The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries

The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries is a British detective television series, broadcast on BBC1, which was adapted from nine of the novels by Dame Ngaio Marsh, featuring the character Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. The pilot episode was shown in 1990, with Simon Williams playing the part of Alleyn. Two series followed in 1993 and 1994, with Patrick Malahide replacing Williams in the title role.

Premise
In the pilot episode, the character of Alleyn was played by Simon Williams. William Simons was cast as Alleyn's right-hand man and "Dr Watson", Detective Inspector Fox, and Belinda Lang starred as painter Agatha Troy, Alleyn's love interest. When a full series finally came to screen three years later, Simon Williams was unavailable, and the role of Alleyn was filled by Patrick Malahide, while Simons and Lang reprised their roles. Over the course of two series, eight episodes were broadcast, each focusing on a separate novel in the series. Both Malahide series were released on DVD in 2007, via Acorn Media. In 2011, Acorn acquired the rights to the pilot, and in 2012, issued a repackaged version of the set containing the Williams pilot. This set was also released in Australia. Unlike the original novels, whose first story takes place as early as 1934, after World War I, the pilot and thus all subsequent episodes take place after World War II, with "Artists in Crime" being set in late 1948.

Cast

 * Simon Williams as Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn (pilot only)
 * Patrick Malahide as Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn
 * William Simons as Inspector Fox
 * Belinda Lang as Agatha Troy
 * Tim Dutton as D.S. Bailey
 * Sandy Welch as D.C. Robinson
 * Leslie Schofield as A.C.C. Connors
 * Mark Penfold as Doctor Curtis
 * Derek Benfield as Alfred Belt
 * James Aitken as James

Syndication
The series aired in the United States on PBS's 'Mystery!' and later on Amazon Prime.