I found this British television mystery series while tracking down the shows that Caroline Catz has been in. For those of you who watch Doc Martin (not a mystery, but a wonderful British television series) you will definitely know her acting style as exhilaratingly fun to watch. She brings a youthful, girl-next-door quality to her work.
Getting back to Murder in Suburbia. This British mystery series is set in the suburbs, and features two young detectives. Ash (Caroline Catz) and Scribbs (Lisa Faulkner) are both very competent detectives. Ash outranks Scribbs, but the only apparent rank-pulling is that Scribbs has the driving duty. They are both single, both looking for their Mr. Rights.
Ash comes from a very posh background, which includes an upper-crust British girls’ education. She is self-conscious and embarrasses very easily. The equally delightful Scribbs is street-savvy. She has a working class upbringing and is rather “saucy” – to say the least. (She does not embarrass easily!)
The show never explains how Scribbs and Ash became partners, but however it was, it works! The two women are friends, confidants, and working partners. Of course, being a police drama, they find time to discuss their cases. But a lot of the time they talk about their private lives.
Scribbs, it turns out, dates a lot. She is not necessarily picky, and many times is sorry about her choices of men. Ash, on the other hand, is very picky, only dates “eligible” men, and secretly hankers for her boss.
This show is fun to watch, and the mysteries are actually good. They don’t take a back seat to the inter-personal relationships. I strongly recommend Murder in Suburbia – both season 1 and 2.
P.S. >>> If you’re looking for two-dimensional characters, CSI type forensics, and gruesome mysteries, this series is not for you!
If you would like to see more TV and Movies suggestions, click here.
Joshua says
Thanks for the recommendation, Danna! I’ve added this to the top of my netflix queue. I just finished all the Rosemary & Thyme episodes and was looking for a modern set show with these qualities so perfect timing for me.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Joshua, we loved Murder in Suburbia. My husband doesn’t usually enjoy watching shows twice (the second time with our daughter) but he didn’t mind re-watching these shows.
Joshua says
Thanks Danna! Watched the first ep the other night and really enjoyed. Definitely my new one to watch.
Regina says
Danna, Do you have any idea what TV channel might carry that show. PBS? It sounds interesting. I don’t have netflix but my son does so I can ask him to get it if necessary. By the way in researching Donna Ball’s newest mystery, I found the Ladybug farm series. Not a mystery but a comforting read.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
I’m sorry, Regina, I don’t think they are showing Murder in Suburbia on any channels right now. The only other place I can find them is at Barnes and Noble, but of course, not to rent.
Kathryn says
Danna, I love “Murder in Suburbia”. In the same vein of comedic British procedural, I highly recommend “Pie in the Sky” with Richard Griffiths and Maggie Steed playing Henry Crabbe and his wife Margaret. Henry has applied for retirement from the Met in order to follow his hearts desire of opening a small restaurant but his boss, Assistant Crime Commissioner Fisher (Malcolm Sinclair) refuses to let him go completely. Fisher is totally incompetent and spends his days trying to get on the right committees and his picture in the paper. He may be a jerk but he isn’t an idiot. He knows that if Crabbe goes, his unit’s numbers of closed cases will plummet and there will be no more photo ops for him. Crabbe is put on a partial retirement so he opens the restaurant but must work on cases as they turn up. Of course, the bodies are found at the worst possible time for Henry but he seems to have a sixth sense for solving the crime so he can get back to his kitchen. The complete series is 40 episodes.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Kathryn, my husband and I enjoyed Pie in the Sky, also. Why can’t the USA put out quality shows like these?
Kathryn says
What I don’t get is why BBC America NEVER shows the best of Britain. All they show is Gordon Ramsey screaming and cursing at people and a decade of Top Gear. With a vault full of a bumper crop of BBC dramas and comedies that is all we get, with the exception of the much loved Dr. Who.
Laura says
Totally agree! I don’t get it either. Why show the worst of British TV when we Americans know there are way better programs?
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Kathryn and Laura, a few years ago I finally decided to stop even looking at the BBC America’s roster. What a disappointment that was! I had enjoyed shows like Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters. What a rude awakening when they went to their “new and improved” format.
linda c says
I agree with all of you concerning the BBCA. I think that network has totally missed why people here in the USA would want to watch this channel. I would want to watch this network so that just maybe I could see some TV programs from the UK. There are countless American programs. I love Star Trek, but I can get those reruns on the sy/fy channel. Give me something from the UK. There was a program that I watched last year at Christmas time that was called the ” Vicker” or something like that , that had a woman pastor. This was a great show. Give me more of that sort of programs on the BBCA!!
Melinda says
Vicar of Dibley – great show! Dawn French is the lead actress playing the vicar.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Melinda, I remember a show Dawn French starred in – Murder Most Horrid. Both shows were shown on PBS, and I enjoyed both a lot.
linda c says
I haven’t seen this “The Vicar of Dibley” at all this Christmas season. Shame!!
BB says
I rarely watch TV now (except the news and “Wheel of Fortune”), but used to like viewing the BritComs on PBS, e.g., “Are You Being Served?” (my favorite), it’s sequel “Are You Being Served, Again” (I think “Grace and Favour” in the UK), “Fawlty Towers,” “Waiting for God,” “Keeping Up Appearances,” “To the Manor Born,” etc.
I’ve laughed during some episodes till I nearly cried, but overall I think the humor is more cheeky and makes you smile to yourself.
Joshua says
Agree about BBCA! Mrs Slocombe and Mr Humphries are too of my favorite characters ever. I grew up watching most of the ones you mention, BB, on PBS. I wish we had some shows with zippy dialogue like those; they don’t seem much around anymore.
linda c – I think you must have seen Vicar of Dibley with Dawn French? They used to show that on PBS as well.
Did anyone like Clatterford (aka Jam & Jerusalem in the UK)? I watched it on BBCA a few years back and really liked it, though I felt like I might have been in the minority.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Joshua, I also enjoy these British shows more than the ones they show here in the USA. They are shows that I can revisit time and time again, and each time enjoy them as much, if not more.
I tried watching Clatterford but it just didn’t click for me. I just looked at the Amazon description of it, and think I will give it another try. Maybe I was in a bad mood when I tried it, since I can identify with the Amazon description of “Fans of Calendar Girls and the many productions of French and Saunders (creators of Absolutely Fabulous) will enjoy Clatterford”.
(Clatterford was recommended by Barbara – here on the comments – who enjoys a lot of the same television shows that I do, so I was surprised that I didn’t like it that much. I’ll definitely try it again.)
BB says
Ahhh…”Ab Fab”…now if it were a book, would definitely NOT be “cozy.” LOL
Danna - cozy mystery list says
I know, BB, definitely NOT Cozy – but it was still very funny sometimes!
BB says
Yes, and some of the bizarre twists! Oh, my (like the flashback where it was revealed Patsy got a “temporary change” in Turkey?)!! My favorite scene in the series was the one time Eddie stood up for Saffron and gave the professor (?) the “what for” for getting fresh with Saffron. My favorite episode was when Eddie was dreaming about a bizarro world where everything went smoothly and Bubble was the model of efficiency. Remember that one?
Danna - cozy mystery list says
BB, I remember Bubble and her efficiency problem. That was one crazy secretary! (As far as “bizarro” world>>> Eddie’s ordinary day was just that!)
BB says
Well, we’ve lost our Captain Peacock. 🙁 Died in his sleep Saturday at age 92.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
BB, thanks for telling us about Are You Being Served?‘s Captain Peacock.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Linda C, Joshua’s correct. That would be The Vicar of Dibley. I loved that show. They actually showed it on PBS (I think) several years ago. (I remember not caring for the very last shows they had, I think they were specials.)
linda c says
Thanks Danna and Joshua, That is the title of the show. I loved it. Too bad there aren’t more TV shows like that one. The jokes are funny. The Christmas show was a really good one.
The one TV Christmas episode that I really like and couldn’t get enough of was the Christmas episode of “West Wing” where some homeless guy is found dead in a park in Washington D.C. wearing “Toby’s” coat. What “Toby” did to give this homeless veteran a proper funeral and the reaction of the presidents’ secretary (can’t remember her name) to it was simply what Christmas is all about, to me anyway.
When this show was on reruns I would watch this each and every Christmas time. Loved the show. The kids’ choir singing “The Little Drummer Boy” during the ceremony at the cemetery for the veteran was just an added wonderful thing. I will always remember that episode.
Give me more shows like “West Wing” and I will watch network TV more often.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Linda C, you’re welcome!
linda c says
Danna, I would have loved to have been able to see this episode of “The West Wing” this year too. Oh well!! Maybe in my next life!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
BB, I used to watch Are You Being Served? and then the Are You Being Served, Again? Also, Fawlty Towers, Waiting for God, and Keeping Up Appearances (which was my absolute favorite). I tried watching To the Manor Born, but I wonder if I didn’t ever get into it because my husband watched it with me… and he wasn’t at all crazy about it. Have you tried As Time Goes By? That’s a show I watched alone, and then tried it with my husband, only to be surprised that he liked it A LOT. It is one of our favorite shows – his and mine.
BB says
Well, I’ll just reply to myself because there’s not a “Reply” link under Joshua or Danna’s posts. LOL
Joshua, Mr. Humphries and Mrs. Slocombe were my favorites, too (although I also liked Mr. Lucas’s snark). How can anyone not watch “Sexy Knickers” without ROFL? Speaking of ROF, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard as during the episode of “Fawlty Towers” when Basil had to stuff Manuel into a basket. I think that was the one where they had the dead body and the health inspector came and they had to drag the body all over the place. Surely poor Andrew Sachs, who played Manuel, would go home with bruises all over him. These were two shows that incorporated physical humor – I think an unusual method back then for BritComs.
Danna, yes I did watch some of “As Time Goes By.” I think I would have liked it better if I’d seen the first two or three episodes that set up the series and saw all of it in order. I also watched most of another series Dame Judi Dench did much earlier – “A Fine Romance.” It had it’s moments, but seemed rather depressing. I liked most of “Keeping Up Appearances,” but eventually dropped it because most of the shows had the same theme. I liked best the rare one where Hyacinth’s husband stood up to her. Rose was my favorite character. Oh, and did you see the Fig Newton commercials a few years ago that Josephine Tewson who played Elizabeth did? I kept thinking “she looks familiar” and it finally dawned on me who she was. BTW, I thought the Vicar was very cute. 😉
And, finally, speaking of vicars, I watched some of “The Vicar of Dibley” but was rather surprised at one episode.
Another BritCom I began viewing was “Last of the Summer Wine.” Ran for so long it was like a comedic soap opera. Unfortunately, some/many of the good British series only last a few seasons. I read that they take the view of quality over quantity – what a different perspective than most American shows!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
BB, I know exactly what you’re talking about with those doggone “Reply” links. I just had my husband fix that low reply limit (which I didn’t know could actually be fixed) and he has increased the amount to ten reply levels. Here’s hoping that works! I wanted more, but ten is the maximum this computer system thing-y will allow.
On to your comment….
I totally agree with you about watching As Time Goes By out of sequence. I tried to catch a few episodes when it aired on PBS, and didn’t like it AT ALL! My husband and I tried to watch A Fine Romance, but weren’t able to finish the series. We stayed with it longer than we would have because we watched it after As Time Goes By, and kept thinking it would improve. It didn’t.
The Vicar of Dibley had a few really good seasons. At the end, though, it became a bit much. I stayed with it because I love Dawn French, but I must admit I didn’t enjoy the last few “specials” they had.
BB says
Please tell your hubby “thanks” for adding more replies – we’ve got a really good conversation going! 🙂
I agree also about watching a series in sequence (and reading in sequence). The story(ies) just generally flow better and make more sense. I saw the anniversary special of “To the Manor Born” first so it was a bit strange watching the preceding episodes later.
Pat says
We loved Pie In The Sky. I hated that it came to an end.
Tori Lennox says
Murder in Suburbia is one of my favorites! I just wish they’d had more episodes!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Tori, I agree with you about Murder in Suburbia being a really good show, and also about what a shame it is that they only made so few episodes.
Susan J says
It came on BBC America several years ago and I really enjoyed it.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Susan J, I haven’t looked at BBC America for several years. The last time I did, it seemed like all they were showing is something about treasures in an attic, and a whole lot of cooking reality shows. They went the way of the A & E channel…
Mary Joy W says
Danna, my sister gave me this series for my birthday a few years ago and I loved it. It was just my “cup of tea” and the only negative thing I can say is they should have filmed more than two seasons! So much fun, so cozy!
Anne says
I loved Murder in Suburbia. It was just great. Why can’t America put out these kinds of shows, indeed. I just started watching Call the Midwife on PBS on Sunday nights. It is not a mystery but delightful as well.
BBCA has lost the mark as well as A&E and a lot of others. I’m just not in the mainstream demographic I fear.
Regina V says
I have found “Murder in Suburbia” in my local library and will pick it up next week. My husband is off to Turkey so I can watch it without any comments from him.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Regina, as much as I enjoyed Murder in Suburbia, I think I’d rather be going to Turkey, and then watching it later! I know what you mean about watching a show without any comments, though. Actually, in my house, I’m the one always commenting.
Edie Dykeman says
I hadn’t heard of Murder in Suburbia but will definitely check it out. I’m a huge fan of British mysteries and enjoy watching new characters and shows. Thanks for the heads-up.
BB says
Danna, do you think you’ll be updating the TV and Movies section soon? A few months ago I sent a few suggestions – under my real name and e-mail.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
BB, I still haven’t posted all of the entries I have written for the TV and Movies page, but am going to try to get them done soon. I am also way behind on adding new authors to the site, which I have been working on. I probably should only focus on one thing at a time, that way I would be more efficient.
Nan says
I’m so pleased you wrote about this! Wonderful show. I saw it years ago on dvd and was happy to see it is on Netflix Instant now. Of course I put it in my queue to watch again.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
It’s a terrific show to re-watch, Nan!
Karen says
I love all the British mystery/detective/police dramas so I hope we see Murder in Suburbia in Australia. Sounds similar to another British detective drama series called Scott and Bailey that I enjoyed… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_%26_Bailey
Another good show is New Tricks, about a team of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Tricks_(TV_series).
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Thank you, Karen, for telling us about Scott and Bailey. I will have to go take a look at this series.
As for New Tricks, it’s one of my favorite shows.
Carol says
I just discovered Rosemary & Thyme in my local public library. They had all 3 seasons. I’m lucky that my library has a very large DVD section and lots of British programs. That way I can watch them in sequence.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Lucky you, Carol! What a treat for you to be able to get all of the Rosemary & Thyme shows from your library.
Melinda says
If anyone is interested, Carolyn Catz is on DCI Banks (Peter Robinson) this season. Not sure if she will become a regular cast member after the other woman comes back after maternity leave.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Melinda, thanks for telling us about DCI Banks. (I’m not familiar with it.)
Gayle says
Because of the comments about Murder In Suburbia, I found a great new series to watch. Too bad there were only 2 seasons. I enjoy the British comedies, dramas, and sci-fi such as Dr. Who. I can watch Rosemary and Thyme over and over. I also watch Midsomer Murders. I am hoping to find more Murdock Mysteries …CSI in the Victorian Era.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Gayle, I wrote about the Murdoch Mystery television series, and wanted to tell you that there are actually two different productions of Maureen Jennings’ mystery series.
Alix F. says
Greetings. I just watched ‘Murder in Suburbia’ and adored it and I was so sad when the 12 episodes were over. I just discovered your terrific blog and feel I have found my “cozy mystery” tribe. Thank you!!
PS — I totally agree about BBC America. So disappointing! I first expanded my digital cable package years ago so I could possibly get shows like ‘Jonathan Creek’ here. Here and there they run a few new things, but I am BAFFLED by the Star Trek Next Generation (great show, but I watched it in the 90s). Do they feel it works for their programming since Patrick Stewart has been knighted? 😉
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Alix, I’m glad you found us. I think we have a terrific group of Cozy Mystery readers – who are very generous with their help. I really do love this community feeling.
Isn’t Murder in Suburbia a wonderful show? Those two actresses are simply adorable, and they interact so well together.
I don’t even know what the BBCA’s line up is. We simply don’t use it anymore. I want to say it’s been on a downward spiral for five-ish years. (I cannot believe Star Trek Next Generation is being played on that channel!)
Christa says
Also enjoyed a Touch of Frost (couldn’t believe how many episodes and seasons there were–fantastic!), Rosemary & Thyme, Midsomer Murders, Downton Abbey. I have Netflix streaming and Amazon Prime so am perusing as many as are available. Just started Wallander–sort of dark and edgy for my taste but has good reviews so I’ll watch a few to see if I “cozy up to it” so to speak. Can’t wait to try Murder in Suburbia. As a genre, British TV mysteries are in a class by themselves–it’s an excellent export. What’s interesting is that the actors/actresses seem to show up in all the various mystery shows!
Christa says
P.S. I know Downton Abbey isn’t a mystery per se, but it’s classic “Great House” British TV and fun to watch.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Christa, I know Downton Abbey has a lot of fans out there. For some reason, my husband and I found that it got a little convoluted for us. (I know we are in a very small minority on this show.)
Jim says
I’ve watched Murder in Suburbia so many times that I put away the DVDs so I can forget who the murderer is. With only six episodes per season there wasn’t enough time to develop long term story lines. I’d love to see a tv movie based on the series. Caroline Catz is so dour on DCI Banks. She needs to hook up with Scribbs and get her “ASH’ back.