So there’s a new Hercule Poirot on the way. Young Poirot tackling some of old Poirot’s cases with a recurring enemy… Sigh. I don’t hear good things about the new Tommy and Tuppence series either. And… checks,,, yes, there’s a new Miss Marple series on the way too – probably involves her as a teenager or solving mysteries on the St Mary Mead space station or some such nonsense.

I know this is the Christie money train chugging along the track but surely there must be alternative crime fiction that could be adapted without throwing everything that makes the character who they are.

Before I launch into who I would like to see, let’s see who I don’t think would work. I asked on Twitter (not calling it X) and BlueSky who should get an adaptation, and Ronald Fagarazzi, the expert in Golden Age adaptations, suggested a few. While I agree with one of them – in the list below – I don’t see that adaptations of Freeman Wills Crofts, E C R Lorac or John Rhode would set the TV schedules alight. Basically the stories of a single investigator plugging away at a case until it’s solved… TV these days needs something extra. The same goes for Paul B’s suggestion of Inspector Knollis.

But without further ado, here are my ten suggestions. I’ve tried to pick series that have a hook, a little something extra to bring to the screen. I’ll waive the finder’s fee, just an Executive Producer credit will do…

The Joe Plantagenet Mysteries

Let’s start with the series set in the present day. I was thinking that the Wesley Peterson books would be an ideal number one choice – a black police officer in Devon, coupled with historical flashbacks for the archaeological themes – but the darker supernatural themes of the Plantagenet series would make ideal Sunday evening television. Something a little different but still familiar. Mysteries where there is a supernatural element, but still involve proper detection – good for a scare in the Sunday evening ITV slot.

The Ethelred & Elsie Mysteries

Time for a bit of a laugh, and I imagine there would be actresses falling over themselves to get the chance to bring Elsie Thirkettle to life. Clever mysteries, smart humour and a winning double act would surely bring viewers in. L C Tyler’s double act would seem to be perfect for television without any serious tweaking.

The Lake District Mysteries

So far what has been missing from these picks is a female lead character. The Lake District mystery series by Martin Edwards provides that, pairing DI Hannah Scarlett with historian Daniel Kind, providing intriguing and complex cold case mysteries, beautiful scenery and a well-paced will-they/won’t-they romance.

Obviously, I could easily have included the Rachel Savernake or the Harry Devlin books – the former could be expensive to do the period effectively.

The Joseph Spector Mysteries

I’m a little torn on this one, because with only four books to date, they could run out of material quickly and unless Tom Mead starts plotting the new episodes, there could be a fall-off of quality – look at The Marlow Murder Club series episodes that aren’t based on the books, for example – but there are a bundle of short stories that could be used as inspiration. Recreating the Golden Age theatre world, though, could be expensive…

The Gervase Fen Mysteries

On to the actual Golden Age now and this is the suggestion of Ronald’s that I can easily get behind, due to the nature of the lead character. Inspector French, for example, is something of a plodder, but Gervase Fen is a treat to read about, and there’s an element of the over-the-top in a number of the plots. While there’s not an awful lot of source material, these would be very entertaining tales, in the comic period drama style of the Peter Davison Campion adaptations, for example. Could work very nicely.

The Anthony Bathurst Mysteries

Well, obviously I was going to go here, wasn’t I? I did have a meeting once with a producer who was interested and wanted some background info – it wasn’t me pitching, just to be clear – and inevitably there were a few changes suggested. Nothing major, bar giving Bathurst PTSD, but the range of mysteries were what drew the series to their attention. Nothing came of it, as far as I know, but with a small central cast – Bathurst and MacMorran, with possibly Helen Repton – and a back-catalogue of fifty-three books to draw on, and a charming lead, blissfully ignorant of the various women falling head over heels for him, strikes me as a formula that could work well.

The Sir Henry Merrivale Mysteries

You could just as easily replace this with the Gideon Fell mysteries by the same author, John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson, but as I prefer Merrivale, I went in this direction. Some of the finest locked room mysteries ever written with a dose of humour. You could even nick some Fell titles if you start running out. There would be a problem with some of the books where Merrivale’s presence is minimal, like The Magic Lantern Murders, but I don’t think there would be the impetus to necessarily do all of the books. I imagine it might be useful to add Ken and Evelyn Blake to the cast so there are some younger regulars but it shouldn’t be too hard.

The Brother Athelstan Mysteries

I was thinking which of Paul Doherty’s series would work best, or whether Mike Jecks’ Templar series would be a smarter pick, but the Athelstan have a larger central cast and a (mostly) static location of St Erconwald’s parish. You’d probably want to bump up Athelstan’s impossible love-interest, Benedicta, to create a third regular, but a combination of impossible crimes, large body counts and a group of parishioners for some comic relief. The budget of re-creating the fourteenth century might be an issue…

The Washington Poe and Tilly Thrillers

Back to the present day with my favourite thriller series – not going to say much, but as per M W Craven himself at the launch of The Killer’s Mark, this may well be moving forward already. I worry though about getting Tilly right though…

The Logan MacRae Novels

Tartan Noir is catnip to TV producers, but so far there’s been no sign of Stuart MacBride’s “hero” making the jump to the screen. Dark thrillers with a strong line of dark humour, along with the role-of-a-lifetime for one actress – who wouldn’t want to play the foul-mouthed DCI Roberta Steel? And you’d even get a spin-off eventually…

Other Suggestions From The Internet

Well, mostly from BlueSky – people seem much chattier about books there than on ex-Twitter. Sara Woods’ Antony Maitland series got two mentions, admittedly one from Dean Street Press, who also suggested Moray Dalton. Correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t think there’s enough recurring characters in Dalton’s books – and if there are, they aren’t memorable sleuths. As for Woods, I tried the first book but it didn’t click. Anyone want to suggest one to try?

One suggestion from BlueDragonLandlady sounded fun – Simon Mason’s DI Wilkins series, set in Oxford with a mis-matched pair of Dis, both, apparently, called Wilkins. Might have to take a look at this series.

UncleRobin suggests the Lane Winslow series by Iona Wishaw, set in postwar Canada, so that’s one for Canadian TV. Simiarly, it would be overseas TV for the Botswana-set Detective Kubu by Michael Stanley or the Bangalore Detective Club by Harini Nagrenda. I do appreciate these being raised as suggestions – I wasn’t aware of any of these series, and may well look into them sooner or later. I know, I’ll put them on the Christmas list…

So, there you have it, TV execs – a whole bundle of hit TV shows ready and waiting for you. Just stick my name somewhere in the credits, and we’re golden.

And you, dear readers – what other series do you think need to be brought to the screen?