A police procedural set in Scotland. What sets this one apart from the rest is that the lead detective, Annika, ably played by Nicola Walker, speaks directly to the viewer, breaking the fourth wall. Full of literary references, Annika is smart, funny, wry. She’s raising her teenage daughter alone, navigating a new job with old …
Another in a long list of shows that have a police detective semi-unwillingly assisted by (and assisting) a plucky female amateur detective. In this one, set in Victorian England, the plucky woman is Miss Eliza Scarlett, a private detective, and the detective is William Wellington of Scotland Yard – sometimes called “Duke” because of his …
This charming remake of the story of a veterinarian in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1930s is sweet and lovely. They added a female housekeeper as an important character to relieve the overly male vibe of the original, and it doesn’t hew completely to the books, but it is well done and comfortable.
Remake of the Sherlock Holmes story set in present day London with Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as Watson. So good. Andrew Scott as Moriarty kills it.
Part of the “Inspector Morse” series of shows, this show is set in the ‘60s and shows Morse as a young man. Earnest and serious but prone to political missteps that hold him back, Morse solves murders in and around Oxford.
Jane Austen started writing Sanditon but died before it was finished, so she left nothing but the characters and a setting for the story – an oceanside village that a local promoter is trying to make into a grand resort destination. That set up allowed the writer to take this adaptation to a darker place …
Present day drama set on the coast of England. When the recently widowed Vivien meets and falls in love with a new man, her adult children are dubious, particularly when the relationship seems to be moving fast. The story is told in flashback after an event – we aren’t clear what exactly happened, but the …
A Masterpiece BBC drama. Poldark tells the story of Captain Ross Poldark (Aiden Turner), an idealistic man always fighting against an unfair and difficult world when he returns to Cornwall after fighting for the losing side in the American Revolutionary War. Ross is constantly in conflict with the scheming and wealthy Warleggans as he tries …
A Masterpiece Theater dramatization of the true story of Allison Wilson, played by the one of my favorite actresses, Ruth Wilson – Allison’s real-life granddaughter. After her husband dies, a widow (Allison) learns that he had another wife and family and she starts investigating the man who she thought she knew. There are no simple …
Beloved show about the lives and loves of the Earl and Countess of Grantham, their three daughters and their staff in the years from 1912 into the 1920’s. Touching, witty, sentimental. Sometimes there is a heavy hand with the sappiness, but we don’t care because we love these characters so much.