I agree with you, RangerSteve: these TV series are "snuggle down on the sofa after a busy day and switch off the brain"-viewing - nothing wrong with that at all !

Another one I'd recommend is Heartbeat - a gentle police drama set in a Yorkshire moorland village (near Whitby) in the 1960's. I don't know whether that has ever made it across the Atlantic ?

Here is the Doc Martin website. Filmed in and around Port Isaac, North Cornwall. Very funny. This is a new series in the UK, so may take a while before it is exported.

Another excellent one, and with a superb cast (e.g. Michael Kitchen, Edward Fox) is Foyle's War - a police drama set during the Second World War in Hastings (south coast of England).

- jeanie