Happy Sunday everyone. This week I’ve got a recommendation for you if you liked Ludwig and need some comedy murder mystery in your life. I’m a bit behind because the series finished a few weeks back on TV in the UK, but hey I’ve been very busy and there’s been a lot of motosport to keep up with.
Death Valley features a detecting duo of an actual police detective and an actor best known for playing a TV detective. Janie is somewhat socially awkward, still lives with her mum and has never really got over the death of her best friend back when they were students. John Chapel has retired from acting after his big role as Caesar and is basically hiding out in his home in Wales after the death of his wife. It’s got a mystery of the week format with a few running threads across the series as well.
We really enjoyed this – the episodes are only 45 minutes so don’t expect them to be super complicated – they’re just a light confection that you can watch without engaging your brain too much or being too terrified to go to sleep! They definitely lean into the comedy side of things – so your mileage may vary, but I definitely found them a lot more fun than when Death in Paradise leans into the comedy. And the cast is great. Timothy Spall is always a lot of fun to watch and Gwyneth Keyworth is really engaging as Janie and their fractious relationship makes for a really fun watch. We actually saw Keyworth in Twelfth Night at Stratford back at the start of the year and she was a great Viola/Cesario as well. There are lots of other familiar faces in the cast as well, including Steffan Rhodri, Melanie Walters and Jim Howick in the regular cast and people like Patricia Hodge among the guest stars.
This one is on the iPlayer and if you’re not in the UK, it’s on Britbox. I don’t think there is any official word on a series two, but series one did well in the ratings and that production of Twelfth Night I mentioned has announced a run at The Barbican over Christmas where it’s mentioned that Sam West and Freema Agyeman are reprising their roles – but not Gwyneth Keyworth (yet at any rate) so it could be that’s because they’re filming season 2 in the autumn. We can hope anyway…
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 