The Turkish Detective review – downright ridiculous, in a good way

Our titular crime-solver is unbelievably bland in this cliche-stuffed book adaptation. And yet, its far-fetched plots and unguessable twists make it oddly comforting TV fare

In one of the opening scenes of The Turkish Detective – yes, it is about a detective, yes, it is set in Turkey and, yes, the extreme literalness of the title does presage this cop drama’s mentally undemanding nature – Turkish-born, British-raised police officer Mehmet Suleyman is picked up at Istanbul airport by his new boss, Inspector Ikmen. Asked why he decided to transfer from the Met, Suleyman begins to reply in Turkish, but his companion quickly interrupts. “No – English please, English! It’s good practice for me.”

Isn’t that lucky! Presumably everyone else Suleyman meets also needs to practise their language skills, from his estranged girlfriend to all the suspects in the murder case his team is assigned (Ikmen also speaks English to pretty much everyone outside his immediate family). Needless to say, it doesn’t ring particularly true, but then this series doesn’t exactly have authentic bona fides: written by Ben Schiffer, who worked on Skins, it is adapted from the Inspector Ikmen crime novels by Barbara Nadel, who was born in the East End and now resides in Essex.

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