TV Crime Series.

I like CSI NY best of the three series. The characters have changed too often in the original Las Vegas series. I agree that Stephen Tompkinson is wrong for DCI Banks - I still think of him as the outrageous reporter, Damien Day, in the late lamented Drop the Dead Donkey.

I like the CSI programmes, except CSI Miami (is there a worse actor than David Caruso!). I have recently taken to watching Burn Notice. Law and Order UK is another favourite. Bones, Mentalist, Monk, NCIS and Dexter.

Homeland, if that's considered a crime series...well, it's terrorist crime so I guess so. I can't bear to watch at times, it's so tense!!

I like a lot of American series such Hill Street Blue, The Mentalist, The Closer, N.Y.P.D and The Shield etc. Monk is a favourite too.

As for British series I tend to go for the gritty ones such as Cracker, Rebus, White Chapel but I do like Vera.

A lot of the British ones might have good stories but they can be a bit tame and sometimes the acting can be a bit wooden, the scenes too not very realistic.

merlot you're right about DCI Banks, Tompkinson is too 'pained' in it.

Lewis, Midsomer (I think Neil Dudgeon is excellent), New Tricks; they'll do for me. The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries was good, too.

We like the really gritty ones like Whitechapel. I loved Morse but Lewis plods along too slowly. Scott and Bailey are great and Midsomer Murders is good for a laugh but I preferred John Nettles to the new bloke.

We have read all the DCI Banks books but don't like the TV adaptations. Stephen Tompkinson is all wrong but I can't think who I'd like to see in the part instead.

Hi harvatt, I quite like Lewis, because I know Oxford well and I enjoy the locations, but I'm not that sure about the many bodies in each episode. One murder is seldom enough for them! I liked Vera, again because of the setting, and I enjoyed those two female cops in Scott and Bailey. If we're talking 'international' - I was absolutely hooked on The Wire (which had Dominic West in a starring role). And not forgetting Commissario Salvo Montalbano!