| El C.I.D. | |
|---|---|
 Series 3 Title Card | |
| Genre | Crime drama Comedy |
| Created by | Chris Kelly Iain Roy |
| Starring | Alfred Molina John Bird Simón Andreu Tony Haygarth Donald Churchill María Isbert Kenneth Cranham Amanda Redman Cristina Sevilla |
| Theme music composer | Mike Moran |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 19 (list of episodes) Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox television with "list_episodes" parameter using self-link. See Infobox instructions and MOS:INFOBOXPURPOSE. |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Sally Head David Plowright |
| Producer | Matthew Bird |
| Cinematography | Michael B. Poppley David Head |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company | Granada Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV |
| Release | 7 February 1990 – 2 March 1992 |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
El C.I.D. is an ITV television crime drama comedy that ran for three seasons from 7 February 1990 until 2 March 1992.[1] The series starred Alfred Molina as Bernard Blake, a C.I.D. officer who takes early retirement and moves to Spain where he and his work partner, Douglas Bromley (John Bird), a retired records officer, keep an eye on the expat community of British gangsters. As well as settling into life on the Costa del Sol, the storyline featured the pair helping out a local private eye, Delgado (Simón Andreu) to investigate cases.[2]
The series was highly publicised following criticism of Spain's extradition treaty with the UK, which was featured heavily in the newspapers during the series' run. Before the third series, Molina left the cast, and was subsequently replaced by Amanda Redman, who joined the series as the daughter of Bird's character, Bromley. The series also co-starred Kenneth Cranham as a notorious British gangster who fled to Spain. Scriptwriter Jimmy McGovern wrote episodes for both the first and second series. The title is a play on El Cid, the 11th-century Castilian knight and warlord in medieval Spain.[3]