Jericho (ITV1)

The Secret Of Drawing (BBC2)

INSPECTOR Morse is dead, peace will break out soon to bring Foyle's War to an end, and there can't be many residents left in the Midsomer villages who haven't been killed.

All of which leaves ITV looking for a new detective capable of delivering not only the guilty party but good ratings and filling the schedules for years to come.

Inspector Michael Jericho, Britain's most famous detective in the 1950s, could fit the bill (or even The Bill), if the powers-that-be can afford him.

It costs a lot of money to recreate that era convincingly although, to be fair, the opening episode looked as if no expense had been spared.

The only thing missing among all the period costumes, cars and buildings was a health warning that Jericho could seriously damage your health. If the London smog doesn't get you, the tobacco smoke will as this was a period when everyone lit up.

What gives Jericho potential is that the stories are set against the social background of the time. The period isn't window dressing but part of the whodunit.

The opener offered Jericho a double investigation - the murder of a young Jamaican in Notting Hill and the kidnapping of a wealthy businessman.

The episode began with a glorious mock edition of Pathe News in which Jericho was shown receiving an award before "the man of action" was plunged into his investigations.

Then it was straight into the privileged world of Lady Claire Wellesley whose husband was missing and whose pregnant maid was feeling "as queasy as a kipper".

What a life those rich people led. Lady W was happy to turn a blind eye to her husband's philandering on the grounds that "to keep a man like Nick you had to be prepared to share", which seemed generous of her in the circumstances.

Robert Lindsay wears Jericho's hat and raincoat well, and we're promised more will be revealed about his private life in coming episodes. Period setting, a detective in a hat and complex plots - it worked for Foyle's War and I reckon it'll work for Jericho.

Stories were at the heart of the second part of The Secret Of Drawing as presenter Andrew Graham-Dixon considered the many varieties of illustrated tales, from graphic novels through Manga to early animation.

There were some extraordinary insights into the art of drawing. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic strip Maus, Art Spiegelman portrayed the Holocaust using animals - the Germans as cats, the Jews as mice. "Mickey Mouse it certainly isn't," said the presenter.

Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, was apparently a depressive whose state of mind was reflected in the adventures of Charlie Brown and his friends in what was described as a "despatch from the front line of American anxiety". And I thought it was just a comic strip in a daily newspaper.

Graham-Dixon managed to get an interview with reclusive artist Daniel Clowes, whose work includes cult comic book Ghost World. He refused to take no for an answer, phoning him time and time again until Clowes eventually agreed, but only on condition that he came and did the interview there and then.

His unhappy childhood was reflected in his strange comic stories. His mother wondered why he didn't make his people more attractive rather than the distorted, weird, ugly faces he drew. "Why would I want to do that? What's the fun in that?" asked Clowes.