You won't be disappointed!

Powerful

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

I loved Mayo, and I was saddened it was so short lived. It wasn't the best show ever to grace my screen, but a thousand light years away from being the worst. What I loved about Mayo was that it was funny and addictive, very like New Tricks in some way. One or two of the secondary characters were a little stereotyped and one or two episodes are a little slow to start with, my only problems with Mayo, but what did compensate was some very funny and intelligent writing, interesting plot lines and very good lead performances from Alistair McGowan, Huw Rhys and the gorgeous Jessica Oyelowo. Plus the music and photography were quite excellent. Personally, I think Mayo should have lasted longer, it may have had one or two problems but if given a chance, like I think it should have these problems could have easily been rectified. 9/10 Bethany Cox

My wife and I loved this show. It certainly deserves a DVD release of the series. It was smart and witty, not only in dialogue but visually as well.Even to a male the wardrobe variety of the main female lead was something to amuse and savor. Always she looked really good. Her quirky relationship with Mayo was something quite beyond cliché and held one's fascination by never being adequately explained.Mayo's grammatical pedantry was brilliant in an age which no longer pays attention to such matters. Indeed, writers seem to go in the opposite direction just to follow the mob.Shows of this quality are unfortunately very different and very rare. Please let's buy the DVDs.

Other have mentioned some of the merits of this witty, often funny mystery. It isn't deep, dark and gut wrenching. It IS light, well written and has a fine cast.But, there is something seriously familiar about the cast and characters. Here's what I mean. There is the (relatively) handsome male lead and the gorgeous female lead. They are backed up by a long-haired (shaggy) male who provides a lot of the comic relief and a short, dark- haired, bookish, glasses-wearing, female. The team travel around in a large van solving mysterious deaths in out-of-the-way places.The only thing missing is the dog.Freddie, Daphnie, Shaggy and Velma?No... there aren't ghosts and glowing, algae-covered sea Captains rattling chains, but I would bet a bucket of Scooby snacks that the people who created and cast this fun show are real fans of Scooby Do, Where Are You?And, if you watch these shows with that in mind, it becomes even more entertaining.

The latest ratings stinker from the BBC, Mayo attracted me to watch it just because of the sheer critical mauling it was getting from all the critics and reviewers. It seemed that this series was not only a dog, but the type of dog that everyone was queuing up to gleefully kick. The basic concept seems to be about a, wait for it, collection of unorthodox detectives led by the unusual Inspector Mayo. So each week we get a different case that the team take on with a light sense of humour, lots of goofing around and a sharp sense of deduction.I watched a couple of episodes to see if it was worthy of my attention or worthy of the kicking and very quickly could see all the things that the others must be hammering it for (although it probably isn't as bad as everyone says). The problem with it is just how very derivative, unimaginative and lazy it all it. It seems to be trying to repeat the many successful "quirky" detective shows but do it in a sort of ironic sort of way. However it isn't any good just by doing this and indeed if this approach does anything then it only succeeds in undercutting the value of the material, leaving me wondering why I was supposed to be interested in or amused by these characters. The cases lack any tension or excitement and the focus is very much the "humour" of each episode.Sadly I didn't find it funny so much as, well, inane and grating. The script is clunky and lacking energy so even reasonable gags just fall flat. The cast don't help this at all. McGowan is a fine impressionist but as an actor he is all at sea here. You can see why he was cast – his style does suit the material, but this isn't of any value because the material doesn't work. Outside of this he has no ability to get to grips with his character and bring anything of interest out. His team are just as weak as he is – Bealsy, Rhys and Oyelowo are too basic and just seem to be hanging in there until the next lame line comes their way. The occasional guest stars don't do anything to help either, mainly because the tone and material is all over the place.Overall then, a silly, poorly structured and pointless entry in the "quirky TV detective" genre. It isn't interesting, the cases are dull and the attempts at jokey humour mostly fall flat and, at worst, are embarrassing. With so many good cop shows on television there are many that are much better than this; for the love of God, Monk is on various channels all the time – even repeats of that series are of greater value than this.