New Chelsea Cop Show for Acorn TV

Acorn TV will exclusively stream original crime drama The Chelsea Detective from February 7.

It stars Adrian Scarborough (Killing Eve, 1917) as Max Arnold, a detective inspector who lives on a battered houseboat on the Thames when not solving crimes with partner D.C. Priya Shamsie (Luther’s Sonita Henry). Reads the blurb:

Chelsea is a beautiful borough for beautiful people, but it has a dark underside of deprivation, violence, greed – and murder. Bodies have a way of showing up, and things are rarely what they seem, but Max’s determination and acuity mean he’ll find a way to root out the truth and bring those responsible to justice – regardless of their wealth or status.

In the first season, he will investigate four cases in weekly 90-minute episodes:

• The death of a stonemason on the London Underground leads Max into what seems at first like a real life haunting. The victim was a lonely, devout and troubled man who believed himself to be haunted by a spirit leaving him vengeful Biblical messages. Might a real-world explanation be found as they uncover the truth of his life – illicit drugs, bribery, broken family relationships and a man tormented by a terrible secret?
• A social media sensation and wife of a restauranteur is reported missing. As the race to find her alive is transformed into a murder investigation, Max finds himself delving into a combustible mixture of family politics and tensions over the running of their Chelsea eatery.
• A well-liked local security guard is found stabbed to death on a patch of waste ground, leaving behind his terminally ill wife. The evidence initially points to a drug deal gone wrong but Max and Priya soon discover that nothing about the life of their victim is as it seems in an investigation that reaches from the luxury homes of the super-rich to street corner drug dealers.
• A teacher at a prestigious international school is found murdered in his own home shortly before moving to Japan. Scratch the surface and it turns out there’s no shortage of suspects, ranging from feuding colleagues to disgruntled parents, in the murder of this apparently well-liked man.

The series was created by Emmy-winner Peter Fincham, who greenlit Downton Abbey when in charge of TV at ITV. He wrote the episodes with Glen Laker (Vera, Prime Suspect) and Liz Lake (Riviera, Call the Midwife); Richard Signy (Death in Paradise, Silent Witness) and Darcia Martin (Call the Midwife, Judge John Deed) direct.