I'd like to see Alexandra Daddario back in such a role, something different and more substantial than the 'crazy pussy' bimbo she played this season.

More to the point, I've been periodically tweeting potential pairings for days. There are so many women I'd love to see on this show. My latest idea is Catherine Keener and Michelle Rodriguez. They have basically polar-opposite public personas, so it could be interesting to see what they're like together. I'd prefer it if they didn't end up going with two generically attractive, young white actresses, but honestly, if the two leads do end up being women (assuming they're doing the same basic format as season 1, of course), they could choose pretty much anyone and I'd be happy.

But surely it is also better for a male writer to write male lead characters and leave the writing of female lead characters to a women?

I'm not suggesting men can never write women and vice versa… that would be ridiculous. But Jane Austin consciously never wrote a scene where men talked to each other without a woman present because she had no knowledge of how they would talk and kept to women and women or mixed scenes.

If anything is to be levelled at anyone surely the criticism should be that HBO need to commission more work from women writers or more women need to write.

I think Ann Biderman represents gritty women writers very well and think Southland was one of the best cop things short of the Wire and the Shield and it's a shame it never had better backing. Ray Donovan was also good and I'm glad it is getting a second season. The women in Ray Donovan were very powerful and far from negatively stereotyped… if anything, if I was playing Devil's Advocate I could turn the books and accuse her of writing men as negative stereotypes who only know how to fight and chase women.

If the female characters are causing a certain stir with some sectors of American society then rather than blame the writer I think you have to question your own male and female roles and interactions.

I am English, but have spent a lot of time in America, and love the country… the good and not so good aspects of it… and love American people. But one think my wife and I have always noticed in America is men and women as a rule have very different… not to say confused gender roles as compared to us in England. A good example being the fact you have never has a woman president and I can't see you ever having one, you have never even had a woman selected by either of the main parties to run to be president. Meanwhile a very large slice of the rest of the world has had or currently has female leaders.

So IMHO far from misrepresenting women… True Detectives has hit on a raw nerve.