Rosemary & Thyme The Language of Flowers (2003–2006) Online

A clever script has the women following a series of horticultural murder clues found in a book describing various plants. They're on assignment to beautify and restore a rock garden with a cascading waterfall.

Trouble is that the revelation of clues is somewhat of a stretch, even for mystery fans who like their clues to be intricate. The fact that Death, Murder, Love and Vengeance are all found in the sort of plants that were used in the garden is a wild card. Nevertheless, FELICITY KENDAL and PAM FERRIS play their roles to perfection and make you believe that the unraveling of clues is possible.

As usual, production credits are all top notch and the performances are uniformly good in typical British style.

Have always adored detective dramas/mystery series. This has been apparent from an early age, half my life even, when getting into Agatha Christie through Joan Hickson's Miss Marple and David Suchet's Poirot and into 'Inspector Morse'.

Whether it's the more complex ones like 'Inspector Morse' (and its prequel series 'Endeavour') and anything Agatha Christie. Whether it's the grittier ones like 'A Touch of Frost' (though that is balanced brilliantly with comedy too) and particularly 'Taggart'. And whether it's the light-hearted ones like 'Murder She Wrote'. 'Rosemary and Thyme' is an example of a light-hearted detective mystery series and always gives me a lot of pleasures and banishes the blues when watching. It is a shame that it didn't last longer because it deserved to.

Can find not much to fault "The Language of Flowers", other than agreed some of the clues and how they're revealed stretching things a bit.

Visually, "The Language of Flowers" looks wonderful, beautifully photographed, vibrant in colour and as always with the show with a stunning setting, have always been envious of the gardens seen on the show. The music has a lot of charm with a main theme tune that is soothingly folksy that matches the whimsy of the setting appropriately.

The writing is engaging and suitably light-hearted without being frothy. Some of the dialogue for Laura and especially Rosemary is very funny. The story is suitably twisty, didn't predict the ending which was a surprise, without being convoluted, and is entertaining and with a relaxing vibe without being simplistic.

Similarly the characters engage, with Rosemary and Laura already being interesting and distinct in personality, and the chemistry between the two sparkles. Felicity Kendall and Pam Ferris are simply great, individually and as a sparkling double act, love Kendall's fire and feistiness and Ferris' more restrained and thoughtful approach. The supporting cast are hard to find fault with too.

On the whole, great. 9/10 Bethany Cox