Do you think there are too many detective shows on TV? I’d answer no, as long as they’re good, but then I’m biased. However, I’d like to point out that an enthusiasm for crime and mystery-based drama is hardly a new phenomenon.

My OU film history course has just taken a detour into radio, due to the symbiotic relationship between movies and radio in the early 20^th century. Many Hollywood movies were translated into radio shows, often featuring the original cast. I have to say, though, having listened to a half-hour adaptation of The Maltese Falcon, that the practice might not always have made good entertainment. Even with Humphrey Bogart.

Despite this, as thrillers were so popular in Hollywood movies of the 1940s, so they became a dominant genre on American radio. It was estimated that in 1945 the number of mystery and detective stories on the radio averaged more than four a day!

Something to mention to your partner this week when he or she complains of the Sky box being filled up with dramatisations of Ann Cleeves and Sophie Hannah novels in the same week.