Gather all the clues, follow all leads and get ready for some tough cases.

Global TV realized the huge demand for spine-tingling thrillers, detective series and police shows on its main network and realized that no one was feeding this demand exclusively.

"We had great ratings from Murder She Wrote and [police detective show] Blue Murder, and there's such a proliferation of books and magazines in the genre," said Anne Marie Varner, director of Canadian Production at Global Television.

And so out of the dense fog, with hooting owls overhead, Mystery is born.

Let the investigation begin in Mystery's Great Detective series, with programs based on works by some of the most well-known names in the genre, including Ruth Rendell, P.D. James and Agatha Christie.

The channel will also air reruns of the television series The Saint, starring Roger Moore; Sherlock Holmes; and the British series The Prisoner.

In The Prisoner, a top-secret government agent resigns his position only to be abducted and whisked away to an isolated seaside community known only as "The Village." No. 6 (the prisoner's new identity, given to him by his captors) soon learns that no one in the village can be trusted and that those in charge will take extreme measures to try to break him. The series originally aired in 1967, and begins with No. 6's arrival in "the village," and ends with a two-part finale that many fans claimed raises more questions than it answers.

"We wanted to look for unique shows," Ms. Varner said. Picket Fences is another prime example, she noted.

David E. Kelley cut his teeth on Picket Fences before moving on to produce The Practice and Ally McBeal. The series ran from 1992 to 1996, and won two Emmys in that time for best dramatic series. Critics lauded Picket Fences for tackling controversial topics, including law, the U.S. Constitution, civil rights, religion and discrimination.

Of course, the channel will feature Murder, She Wrote, the longest running, most-watched detective mystery series in North America. In it, Angela Lansbury plays a mystery writer who lives in small town Maine, and has the uncanny ability to solve real murder mysteries involving a host of famous guest stars.

Global has also commissioned six original movies of the week to be produced exclusively for the Mystery channel. The films will be based on the spooky novels of best-selling mystery writer Mary Higgins Clark.

Canada is a good place to host mysterious reality-based series, Ms. Varner said.

And it's not for those who are afraid of things that go bump in the night, or who check under the bed before turning in.

In the spring, the channel will air a special on East Coast folklore, examining the mysteries that abound in the Atlantic provinces.

Mystery is commissioning Junior Ghost Hunter, another reality-based series, as well as a feature on ghosts in British Columbia.

A small town in Quebec will be the scene for the channel's murder-mystery reality-based series.

Mystery's programming will stem from Britain, the United States and Australia, and will also include a fair bit of Canadian content, Ms. Varner said.

Other series that can be expected to appear on the channel include Adderly, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, Street Justice, Heart of Courage and Top Cops.

Mystery offers something to the whodunnit enthusiast day or night, Ms. Varner said. Programming is scheduled on an eight-hour wheel, so if you miss that special episode of Adderly at 7 a.m., don't fear - it will be on again at 3 p.m.