Death Valley review – Timothy Spall’s quality new detective drama is a cosy, witty joy

It’s like Midsomer Murders with jokes, or Rosemary and Thyme – but good. This fun new murder mystery bounces along with verve. It’s a cut above

By some curious dint of mathematics, one of life’s greatest pleasures is coming across something that is just a little bit better than it needs to be. It’s such rarity, such a treat – and to pessimists, such a shock to the system – that it becomes disproportionately, though still genuinely, delightful.

Such a phenomenon is Death Valley, a new Sunday night comedy drama in which an amateur sleuth helps the police solve crimes in a bucolic village – usually English, this time Welsh – with an astronomically high murder rate and a suspect under every gooseberry bush and felt hat. So far, so Gently cum Midsomer cum Marple cum Agatha Raisin cum pull-up-a-chair-and-a-teacake-and-enjoy.

Death Valley was on BBC One

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/vcruOfN

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