ANNIKA scheduled for Second Season!

The wonderful detective series Annika has been scheduled for a second season. The second series will see the return of Nicola Walker as DI Annika Strandhed, Jamie Sives as DS Michael McAndrews, Katie Leung as DC Blair Ferguson and Ukweli Roach as DS Tyrone Clarke. Annika’s first series will have its broadcast premiere on MASTERPIECE in the USA on October 16th, although PBS Passport members will have already had the opportunity to watch the entire first season. It's easy to be a PBS Passport member. Just donate $60+ to your local PBS station. 

Nicola Walker said about the series: “We are all looking forward to fighting crime on sea and land with the MHU for a second series and there are secrets closer to home for Annika that will have to be faced. It’s going to be a bumpy ride!” 

Annika follows the sharp, witty and enigmatic DI Annika Strandhed (Walker), as she leads the specialist Marine Homicide Unit (MHU) that is tasked with investigating the unexplained, brutal, and seemingly unfathomable murders that wash up in the waterways of Scotland. Through the series, Annika makes the audience her confidante by breaking the fourth wall and sharing her wry observations on the case and her life, as she manages her brilliant yet unconventional team, and her equally brilliant yet complex teenage daughter. 

MASTERPIECE executive producer Susanne Simpson says, “Nicola Walker absolutely owns the role of Annika, who comes across as smart, eccentric, and funny. She leads an extraordinary cast of characters who make this show unique.” MASTERPIECE is presented on PBS by GBH Boston. 

The new series will see Annika and her MHU team uncover bodies in Edinburgh, Glasgow and as far as the Hebridean island of Jura, keeping in high literary company with Robert Louis Stevenson, George Orwell and Walter Scott to help solve the cases. Nick Walker, writer/producer, is again at the helm, so this series promises more twisty crimes and grisly reveals while delving into our exciting serial hooks from the first series. 

Can't wait!

ANNIKA: PBS MASTERPIECE

PBS MASTERPIECE announced that it will present Annika starring Nicola Walker (Unforgotten, Last Tango in Halifax). Walker plays DI Annika Strandhed, the dry-witted, speedboat-driving head of Glasgow’s newly-formed Marine Homicide Unit, who juggles baffling cases and a rebellious teenage daughter.

Annika’s six episodes will have a special premiere on PBS Passport, an added member benefit which provides extended access to a digital, on-demand library of PBS programs, and on the PBS MASTERPIECE Prime Video Channel on April 17, 2022. The series will have a television broadcast on MASTERPIECE in Fall 2022.

 

While other TV detectives discuss the case exclusively with their team, Annika addresses viewers directly, “breaking the fourth wall” that separates the action from the audience. “With most characters there is so much subtext,” notes Walker. “But there is no subtext with Annika because the subtext is her talking directly to you and telling you what she feels. By the end, we are going to know her as well as she knows herself.”

 

Annika draws on the popular radio drama Annika Stranded, which aired on BBC Radio 4 between 2013 and 2020. Walker was the one-woman star of that series, with scripts by Nick Walker (no relation). The two Walkers have now teamed up again to bring Annika to television in all her complexity, vulnerability, and eccentric affability.

UNFORGOTTEN: Series 3

I'm not sure I mentioned that Unforgotten Series 3 was on PBS. Hope you caught it when it was on in April. If not, you can watch the entire series on PBS Passport. Subscribe to your local station (at a certain dollar amount), and you will have extended access to over 1500 episodes of your favorite shows.

But back to Unforgotten Series 3. This has to be the best yet. Nicola Walker (Last Tango in Halifax) and Sanjeev Bhaskar (The Indian Doctor) star as police officers investigating cold case murders. In series 3 they investigate the murder of a young girl found buried near a busy highway. Unforgotten is unique in its detective and team interactions. With each series, the storyline unfolds over 6 episodes, each more impactful than the last, introducing new characters and situations, and finally wrapping it all up. I don't want to give away too much, but if this show has been off your radar, it's time to bring it forward. You can still watch the first two seasons on PBS Passport (and probably elsewhere). Unforgotten is brilliant! Great acting, terrific writing, and a very satisfying mystery!

And, in case you're wondering, there will be a Series 4.