Robson Green names his favourite on-screen detective duo ahead of new BBC drama

Grantchester's Robson Green will be back on our screens next week in new early-afternoon series The Northumbria Mysteries, kicking off at 2pm on Friday, 23 October.

The show will pair his ex-convict gambler Joe Ruby with an Oxford-educated detective played by Unforgotten's Liz White.

It's the latest in a long line of crime dramas that follows the tried and tested formula of having two main leads. But as far as Green is concerned, who is the ultimate detective duo?

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"My favourite were Starsky and Hutch," he said, referring to the main characters who fronted the classic 1970s show.

"I met Paul Michael Glaser, who played Starsky, in the Caribbean which was amazing. Like Joe and Rose, they would look out for each other and have each other's backs."

The cast also reminisced on some of their favourite whodunnits from across the decades, with Green stating: "I love puzzles and solving things, like playing cluedo. There used to be a series called Whodunnit on ITV in the 70's - it was like an interactive show where you'd have to guess the motive and the clues and a narrator would go through it."

"I have been watching quite few of them over the last couple of years but at the moment I am particularly enjoying Ludwig series 2," White said.

"David Mitchell is fantastic at riding the line between comedy and drama. I'm thrilled there will be a third series of that."

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"I do love a whodunnit! They're definitely a British institution," Gurjeet Singh added. "And we have so many iconic detective characters and duos. From Luther to Broadchurch, Death in Paradise to Vera.

"But I think one of my favourites has to be Sherlock and Watson. I loved the Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman Sherlock series."

Co-star Simon Callow said he wasn't "addicted" to whodunnits, but does enjoy watching them. He cited things like the "stylish and fiendishly clever" 1934 film The Thin Man as his favourites.

The Northumbria Mysteries begins on BBC One on Friday, 24 October at 2pm on BBC One and iPlayer.

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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.