Sensing Murder star to leave show in pursuit of bigger fish

New Zealand's most famous psychic detective insists he has finally closed the file on the controversial TV show that launched him to fame - and is branching out into other areas of TV.

Kelvin Cruickshank only appeared briefly in the most recent series of Sensing Murder, which attempts to shed light on unsolved murder cases.

It has had him bawling his eyes out and even throwing up.

For Cruickshank, working on the show was both traumatising and rewarding.

The new series, however, attracted a lot of negative reviews. In some media quarters it was even dubbed "Sensing Bullshit".

Cruickshank says it is unlikely he will appear on it again as he thought the new version was too different from the previous format and he felt he wasn't meant to be there.

"I haven't been asked to do any more Sensing Murder and I will happily step back," he says. "At the end of the day, sometimes you just have to move on.

"There is a lot I'd like to say about it, but I can't."

Cruickshank has just committed to hosting his own TV fishing show but details about the project are still under wraps.

"I love fishing and I have been a guest on a few shows but it will be great to be fronting my own," he says.

"I can assure people it will be a fishing programme with a difference, especially when I'm on board."

But the medium has already run into a few misconceptions about the scope of his psychic abilities.

"I've had people asking me if I can sense marlin," he says.

"I mean, because I can communicate with dead people, how does that make me able to speak to fish?

"If I could do that I'd be out on the water talking to them every day.

"Some people still have some very strange ideas about what I do."