Toby Jones joins Benedict Cumberbatch & Martin Freeman on Sherlock

Toby Jones (Infamous, The Secret Agent, The Girl) is confirmed to star in the fourth season of Sherlock on MASTERPIECE PBS, produced by Hartswood Films for BBC One and co-produced with MASTERPIECE.

Toby Jones will star in the second episode of the brand new three-part season, which starts filming today. Episode two will be directed by Nick Hurran, who was Emmy®-nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries for "His Last Vow", a season three Sherlock episode.

Toby Jones said: “I'm excited and intrigued by the character I shall be playing in Sherlock..." Rumor has it that he will be a villain.

Promising laughter, tears, shocks, surprises and extraordinary cases, it was announced last month that season four will begin with the nation’s favorite detective, the mercurial Sherlock Holmes, back once more on British soil, as Doctor Watson and his wife, Mary, prepare for their biggest ever challenge - becoming parents for the first time.

Sherlock is written and created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, and inspired by the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock is produced by Sue Vertue and the executive producers are Beryl Vertue, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat for Hartswood Films, Bethan Jones for BBC Cymru Wales and Rebecca Eaton for MASTERPIECE. It is distributed internationally by BBC Worldwide.

THE WORRICKER TRILOGY: Masterpiece PBS

MI5 agent Worricker returns this Sunday and next (November 9 and 16) with Turks & Caicos and Salting the Battlefield (parts 2 and 3 of the Worricker Trilogy):

Page Eight (shown in 2011), Turks & Caicos, and Salting the Battlefield form The Worricker Trilogy—three gripping films that follow the exploits of the intensely private and scrupulous Worricker—from MI5 headquarters in London to exile on a Caribbean island to life on the run with his former lover and fellow agent Margot Tyrrell (Helena Bonham Carter). A spy who prefers the black-and-white certainties of the Cold War, Worricker (Bill Nighy) finds himself increasingly out of his element as the distinction between ally and enemy dissolves into the amorphous alliances of the 21st century.

Writer-director David Hare has done it again. The all-star cast includes Oscar winner Christopher Walken, and Oscar® nominees Winona Ryder, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, and Judy Davis. Also starring are Rupert Graves, Saskia Reeves, and Ewen Bremner.

Although it would be good to view Page Eight, it's not essential. I did find Page Eight on Netflix.

 

Masterpiece: Miss Marple returns

This Sunday, Julia McKenzie returns as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple on Masterpiece. Note the times.

Miss Marple: "A Caribbean Mystery" – Sunday, September 21st at 8pm ET on PBS

Miss Marple: "Greenshaw's Folly" – Sunday, September 21st at 9:30pm ET on PBS

Miss Marple: "Endless Night" – Sunday, September 28 at 9pm ET on PBS

A Caribbean Mystery: 

While staying at a lavish tropical island hotel, Miss Marple investigates the
 sudden death of a fellow guest. With the help of a curmudgeonly business tycoon, Miss Marple unravels a web of deceit, murder and "dark magic," leaving her to consider every one of the hotel's guests as a suspect. Sir Antony Sher (God on Trial) guest stars.

Filmed on location in South Africa and based on Christie's 1964 novel, A Caribbean Mystery was adapted by comedian, author and actor Charlie Higson, who has a cameo as the unassuming American ornithologist James Bond. Also starring are MyAnna Buring (Downton Abbey), Pippa Bennett Warner (Case Histories), and Charity Wakefield (Any Human Heart).

ENDEAVOR, Series 2: PBS Masterpiece

I've just finished viewing the first two episodes of Endeavor, Series 2, which will be shown in the U.S. on PBS Masterpiece, starting on June 29. There are 4 new episodes that comprise the series. Well done! Shaun Evans does a great job of playing the young Inspector Morse. The series, as you may remember, is set in the 1960s in Oxford. Except for a few references, it has a timeless quality. Not as riveting as The Escape Artist, but certainly solid and enjoyable. Love matching wits with Morse. I've been watching the entire older "Morse" series again  to complement my viewing.

Shaun Evans (The Take, The Last Weekend, Silk), portrays the young cerebral and solitary Detective Constable Morse. He returns in Series 2 with four new mysteries written by Inspector Lewis creator and Inspector Morse writer Russell Lewis.

In Trove (June 29), Nocturne (July 6), Sway (July 13), and Neverland (July 20), Endeavour Morse contends with the aftershocks of his terrifying brush with death as he conducts his dogged, incorruptible pursuit of justice from the shadows of Oxford and the fringes of the police force.

Roger Allum costars as Detective Inspector Fred Thursday, and Abigail Thaw, daughter of Inspector Morse star John Thaw, makes special guest appearances as Dorothea Frazil.

SHERLOCK: Live Twitter Event

Just a reminder that SHERLOCK Season 3 premieres this Sunday, January 19 at 9:58 pm on MASTERPIECE/PBS.

Join MASTERPIECE and PBS for a live Twitter event of the premiere broadcasts of each of the 3 episodes of Sherlock Season 3 -- January 19, 25 and February 2 at 9:58-11:30 ET.


Follow along with @PBS, @masterpiecepbs, Scott Monty from the Baker Street Blaog @IHearofSherlock, James Hibberd from Entertainment Weekly @James Hibberd, and Leslie Klinger, author of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes @lklinger.

A Scene from Silk, Part 2: PBS Masterpiece

I'm loving Silk, starring Maxine Peake. What a great production: terrific acting and storyline. I'm really not all that familiar with the ins and outs of British law and barristers, but I'm getting an education.

Check your local PBS listings for Masterpiece's Silk. Sunday night here in the Bay Area at 9 p.m.  Here's a scene from Part 2!