident and died in France. Jean jumps on a plane and tries to find out what happened to her husband, she instantly hears unwelcome news.

A thoroughly enjoyable first episode, no wonder it is now in its third series, it's truly wonderful escapism.

This first one is charming, light, entertaining and funny, introducing the characters so well. Sally Lindsay as always is wonderful, I adore her talents, what a down to Earth, likeable actress, she's great. Steve Edge and Sue Wilderness are both very good.

Lovely location work, if looks terrific, it's enough to make you want to jump on a plane.

8/10.

If you are looking for high drama, move on, if you want a light hearted little series sit down with a cuppa and let it wash over you.

It's a fine story, set in the sun, predictable characters and easygoing easy to follow scripts.

Episode 1 is brilliant - a well paced start in this ongoing mystery arc. I was expecting self-contained episodes, which we do get in later seasons, but this format worked well in the beginning as the 45 minute format is a bit tight for weekly combining crime and non-crime stories.

However this initial standard soon runs out of steam - the second half on this debut run has a very different feel and falls into the same trap as Brokenwood Mysteries et al - the plots become predictable with so many LGBT 'twists' that are not a surprises any more. Worse still, the focus becomes so fixed on sex-lives that there's nothing much new to figure out mystery-wise in the first season's finale. As much as I love Paul O'Grady , especially his doggy show, this inclusion really felt like a box-ticking, celeb appearance filler, and the time should have been put into something more relevant to the earlier style. Unfortunately, the Sainte Victoria youngsters were also uninspiring and later seasons are better without them, and the other departed characters - sometimes less is more.

Thankfully the first Christmas Special was absolutely fantastic, followed by a mixed bag of more one-off stories in the next seasons.

... would be suitable comments if these were scripts presented at a creative writing course, but for a program on prime time TV then "amateurish bordering on juvenile" would be nearer the mark.

Mrs White (nobody actually calls her Mme Blanc) arrives in a sleepy French village to sort out the affairs of her recently deceased antiques-dealer husband. To the amazement of the local police, she fairly quickly determines that her husband was poisoned by a serial-killing art thief on the hunt for a valuable ring that her husband had found in a local flea market.

Impressed by her sleuthing skills and encyclopaedic knowledge of antiques, the local police captain puts her on the payroll to help solve the many art-related crimes in the area (and, of course, find the serial killer).

Mrs White doesn't speak French but that's ok because everybody in the village is either an ex-pat or speaks English with an "Allo, allo" accent (with the notable exception of the female police constable whose dialogue has to be subtitled to remind us that we are indeed in France and not Bexhill-on-sea).

Notable among the ex-pats are Robin Asquith (playing his usual role as a dimwit in French farces) and Susan Holderness playing "Marlene" to Asquith's "Boycie".

Each episode follows a similar format: 1. A cattle-prod reminder that the killer is still out there 2. A ludicrous mystery involving a missing or misidentified masterpiece 3. "Character development" of one of the locals 4. The burgeoning romance between the local ex-pat taxi driver and Mrs White (who seems to have gone through the 5 stages of grief before titles have finished rolling)

In order to cram all this into the 40-minute run time, the mystery has to be solved pretty sharpish and so the clues are dropped like bricks with luggage labels attached (or 1 clue, several bricks).

I couldn't decide between a 3 (awful) and a 7 (but a cheery alternative to the relentlessly downbeat dramas that fill the other channels) so I settled on a 5.