The most dangerous place on Earth is revealed to be... the fictional setting for TV series Murder, She Wrote

Cabot Cove has a higher murder rate than violent country Honduras

County featured in Midsomer Murders has the same rate of killings as Chile



Small town horror: Amateur detective Jessica Fletcher, played by Angela Lansbury, encounters a shockingly large number of killings in Murder, She Wrote

The idyllic seaside town of Cabot Cove looks at first glance like a pleasant and relaxing place to live.

In fact, it is the murder capital of the world and far more dangerous than the most violent parts of the globe, including Honduras in Central America.

Thankfully, it is just the fictional New England setting for popular TV series Murder, She Wrote.

Amateur detective Jessica Fletcher, played by Angela Lansbury, encountered a total of 274 killings in the small town in Maine, despite it having a population of just 3,500 .

This gives it an annual murder rate of 1,490 per million — more than 50 per cent higher than Honduras, where it is 910 per million.

In the last two years 1,000 women have been murdered in the country - and 90 percent were not even investigated.

And Cabot Cove was even further ahead of El Salvador, a country which recently celebrated a unique milestone - its first day in three years when nobody was murdered.

Around five people were murdered in the fictional coastal spot every year, according to BBC Radio 4's More or Less.

ITV detective series Midsomer Murders also has an exceptionally high murder rate, on a par with Chile and Latvia.

Researchers working out the figures assumed the county of Midsomer, where the action was set, would probably have a similar population size to Oxfordshire, where it is filmed.

They then worked out that it would have an annual murder rate of 32 per million.



That is three times the rate that Thames Valley Constabulary reports for Oxfordshire.

Midsomer experiences around 2.6 killings per episode over around eight episodes a year, meaning 21 murders were committed there each year.

Investigation: Jessica encountered a total of 274 killings in the small town in Maine, despite it having a population of just 3,500

The reality: Soldiers flee clashes with civilians after a deadly prison battle in Honduras

Los Angeles in the 1970s was the setting for many popular crime series - yet these shows had a far lower murder rate than the city did in reality .

Columbo, Quincy, Perry Mason, Jim Rockford and Jonathan and Jennifer Hart all hunted killers on LA's mean streets during that decade.

T he murder rate across all those series was 29 per million, while in real life, it was 230 per million.

Sting in the tale: John Nettles, left, as Tom Barnaby in Midsomer Murders

TOP 5 CABOT COVE EPISODES OF MURDER, SHE WROTE

The Murder of Sherlock Holmes (1984): Pilot. Jessica is shocked to find out her manuscript has been accepted. Then she attends a costume party and a private investigator dressed as Sherlock Holmes ends up face-down in a swimming pool, shot.



Deadly Lady (1984): After a terrible storm in Cabot Cove, Stephen Earl's four daughters tell Sheriff Tupper that their father died while they were out on the boat. Jessica has to wade through the inconsistencies in the four Earl daughters' storylines to determine who killed their father.

Dead Man's Gold (1986): A group of treasure hunters come to Cabot Cove looking for sunken gold but after one dies and the other is arrested for her murder, Jessica gets involved to clear a young man she believes is innocent and to help a friend she knows tends not to be.



Town Father (1989): Scandal abounds during election time in Cabot Cove when the Mayor is reputed to have a secret wife who comes to confront him with murderous results.



Joshua Peabody Died Here... Possibly (1985): Plans for a new hotel in Cabot Cove have to be put on hold when a skeleton is discovered at the construction site and Amos and Jessica find a second body.



Busy patch: The ratio of killings in British series Midsomer Murders, featuring new character DCI John Barnaby, is closer to that of countries such as Chile and Latvia than Oxfordshire, where it is filmed

As David Crawford writes in the Radio Times : 'I f you want reassurance that the world is not such a frightening place, watch an American, urban detective drama from the 70s.



'But if you want the beejaysus scaring out of you, watch Angela Lansbury.'



The findings were calculated by Open University statisticians for Radio 4 mathematics programme 'More or Less'.

