Art Detectives: Series 1 – DVD Review
By Karl Hornsey, December 2025
In the rather overcrowded field of detective dramas, and especially those of the ‘lighter’ variety, it’s not easy to come up with something original, entertaining and appealing to all. So, I was pleasantly surprised to come across the first series of Acorn’s latest release, Art Detectives, which is now available in this DVD release. Even more pleasing – series two has already been confirmed, so fans of this shouldn’t have too long to wait for more of their fix. For now, there are six episodes to binge, and it’s an easy binge with each episode being relatively short.
Stephen Moyer takes the lead as DI Palmer, who heads up the Heritage Crime Unit, responsible for investigating murders and thefts in the shadowy world of priceless art, working alongside DC Shazia Malik, played by Nina Singh. So far, so good, but what sets this series apart from so many others of the lighter genre is that it avoids the obvious, sometimes painfully obvious, trap of creating too many distractions from the actual detecting.
Yes, we need to fill in characters’ background and care about them for a series to work, but the formulaic ‘chalk and cheese’ pairing, or characters hiding their troubles has been done to death, no pun intended, so it’s refreshing that that has been avoided here. There’s back story and some family members come into play, but nothing that distracts from some interesting cases and storylines, and the balance is struck very nicely indeed – not too heavy and serious, but no silly distractions that lessen the intelligence of the script.
“Familiar faces”
The supporting cast, as always, is important in making a series work, and the likes of Larry Lamb and Sarah Alexander are regulars here, with a whole host of cameos from the likes of familiar faces Pearce Quigley, Patrick Robinson, Emma Fielding, Jason Hughes and John Thomson to name but a few.
As for those storylines, there’s something nicely cerebral about the world in which they take place, with the death of a millionaire obsessed with the Titanic disaster, and the smuggling of a Viking hoard from a prehistoric grave among those to stimulate the viewer, with just enough plot twists and turns to keep you on your toes. The only minor quibble is that sometimes the episodes could be a little longer, but that’s probably more a sign of simply wanting there to be more content and make the experience last longer as well, rather than something that ruins the plots, but this is a great start to a series that will be around for some time to come.
Art Detectives: Series 1 is released in DVD by Acorn Media
Karl’s love of writing was piqued at the age of eight, when he won a Blue Peter badge in an essay-writing competition. The location of said badge might be a mystery now, but the memory never fades. Hours spent writing about sport as a teenager, in pre-internet years when you had to make your entertainment, honed his skills, and Karl has worked in TV and radio listings at PA Media for 28 years, and the age of hybrid working means 50% of that can be at home listening to Classic FM and thinking about his next visit to his beloved Yorkshire Dales.
@KarlHornsey, hornskar
