New to Acorn TV in February

January 24, 2021 0 Comments

One of French TV’s 10 highest-rating dramas in 2018, Balthazar, will stream here for the first time from February 1 on Acorn TV.

The six-part whodunit stars Tomer Sisley (Messiah, The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch) as an intelligent and quick-witted forensic pathologist in Paris who can make the dead speak like no one else, a skill that means his victims help him to solve their own violent murders.

How so? He becomes so personally invested in their back stories that he speaks with them while conducting their autopsies at the morgue and they interact in return.

Hélène Bach (Hélène de Fougerolles, The Beach, Mutants) co-stars as his partner in crime solving.

Balthazar may sound too bizarrely gimmicky to bother with but it’s recommended on sites like TV Insider (“solid and inviting crime drama”) and Decider (“succeeds because of the chemistry between its leads, and that Balthazar himself is just weird and obnoxious enough to be likable”).

S2 will stream on Acorn TV from March.

Also new next month will be 15 Days, a Channel 5 variation on the Welsh series 35 Days that opens with a murder, then rewinds 15 days to reveal the killer (February 15):

This intense family drama begins with the brutal shooting of Rhys (Tom Rhys Harris, The Gentlemen, Midsomer Murders), killed investigating a noise while his wife and child wait inside. As Rhys lies bleeding, the action flashes back 15 days, introducing the three siblings of the marked man as the family gathers to scatter their mother’s ashes.

Confined together in the old family estate, the tension is palpable amongst the estranged siblings as dark secrets, lies and betrayals bubble to the surface in the lead up to the violent crime. Also starring Freddy Carter (Free Rein, Shadow and Bone), David Caves (Silent Witness), Frances Grey (Shetland, Vanity Fair) and Aneirin Hughes (Keeping Faith).

The Times said it was “a neat deceit” and The Guardian, “a deeply satisfying Welsh farmhouse murder mystery”.

Other platform premieres will include:

February 1