Britain's grisliest day out: police train you to solve a killing

CSI: Miami - David Caruso
CSI: Miami - David Caruso. Photograph: CBS/Everett/Rex Features

Calling all fans of the cult US TV drama CSI - get practising your cheesy one-liners and don your darkest sunglasses like Horatio Caine because you now have the chance to star in your own crime scene investigation. Held at Tatton Park in Cheshire, the CSI Experience (07710 956800; creates fictional, but realistic, crime scenes for budding forensic experts to investigate.

The twist is that the experience isn't led by Tatton Park employees or actors, but by serving and recently retired British police investigators. Police experts moonlighting in the tourism industry? Surely that must raise a few eyebrows in the chief constable's office? Not at all, insists the company. "We use a selection of CSIs from different forces, each of which has given its permission," says Steve Dullek, ex-military officer and proprietor of CSI Experience. "We do not give out any information or show any techniques that are not already in the public domain."

What they do reveal is all the techniques a budding CSI needs, including fingerprinting techniques, lifting of shoe marks and DNA capture. In the afternoon, the trainees encounter a major incident site where they must meticulously piece together the last moments of the victim's life. It's not for the faint-hearted though. According to Dullek, "our CSI advisers have been involved in solving some of the most famous crimes in recent history, so when they create a crime scene, they create one that not only shocks, but also includes twists and turns, and, above all, is utterly realistic".

Available on Saturdays year-round, a half-day course starts from £65; full-day from £108.