As with most police procedural programs that come out of the UK (i.e. George Gently, Daziel and Pascoe, Prime Suspect, Inspector Lewis, Endeavour, etc.), brilliant as they are, they all tend to constantly reinforce the thought that there is a definite pecking order within the department between the DCI and everyone else from DI on down. In both Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, it was DCI Gene Hunt versus the rest of the planet, but that’s a story unto itself for another day. Accompanying that pecking order, however, is a clear sense of having each other’s back when needed.

The newest addition to an already stellar pipeline of police procedural dramas coming out of the UK is no different. DCI Banks, starring Stephen Tompkinson (Ballykissangel) and Andrea Lowe (Silent Witness, Torchwood, The Tudors), will find a well-deserved home on PBS stations nationwide beginning in January 2013 (tentatively set for the week of 6 January). In DCI Banks, Chief Inspector Alan Banks has been called tenacious and stubborn…and, I’m sure, a lot of other things that you probably ought not put in print. Detective Sergeant Annie Cabbot is considered both feisty and headstrong and, yet, the respect and bond between the two is evident from the beginning. They have their bumps along the way, but they have each others back without question.

Set in the Yorkshire countryside, DCI Banks is based on the Inspector Banks novels by Peter Robinson. In the pilot episode, ‘Aftermath’, two police officers stumble across the lair of a serial killer and Inspector Banks finds himself faced with a chilling murder investigation that will test him to the limit. The pilot episode also features an amazingly chilling performance by Charlotte Riley. You think Kurt Wallander has issues, just wait.

***FYI, Major spoilers below for DCI Banks ‘Aftermath’ if you haven’t seen yet. That said, if you can’t wait until January 2013, it’s worth being spoiled***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48q15DLw1dY&feature=relmfu