SISTER BONIFACE MYSTERIES, SEASON 4

Sister Boniface, the crime-solving nun series, Season 4, will premiere on Britbox on August 19. 

The series is set in the 1960s. Sister Boniface is a Vespa-riding Catholic nun with a crime lab and love of detective fiction, quite comparable to and competent as a forensic scientist, who works with the local constabulary. 

Season 4 will have 8 episodes. 

Lorna Watson stars as Sister Boniface. Returning also are cast members Max Brown as DI Sam Gillespie, Jerry Iwu as DS Felix Livingstone, Ami Metcalf as WPC Peggy Button, and Carolyn Pickles as Rev Mother Adrian. 

Season 4 guest cast includes Les Dennis, Katherine Kingsley, Martyn Ellis Mina Anwar, Ed Birch, and Daniel Laurie.

CODE OF SILENCE: New British crime series

Code of Silence is a British crime drama, now available on BritBox in the U.S. The series stars Rose Ayling-Ellis as Alison, a deaf police cafeteria worker, called upon by the police department to lip-read conversations of criminals. Deafness is definitely handled in a new way for tv, and Ayling-Ellis does a terrific job. 

My one objection in the storyline is that Alison is told not to do 'detective' work, but big surprise, she gets involved with one of the suspects of a big case. She's young and inexperienced. In the first episode that I watched, there were several  (too many?) mystery tropes, but the acting was quite good, and the overall premise is excellent. As someone who can lip-read, I really liked the way lip-reading was handled. It was almost a map of how to lip-read, and it got me thinking about how lip-reading is more than just reading lips. Alison, the main character, talks about other important things like looks and demeanor, and, for her, knowing something about the speakers (the suspects). It's all about context. In an interview Ayling-Ellis said lip reading is 'like a puzzle." She was born deaf and speaks and uses British Sign-Language. 

According to ITV where Code of Silence debuted in May, the debut episode brought six million viewers. Code of Silence has already been renewed for a second season.

Read the NYT review here. 

AFTER THE FLOOD: British TV series on Britbox

After the Flood premieres May 13 on BritBox. Set in a town dealing with the aftermath of a devastating flood, After the Flood follows detective PC Joanna Marshall (Sophie Rundle), who is tasked with finding out what happened to an unidentified man found dead in a lift in an underground car park. Police assume the man was trapped in the lift when the flood hit, but as the investigation develops doubts begin to creep in and PC Marshall makes it her mission to find out the truth.

I haven't seen this yet, but reviews are very positive. Caveat, one review said to get past the first episode. I like a good police procedural, and there are some really good actors in this production, so I'm looking forward to it.

The first two episodes of After the Flood premieres Monday, May 13, on BritBox, with two episodes dropping each subsequent Monday until the May 27 finale. Six episodes in all.

Moonflower Murders: A Sequel to Magpie Murders

MASTERPIECE PBS and Eleventh Hour Films announced that filming has completed on Moonflower Murders, a new television drama based on the best-selling novel by Anthony Horowitz, CBE. The six-part series is written by Horowitz.  Moonflower Murders is a sequel to the acclaimed Magpie Murders that aired on MASTERPIECE in 2022, for which Horowitz received an Edgar Award.

Moonflower Murders will be available to stream in the US on PBS.org, the PBS App and the PBS MASTERPIECE Prime Video Channel. In the UK, the series will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. No date yet, but I'll keep you posted.  

Can't wait? Read Anthony Horowitz's Moonflower Murders!!!

Returning in the lead roles they originated in Magpie Murders are Lesley Manville and Susan Ryeland and Timothy McMullan as famous literary detective Atticus Pünd.

Moonflower Murders is the second novel in Horowitz’s Susan Ryeland series, and once again uses the story within a story format. Published in 2020, it was lauded as “a richly plotted, head- spinning novel” by the New York Times and picks up where Magpie Murders left off.

Susan has left publishing and is living in Crete with her long-time boyfriend, Andreas. But her idyll is disturbed by the shadow of a murder committed at a British country hotel eight years ago. Alan Conway visited the hotel and wrote a novel based on what happened there. Cecily Treherne, the young woman who helps run the hotel, read the book and believed the wrong man had been arrested. Now she has disappeared.

Can Susan uncover the secret hidden in the book and find Cecily before it is too late?

Lesley Manville says: “I had an incredible time returning to the role of the smart and feisty Susan Ryeland. Anthony Horowitz has written another ingenious adaptation and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”

Horowitz says, “I’ve been watching the filming of Moonflower Murders with joy. We’re back with the same cast, including Lesley Manville, Tim McMullan and Danny Mays – but this time we’ve got a whole new box of tricks to present as literary editor Susan Ryeland untangles another book within a book and another series of unfathomable murders. I can’t wait to show it to our audience.” 

Filming on Moonflower Murders took place in Dublin and Crete.