The Great Detective - Murder in Sepia

This episode: Murder in Sepia - A photographer with a passion for Victorian erotica is found dead in his locked dark room. The local coroner registers the death as heart failure but Inspector Cameron suspects foul play. In order to prove his theory, Cameron must learn the rudiments of photography. From Season 2.

This Canadian Broadcasting Company series ran from 1979-1982 and starred Douglas Campbell as Inspector Alistair Cameron, the Provincial Detective. It is a period series, set around 1890. Though the Inspector resides in Toronto his jurisdiction is outside the city, covering the remainder of the province. While neither as cerebral nor as innovative as Sherlock Holmes, the Great Detective is reminiscent of him because of the similar societal setting and the limited technology. That means Cameron relies on deduction rather than force or advanced techniques and therefore, this is a family-friendly show. It has little violence and the Victorian setting ensures little or no foul language and no explicit scenes or innuendo. Based on the memoirs of the first real-life detective in Ontario, Cameron does not investigate run-of-the-mill murders, etc. Rather, he only is called upon in special cases, with his authority coming directly from the Prime Minister. He is assisted in most episodes by his friend and colleague, Dr. Chisholm, a forensic pathologist who is called upon to autopsy many of the victims. His work often provides the evidence that enables Cameron to solve the mystery and make an arrest. While their relationship is much like that of Holmes and Dr. Watson, unlike that pair, the friendship between the two here provides some comic relief. There are other regular characters which appear in certain episodes, such as the Inspector's housekeeper Mrs. Lutz. In the early episodes he occasionally is assisted by Constable Dodge, who makes his final appearance when he takes a position in a country village. The Inspector's young adolescent niece, Prudence, figures in a few episodes also, until sent to boarding school. His assistant for many of the cases is Sergeant Striker, who plays a much larger role than any of these other minor characters, appearing in a number of episodes. While his acting is not the best, there is something very likeable about the Sergeant.

The series was moderately popular and ran for several years; people who like the more recent "Murdoch Mysteries," another offering from the CBC, generally will enjoy this series as well. The audio/visual quality isn't the best since these were taken from vhs tapes recorded in the mid 1980s. While I'm sorry for any annoyance this may cause, I don't believe the series is available elsewhere in a better form. I'll be posting around 15 of the 35 episodes; for more information and different episodes, see my playlist or the playlist on steffsstuff's channel.