Picture the scene, there's been a horrific murder in your town, you don't know what to do - thankfully the police are here. Oh, but one of the detectives is acting like they don't have a Scooby Doo what's going on.
That's the ingenious premise behind Netflix's excellent Murderville, a murder mystery comedy that's nearly all improvised with a new celebrity detective (and Will Arnett's hapless Terry Seattle) trying to crack the case each week. I devoured every episode of it. It was chaotic but also brilliant, and I'd recommend the episode featuring American Football player Marshawn Lynch as essential viewing (and there's even an awesome feature-length Christmas special).
What you might not know, however, is that the streaming service has just added the show that it's based on, Murder in Successville, a hidden gem that originally aired on BBC Three back in 2015.
Tom Davis (who has since become a bit of a movie star, shining in Wonka) plays DI Sleet, a gritty detective who calls on a new celebrity partner each episode to solve the latest murder in the town of Successville. It is this 'town' that provides the main difference between the two shows. While Murderville is a kooky place, it is a town populated with largely normal residents, that's not the case here. Successville is a town solely home to celebrities (played by a talented team of impressionists), complete with a sweary Gordon Ramsay (not the actual Ramsay) as the chief of police. Check out a clip below.
Much like its bigger budget Netflix original cousin, things can get pretty messy and off-topic but Davis is a very charismatic lead who's game for anything. He's happy to go along with any shenanigans or tangents, but come the end of each episode, when the rookie detective is tasked with accusing someone of murder, there's genuine logic to each narrative. A show like this is best when you play along and there are clues big and small to help armchair detectives.
If there's one problem with this incredibly goofy good time is that it can feel a bit too UK-coded. That wasn't a problem given its original BBC home, but good luck explaining who Adrian Chiles or Chris Kamara are to US viewers.
