The Inspector Lynley Mysteries

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
DVD cover of Series One and Two
Genre	Crime drama
Created by	Elizabeth George
Starring	Nathaniel Parker Sharon Small Lesley Vickerage Catherine Russell Paul Hickey Shaun Parkes Emma Fielding
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	6
No. of episodes	23 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Ruth Baumgarten
Producer(s)	Sally Haynes
Running time	90 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC One
Picture format	16:9
Original release	12 March 2001 – 1 June 2008
Website

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries is a British crime drama, broadcast on BBC One from March 12, 2001, to June 1, 2008, encompassing six series and a total of twenty-three episodes. The protagonist, Detective Inspector Thomas "Tommy" Lynley, 8th Earl of Asherton (Nathaniel Parker), who is assigned to Scotland Yard, finds himself paired with Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers (Sharon Small). In addition to the tensions involved in solving murder cases, the series thrives on the characters' clashes regarding personality, gender, and class, as Lynley is dapper, male and a peer of the realm, while Havers is untidy, female and comes from a working-class background.

In August 2007, the BBC announced its intention to stop production of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. Fans of the series mounted a campaign to save the series with a petition and contacts to the BBC, but to no avail. All six series have since been released on DVD, distributed by Acorn Media UK.

All episodes from the first two series and two from the third are based on novels by the American writer Elizabeth George, though the plots and characters are often significantly altered. Later episodes are original stories for television based on her characters. The theme music for the series was composed by Debbie Wiseman. The first episode, A Great Deliverance, was broadcast on March 12 and 13, 2001, becoming the only two-part episode throughout the series run. It was also based on the inaugural Inspector Lynley novel. The first full series began broadcasting on April 8, 2002, with the first episode based on and named after the third novel, Well-Schooled in Murder. The first eleven episodes were based on, and named after, the eleven Inspector Lynley novels published from 1988 to 2001, beginning with the inaugural novel A Great Deliverance, but subsequently departing from the print sequence. Eight more novels have since been published as of 2015.