Every corner of England looks enticing if you watch PBS and their imported shows from BBC and other British producers–particularly mystery shows. (mouse over map to see what county or area is featured.)

SHERLOCK, the contemporary take on Sherlock Holmes, teases us with images of today’s London in the VERY SHORT (3 episode) seasons.

SELFRIDGES, although the longer running series about a popular department store is not a mystery, it takes us through several decades of commercial London and cuts across various social levels.

INSPECTOR LEWIS (and its forerunner Inspector Morse) lures us to the charming university town of Oxford, west of London.

GRANTCHESTER, with its hard-drinking, mystery solving, sexy young priest, does its best to lure us to rival university town Cambridge, north of London.

DOWNTON ABBEY, another non-mystery show that has been seen by just about everyone, has just about everyone yearning to rent a manse in the green, green moors of Yorkshire in northern England.

LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX , a love story rather than a mystery, shows us a contemporary Yorkshire right in the middle of inland Yorkshire.

FOYLE’S WAR takes us back in time to World War II and to the  south coast of England for more charming villages and bucolic scenes. Several counties were used as settings, including Sussex, Surrey, Dorset,, Hampshire and Kent.

DOC MARTIN ignites a passion for the rocky cliffs, green fields and flower-filled quaint villages of Cornwall in the southwest.

VERA

And now along comes the mystery series VERA, intent on dragging us all the way up northeast–almost to Scotland– to her stomping grounds in Northumberland.  According to the tourism folks, the show has done a terrific job of increasing the number of visitors to this chilly if scenic part of Britain.

I may be influenced by her wonderful first name :-), but Vera Stanhope, Detective Commissioner Investigator (or DCI as we fans call them) strikes me as one of the most interesting of all the English mystery solvers.

She is never outdoors without an overcoat and long wool scarf, and usually a waterproof hat. Indoors, she is rarely without a flagon of ale–unless more staid setting demands a cup of tea–either of which one would think would be needed to warm up after those windy forays outside.  Her somewhat frumpy middle age is rescued from plainess by big, soft, brown eyes.

Her demeanor is winning, going from sympathetically calling a suspect “luv” to barking insults at her crew if they don’t respond quickly enough to her commands. When she gets down to seriously questioning a bad guy, you know this is someone you would not want to mess with!

But about that constant coat and wool scarf–Northumberland is definitely not going to be a fun and sun vacation. So what is the draw? Dramatic landscape, crashing waves, endless vistas, castles and Hadrian’s Wall.

The series is based on books by Ann Cleeves, and Northumberland’s tourism blog explains how you can follow in Vera’s footsteps in an article on literary travel.

What have I missed? Have you seen other English TV that makes you want to travel?

Darn that PBS/British television partnership for making us want to travel all over England!

 Disclaimer: I have included some links to Amazon here, in case you’d like to buy CDs or download some of the programs. Although it costs you no more, when you shop through my links, you are helping A Traveler’s Library, because I am an Amazon affiliate.