Thomas (Tommy) Beresford (David Walliams), in his early 40s, is a clever and logical man whose business ventures never quite work out, just as his university and army days were never successful.

He does not realise that he has no head for business, but he does have a knack for espionage and crime-solving in a Cold War world full of double agents and assassins.

The daughter of a country archdeacon, one of five children, she misses the sense of purpose she had as a nurse in the war and cannot settle as a housewife, despite her love for Tommy and their son, George.

Agatha Christie wrote stories featuring the Beresfords between 1922 and 1973, depicting Tommy and Tuppence from before they were married through to their old age with adult children.

Creating 1950s England led to filming in central and greater London, Essex, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Oxfordshire, Kent, Hertfordshire, and Norfolk.

For Ellen E Jones, writing in UK newspaper The Independent on Sunday, "Part of the enjoyable comfort of Christie on TV is the period detail and the BBC has pulled this off with much more visual flair than ITV ever managed".

Jones found Walliams and Raine to be, "as well turned out as Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, or James Stewart and Kim Novak; it's only a shame their interactions don't fizz with the same sexual chemistry”, but added, “At least the two leads are individually endearing”.

[17] In The Daily Telegraph, Michael Hogan mocked the second episode's plot, writing: "Locks were picked, typewriters were thrown through windows and a narrow escape was made down a drainpipe.

Here they were on more of an equal footing", and concluded: "This might be featherlight fare but sometimes handsomely produced historical fun is just the ticket for a Sunday night – see also Downton Abbey.

[18] The Irish Independent's Pat Stacey was much less impressed, saying, "When the hero and heroine of your mystery drama are a posh 1950s married couple called Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, you're probably half-hobbled already.

Like Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes and The 39 Steps, both of which it superficially resembles, Partners in Crime is supposed to be a rattling, old-style good yarn.