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Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Masterpiece Mystery 2016

Well....Downtown Abbey is done.

But here comes Masterpiece Mystery to the rescue!

Daylight Savings Time has started here this week. :( I am not adjusting to the time change but want to tell you about what is coming up. So I am relying on Wiki and quotes.

I didn't watch the first series of Grantchester last year. Somehow it got by me. But I watched repeats of Episode 1 and 2 of the first season and I really like it.



The series is actually based on a book series called The Grantchester Mysteries.

Wiki:

"The Grantchester Mysteries is a series of crime fiction books of short stories by the British author James Runcie, set during the 1950s in Grantchester, a village near Cambridge in England. The books feature the clergyman-detective Canon Sidney Chambers.
The first volume in the series, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death, was published in 2012. The book comprises six short standalone mysteries. The second, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night, was published in 2013.
The books in the series include:
  1. Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death (2012)
  2. Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night (2013)
  3. Sidney Chambers and The Problem of Evil (2014)
  4. Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins (2015)
A total of six books are planned. The series was inspired by James Runcie's father, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie. 
In 2014, some of the The Grantchester Mysteries short stories were turned into an ITV drama titled Grantchester. Filmed on location in Grantchester, Cambridge, and London, the initial six-part series was shown in the UK in Autumn 2014. A second series will be released in 2016."


Sidney Chambers is the "dishy vicar" in Grantchester.
(as Rose used to say - Keeping Up Appearances)

His side kick is Inspector Geordie Keating. (Columbo?) See picture above. (Not Rose, the other picture)

Sidney Chambers has lots of issues - looks like PTSD from "the war" and is drinking to squelch the memories. His good female friend from school, that he seemed to think was something more, is engaged. And people keep getting murdered and dragging him into it. Sidney's housekeeper is Mrs. Maguire, who quietly gives him good advice in a round about way. The character's relationships are well developed and the mysteries are good.

The series will be on beginning March 27, 2016, 8 p.m. central time through May 1, 2016.

Then we will have the last season of Wallander. I really like this series too.


Wiki:

 "The series is based on Kurt Wallander (Branagh), a detective and police inspector in the small town of Ystad, Sweden. Branagh describes Wallander as "an existentialist who is questioning what life is about and why he does what he does every day, and for whom acts of violence never become normal. There is a level of empathy with the victims of crime that is almost impossible to contain, and one of the prices he pays for that sort of empathy is a personal life that is a kind of wasteland."

 Wallander: The Final Season, will air Sundays, May 8-22, 2016 at 8pm central time on PBS.

PBS doesn't give a date for this but Dark Angel starring Joanne Froggatt is also coming up.
We know Joanne from Downtown Abbey.

Joanne Froggatt in Dark Angel

"Froggatt plays the notorious poisoner Mary Ann Cotton...Born in North East England in 1832, a child of the coal fields, Mary Ann Cotton grew up in poverty with the dream of escaping the hard life of a miner's family, a goal she came tantalizingly close to achieving. Her chosen means were her good looks, sexual allure, and the dirty secret of nineteenth-century suspicious deaths: arsenic, which is tasteless and easily disguised in a cup of tea.
For authorities, the problem was that arsenic poisoning, if done skillfully, mimicked the symptoms of two of the major public health scourges of the day; typhoid fever and cholera. The passing of a child or husband after a week of severe stomach pains, convulsions, and other portents of disease was all too common -- and even less surprising when several members of the same household succumbed.
Mary Ann did tempt fate by taking out a modest insurance policy on her intended victims, whenever possible, but she inadvertently hit on the major success strategies of a serial killer: keep moving, be charming, and exude self confidence. And along with others in this line of criminality, her body count can never be certain; the current best estimate is at least thirteen, ranking her far above her Victorian male counterpart, Jack the Ripper."

Oh my!









3 comments:

  1. Really loved Grantchester when it aired here in Australia late last year. It was a slow burn to begin with but it increasingly absorbing and the pairing of James Norton and Robson Greene was a master stroke.

    I was first impressed by James Norton and his sinister turn as a violent killer in another British crime drama called Happy Valley so to see him play a heroic and romantic lead in Grantchester cemented his talent for me. He has the potential to become a major star.

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  2. Really loved Grantchester when it aired here in Australia late last year. It was a slow burn to begin with but it increasingly absorbing and the pairing of James Norton and Robson Greene was a master stroke.

    I was first impressed by James Norton and his sinister turn as a violent killer in another British crime drama called Happy Valley so to see him play a heroic and romantic lead in Grantchester cemented his talent for me. He has the potential to become a major star.

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    Replies
    1. They are showing the remaining 4 episodes here this weekend before they start Season 2, so I will be tuned it to that. Hadn't heard of Happy Valley but I see it is on Netflix. And we are all hoping for more Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.

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