Why do we find murder mysteries so uniquely relaxing? This is one of the age-old questions about human nature, up there with ‘what is consciousness?’ and ‘why do we keep eating mouldy cheese and fish eggs like it’s a good thing?’ Because, despite the grief and blood and mountains of paperwork that a gruesome murder causes, we simply can’t get enough of curling up on the sofa with a mug of tea and a cosy crime drama to keep us blissfully entertained all the way through to bedtime.

This isn’t a new thing, either: while modern series like Death in Paradise and Shakespeare and Hathaway are the current champions of cosy crime TV, back in the eighties and nineties classics like Murder She Wrote and Hetty Wainthropp Investigates taught us how it’s done. So whether you’re after the latest in the cosy crime genre or some more nostalgic viewing,...