Sleuthing sheep, Young Sherlock and a new Poirot: how amateur detectives took over our screens

From the Sherlock Holmes spin-offs to The Sheep Detectives, DIY sleuths are on the case all over TV and cinema. But where did the trope of the outsider who outsmarts the professionals come from – and how do these depictions compare to reality? On Television you don’t have to be a cop to solve crime; the police can just hire you as a consultant. All you need is the uncanny ability to solve each and every mystery in time for the next episode. You might be a retired detective (Monk, Ridley, the many Poirot spin-offs) or a bestselling mystery writer (Murder, She Wrote, Castle) or a vicar (Grantchester) or a convicted fraudster seeking redemption (White Collar, Wild Cards). You could be a faux psychic (Psych, The Mentalist), a human lie detector (Lie to Me), or a private investigator (all the Sherlock Holmes adaptations and spin-offs, and Shonda Rhimes’s The Residence). Or even, in the case of Death Valley, a retired actor widely known for playing a detective on TV). The trope of the “consultant”– a hyper-talented investigator who isn’t part of the police, but teams up with them to solve crimes – is widespread, so much so that the pop-culture website TV Tropes gives it its own page: “ No badge? No problem! ” But recently the evergreen character has enjoyed a boost. Continue reading...