Master and Slave?

Mismatched detectives - they're a staple of TV. If you are making any kind of crime series then, if it is to have any chance of success, it has to include a pair of detectives who have conflicting characteristics. They could be at odds psychologically - one's a slob, the other's got obsessive compulsive disorder, for instance - or they could be physically different - a skinny one and a fat bastard, maybe . Sometimes the dividing line is based on gender: male and female; or sexuality: a straight cop partners a gay cop; or it could be based on race: black cop, white cop being the most obvious combination. All of these combinations, and variations n them, have been tried in TV series over the years, but I think that there's one they've missed: master and slave. No, I'm not talking about an S&M based mystery series, in which a femdom and her 'slave' (a retired Scotland Yard detective), investigate a series of bizarre bondage-based murders. Although,come to think of it, that actually would be a pretty innovative series. I'm thinking more along the lines of an historically based series in which a foppish white minor nobleman and his black slave investigate murders.

Obviously, the white guy would be a bit of a dimwit, whereas the slave would be a Sherlock Holmes-type genius frustrated by the fact that the existing social order doesn't allow him to allow him to use his powers openly. Instead, he has to work covertly, relying upon his master to get access to high society. Most frustratingly of all, is that he always has to let his master take the credit for his successes. I'm convinced this could be a success - it has everything; the historical setting, the antagonistic relationship between the lead characters, plus the whole race/slavery debate as a subtext. Best of all, it pretty much casts itself: Julian Rhind-Tutt as the master and Paterson Joseph as the slave if you want to go for mainstream BBC 1 slot. Failing that, you could always just reunite the Casanova pairing of David Tennant and Shaun Parkes and pitch it to BBC 3. Genius! Of course, if you wanted to try and get it on ITV you'd have to have Ray Winstone as the master and some guy who'd been in a soap opera as the slave. Now, where did I put that phone number for the BBC's Commissioning Editor...?