MYSTERY: PBS announces new line-up

2009 Season of MASTERPIECE Mystery!

I always look forward to the new Mystery! series on PBS (U.S.), and this year brings an exciting new series.

Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh: May 10, 17, 31, is a
Kenneth Branagh stars as complex detective Kurt Wallander, based on the books by best-selling Swedish author Henning Mankell. Branagh, a longtime fan of the novels, is a co-producing partner of the adaptations filmed in rarely seen locations in southern Sweden.
Euro Crime has a BBC interview of Kenneth Branagh and Henning Mankell about the series. For a review of the series, check out Material Witness. For a review of Who is Kurt Wallander? BBC4 Documentary, go to: It's a Crime (Or a Mystery...)

Six by Christie
Poirot: (2 episodes): June 21 and 28
Titles to come when they're finalized. This is especially exciting as David Suchet reprises his role as suave Hercule Poirot in two new episodes.
Suchet's varied roles have included financier Augustus Melmotte in Masterpiece's The Way We Live Now and Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII. He was recently seen in the feature film The Bank Job.

Miss Marple (4 episodes) July 5, 12, 19, and 26
One of Agatha Christie's signature characters returns to the schedule, with Julia McKenzie taking over the role of spinster sleuth Miss Marple in three new episodes. McKenzie is familiar to Masterpiece fans for her recent performance in Cranford as Mrs. Forrester, the sprightly widow devoted to her cow.

Inspector Lewis, Series II: September 6, 13, 20, and 27
Robbie Lewis (Kevin Whately, The English Patient), sidekick to Inspector Morse, is back in four new episodes. Now well outside Morse's shadow, Lewis has a younger sidekick of his own, the ambitious Hathaway (Laurence Fox, Gosford Park)