''Mayo'' is a British television

detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...

-comedy series, adapted from the ''Gil Mayo Mysteries'' series books by Marjorie Eccles, first broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

on 12 March 2006. The eight-part series, produced by

BBC Birmingham BBC Birmingham is one of the oldest regional arms of the BBC, located in Birmingham. It was the first region outside London to start broadcasting both the corporation's radio (in 1922) and television (in 1949) transmissions, the latter from th ...

, starred Alistair McGowan as the titular character, alongside

Jessica Oyelowo Jessica Oyelowo (née Watson; born 1978) is a British actress and singer. Early life She was born Jessica Watson in Ipswich and spent her childhood in Suffolk, England. She attended Woodbridge School as a child and was a member of the National ...

, Huw Rhys and

Louise Brealey Louise Brealey (born 27 March 1979), also credited as Loo Brealey, is an English actress, writer and journalist. She played Molly Hooper in '' Sherlock'', Cass in ''Back'', Scottish professor Jude McDermid in ''Clique'', Gillian Chamberlain in ...

. The series was developed by Simon Booker, and directed by Metin Huseyin, Jonathan Fox Bassett and Fraser MacDonald. The series was filmed on location in and around

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

. Each of the eight episodes were based upon one of Eccles' novels, aside from the final episode, which was an original story for television by

Joe Ainsworth Joe Ainsworth is an English screenwriter. He has written 150+ episodes of the British soap opera ''Brookside (television programme), Brookside''. Career He has also written for ''The Lakes (TV series), The Lakes'', ''Mayo'', ''Merseybeat (TV series ...

. McGowan provided additional script dialogue for all eight episodes, and was also heavily involved in helping produce the series. Notable guest stars throughout the series run included former ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

Sylvester McCoy Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith (born 20 August 1943), known professionally as Sylvester McCoy, is a Scottish actor. Gaining prominence as a physical comedian, he became best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the lon ...

and actress and singer

Paloma Faith Paloma Faith Blomfield (born 21 July 1981) is an English singer and actress. Her debut studio album, ''Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?,'' was released in 2009 and was certified double platinum in the UK. The album spawned the sing ...

Cast

* Alistair McGowan as Detective Inspector Gil Mayo *

as Detective Sergeant Alex Jones * Huw Rhys as Detective Constable Martin Kite *

as SOCO Harriet 'Anorak' Tate *

Lucy Evans Lucy Evans (born 26 May 1985) is an English actress best known for playing the role of Lauren Wilson in '' Coronation Street'' from 2007–2008. Other roles include that of Debs in ''Mile High ''Mile High'' is a British television dram ...

as Julie Mayo

Broadcast

The series aired at 20:00 on Sundays, with the first episode drawing almost 4.5 million viewers. Across the series, no further viewing figures were recorded. The series broadcast in Australia on

ABC1 ABC TV, formerly known as ABC1, is an Australian national public television network. It is owned and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is the flagship ABC Television network. The headquarters of the ABC TV channel an ...

in mid-2008, and was repeated on 7Two in 2011, under the pseudonym ''The Gil Mayo Mysteries''. On 23 March 2007 McGowan confirmed that ''Mayo'' would not return for a second series. McGowan commented on the series axing; "It was taking its time to find its feet, and by the end, we knew what we were doing. But sadly, decisions are made on the first episode, and we definitely didn't hit the ground running. We learnt how to make a very good programme and we were all really surprised and very disappointed that we didn't get another series. It is sad."

Episodes

References

External links

* * *{{IMDb title, 0757108, Mayo 2000s British drama television series 2006 British television series debuts 2006 British television series endings BBC television dramas Detective television series English-language television shows