Mayo was a comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 detective drama

Detective fiction

Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...

 television series

Television program

A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...

 made by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 and starring Alistair McGowan

Alistair McGowan

Alistair McGowan is a British impressionist, stand-up comic, actor, singer and writer best known to British audiences for The Big Impression , which was, for four years, one of BBC1's top-rating comedy programmes - winning numerous awards, including a BAFTA in 2003...

, Jessica Oyelowo

Jessica Oyelowo

Jessica Oyelowo is a British actress.She attended Woodbridge School as a child and was a member of the National Youth Music Theatre. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, actor David Oyelowo, and their three sons....

, Huw Rhys and Loo Brealey

Loo Brealey

Louise Brealey , also credited as Loo Brealey, is an English actress and journalist.-Early life and education:Born in Bozeat, Northamptonshire, England...

. The series is based on a popular series of Gil Mayo mysteries books by Marjorie Eccles. It was filmed on location in and around Leamington Spa

Leamington Spa

Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or Leamington or Leam to locals, is a spa town in central Warwickshire, England. Formerly known as Leamington Priors, its expansion began following the popularisation of the medicinal qualities of its water by Dr Kerr in 1784, and by Dr Lambe...

. The series began broadcasting on BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 in March 2006. It was broadcast in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 on ABC1

ABC1

ABC1 was a United Kingdom based television channel from Disney using the branding of the Disney owned American network, ABC.The channel initially launched exclusively on the British digital terrestrial television platform Freeview on 27 September 2004. On 10 December 2004 it was launched on...

 in mid-2008, and repeated on 7Two

7Two

7TWO is an Australian free-to-air standard definition digital television channel which was launched by the Seven Network on Sunday 1 November 2009 at 12pm....

 in 2011, under the title The Gil Mayo Mysteries.

On 23 March 2007 Alistair McGowan confirmed that there would be no more series of Mayo.

Cast

• Alistair McGowan
  Alistair McGowan
  Alistair McGowan is a British impressionist, stand-up comic, actor, singer and writer best known to British audiences for The Big Impression , which was, for four years, one of BBC1's top-rating comedy programmes - winning numerous awards, including a BAFTA in 2003...
  
   - Detective Gil Mayo
• Jessica Oyelowo
  Jessica Oyelowo
  Jessica Oyelowo is a British actress.She attended Woodbridge School as a child and was a member of the National Youth Music Theatre. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, actor David Oyelowo, and their three sons....
  
   - DS Alex Jones
• Huw Rhys - DS Martin Kite
• Loo Brealey
  Loo Brealey
  Louise Brealey , also credited as Loo Brealey, is an English actress and journalist.-Early life and education:Born in Bozeat, Northamptonshire, England...
  
   - Officer Harriet 'Anorak' Tate

Special guests

The show included special guests such as Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

actor Sylvester McCoy

Sylvester McCoy

Sylvester McCoy is a Scottish actor. As a comic act and busker he appeared regularly on stage and on BBC Children's television in the 1970s and 80s, but is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1987 to...

.

External links

• The Gil Mayo Mysteries on the ABC website