TV's substitute sleuths

Morse is dead, Frost and Poirot have all but retired and Inspector Wexford is unlikely to be back again.

ITV is facing a great detective drought as its sleuths age, writers give up the ghost and it runs out of books to adapt for television.

Frost and Poirot - two of the network's biggest ratings draws - are due to make only occasional appearances in the coming years, while Wexford is in mothballs until Ruth Rendell writes another mystery involving him.

To fill the void, a new generation of detectives will be introduced to viewers later this year, with ITV investing £10 million in the programmes.

Peter Davison, best remembered for his stint as Dr Who and as Tristan Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small, is to play 'Dangerous' Davies, the frequently drunk anti-hero of Leslie Thomas's books.

Portraying a downtrodden, middle-aged detective, Davison is being seen as taking on the mantle of Frost star David Jason. However, unlike Frost, Davies is a former policeman turned private eye.

The first film will be called The Last Detective and is based on the book Dangerous Davies and the Lonely Heart. Filming begins next month.

In 1980, ITV made a two-hour film based on the Dangerous Davies character, starring Bernard Cribbins.

Cribbins said of the character at the time: 'He's inept, a terrible dresser, certainly not James Bond. Some people are bound to compare him with Columbo because of his grubby raincoat - but he's not as intelligent.'

The casting of Davison represents a major upturn in his fortunes. He had been living in a small flat in North London and complained that he was short of money following his divorce from actress Sandra Dickinson.

But he impressed critics, audiences and ITV executives with his performance in the recent drama At Home With The Braithwaites.

Meanwhile, Amanda Burton is to take on the role of Crown Prosecutor Helen West, the heroine of the Frances Fyfield books.

It is likely to be one of the highest profile shows of the autumn season.

Miss Burton, one of Britain's highest paid actresses, will be filling the void left by the end of Prime Suspect with Helen Mirren.

The Inspector Morse mantle is to pass to former EastEnders actress Michelle Collins who will star in Lloyd and Hill, a series about two police officers.

Her co-star will be Philip Glenister, currently in BBC1's Clocking Off.

The 90-minute films will feature complex plots similar to Morse's, although Lloyd and Hill will enjoy a sexual chemistry which Morse and his side-kick Sergeant Lewis obviously did not.

An ITV source said that Lloyd and Hill was seen as a Morse replacement, following the character's death in November last year.

Poirot's spats, meanwhile, will be filled by actor Michael Kitchen in Foyle's War. David Suchet last year made a return to the Agatha Christie role after a five-year break and two further films are planned for this year.

But ITV is to offer more of the same kind of period detective work with Foyle's War, which is set in Second World War Sussex.

The final new detective drama destined for the autumn schedule will star Douglas Hodge as a Crown Prosecutor and will be called The Law.

An ITV source said: 'There is obviously a need to find new ways of satisfying the public who love detective stories such as Morse and Frost.'

There is a possibility of one more Touch Of Frost this year but Yorkshire Television said that no plans had been confirmed.

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