Gruesome but gripping - that’s CSI, the US crime series that’s gained quiet a reputation

If you were asked to name the most successful American TV show, you’d probably think of Friends, ER, The Sopranos, or Sex and the City. In fact, it’s none of those - it’s actually CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which has taken America by storm and is winning plenty of fans here too.

Returning for a third season this week, it’s a crime drama with a difference - with forensic science being the star of the show, rather than the actors. Gruesome crime scenes and decomposing corpses mean it’s not for the faint-hearted, but the gadgets and techniques unsed to nail the bad guys - when they’ve only got a shoelace or insect bite to go on - draw you in.

“We go into so much detail that viewers feel they’re solving the crime with us. It sure makes me feel smart,” says former ER star Jorja Fox, who plays forensic investigator Sara Sidle, alongside William Petersen as teal leader Gil Grissom and Marg Helgenberger as Catherine Willows.

Hollywood superstars Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson are both huge fans and, since Five began showing CSI just over a year-and-a-half-ago, it has become the channel’s highest-rated drama series, regularly pulling in two million viewers.

The series is produced by hard-hitting Hollywood veteran Jerry Bruckheimer, the man behind films such as Armageddon. The new series opens with the team investigating a drag racer’s death. If you’re squeamish, be warned - they find the body after the vultures. But as Jorja says: “A lot of the storylies are based on read-life studies…”