So just how come it took Tim Roth so long to get the lead role in a major television series? Once they’d taken one look at Lie To Me, it’s a fair bet that many casting directors were asking the same question, as Roth manages to breathe plenty of life into the central role of Dr Cal Lightman. Inspired by a real life character, Lightman is the head of The Lightman Group, where he works alongside a team of experts as they go about their chosen business: detecting lies.

We quickly learn that in Lie To Me, Lightman is the king of his craft, and the skills of he and his team are then bolted on to what would otherwise be a fairly standard police drama. For whether it’s helping the cops, the FBI or other US government agencies, Lightman and his crew quickly prove to be brilliant at spotting the slightest hint of dishonesty from microscopic movements and gestures, and their particular skills are thus in high demand.

Fortunately for the drama in Lie To Me, there are plenty of skilled fibbers to practice their work on, and thanks to some excellent writing, the show doesn’t take long to become compulsive viewing. And, let’s not understate this, Roth is brilliant as Lightman, heading up a clever, intelligent show that’s well worth discovering through this first season DVD set if you’ve missed it to date. A treat. --Jon Foster