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The lack of suspense is killing me!

August 19 | our TV junkies

Call me a nanna if you wish, but one of my favourite crime shows on TV at the moment is Midsomer Murders (ABC, Sunday, 8.30pm).

In fact, I love all those British cop shows – A Touch of Frost, Dalziel and Pascoe, Kavanagh QC, Cracker, Prime Suspect.

Sadly, I’m forced to watch most of them on Austar because our free-to-air network programmers obviously think the glitzy American series have more viewer pulling power.

Midsomer, for those who haven’t seen the show, is kind of like the English equivalent of the Blue Heelers’ town of Mount Thomas, with a murder rate to rival the crime capitals of the world.

Under its pretty, picture-postcard veneer, Midsomer is a seething mass of secrets, affairs, lies, grudges, incest and fraud.

You wouldn’t want to live there, but it’s a great place to visit for an hour and a half every Sunday night.

Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) and his offsider Sergeant Troy lack the hi-tech widgets and futuristic forensic testing techniques of their American counterparts in CSI and Law & Order.

They don’t have glamorous blonde sidekicks in pristine white lab coats to help them solve their crimes, nor a cast of bikini-clad, suntanned extras. In fact, the average age of the residents of Midsomer – including the murderers – is around 60.

What the show does have going for it is credible characters, great plotlines, beautiful English scenery, an earthy charm and plenty of suspense.

My plea to our free TV networks is to bring more of these excellent British shows to our screens.

Law & Order and the numerous versions of CSI now seem to be on seven days a week. C’mon, networks Nine and Ten – even the most diehard fan can have too much of a good thing!

How about giving us substance over style and switching some of the American rubbish for the best of British?

And on that note, I’m off to put my ear plugs in and my sleeping mask on to enjoy a little nana nap …

— SUZANNE KEEN

Who makes a better cop show - the English or the Americans? Let us know which crime shows you rate and which ones you hate.