Everyone loves a good murder mystery right? I know I do. The thrill of the clues puzzle, the mental processing of the facts and then the guess. That guess is why so many of us sit down to watch a series where ever more bodies piling, ever higher in the streets of many a city in this blue pearl. THE CHELSEA DETECTIVE is one such series. Set in London’s Chelsea, it sees DI Max Arnold (Adrian Scarborough) and his partner Priya Shamsie (Sonita Henry) tackle the bourough upper, middle and lower class crime spree. He is just getting over a complicated divorce, she, a baby that has her rushing back to the job and the bloodied streets.

Now there are 4 episodes that we saw of this series. The opening is a hotch potch of religious fanaticism and murder. Working like a nightmare, this episode avoids any of Chelsea minimal economic poverty and instead jokes with us about the dodgy types who try and fail to get one up on Arnold. He lives on a shabby houseboat on the Thames, which makes sense as he is a copper and not earning the millions needed to live just yards away. The second episode, sees Priya having to gauge a literal race for the police and the naughty things happening in a local restaurant. This episode is a high point in a mixed series. Its both well structured and builds some rather dull character traits. Episode three is average and becomes rather tepid. A man is stabbed to death on the gleaming streets of Chelsea and the two have to dig deep to find an answer. Well why wouldn’t they.  The final episode delivers and keeps the quality with a who dunnit about an academic and his life of grime. It dispenses with character and instead aims at giving us a classic murder mystery but never fully lands this.

As I age, seemingly rapidly, I feel that shows like this are both ten a penny and worth hunting out. I say this because I have seen a bunch and THE CHELSEA DETECTIVE is a better than average series. Though that is like saying that one chocolate bar is tastier than another, this first season shows glimpses of something worth fleshing out further, Yes, it has slightly well worn red herrings and some zippy narratives but it delivers. Greenlit for a second season, that might be the one where they find gold!