“What makes Strike an exceptional investigator is that he just works very hard,” says the show’s executive producer, Ruth Kenley-Letts. “He’s not like Sherlock – blessed with the ability to see everything. He’s a former soldier who lost a leg in Afghanistan and who had a difficult upbringing. “He’s not magical. There’s something appealing about that. It makes a nice change to have a show where the crimes aren’t solved in a clever-dick way but because they put the effort in.” Both Robin and Cormoran, in keeping with a more modern trend for complex, troubled characters, have secrets but this aspect of their characters is not integral to the storyline. “One of the things I like about Cormoran as a detective is that he can have problems and still smile,” says Richards. “Because isn’t that what most of us would do?” For Richards, the show’s whole appeal ultimately lies in that very ordinariness. “People have asked me what makes this different, and they always look a bit stunned when I say – well, nothing,” he says. “Cormoran has no clever quirks. “He’s basically stuck in an office that’s a bit shit, and he’s a bit broke, and his leg sometimes really hurts but he doesn’t moan about it. Instead he works really hard and gets on with his job. There’s something admirable in that.”