New to Acorn TV in November

October 20, 2021 0 Comments

A Channel 5 adaptation of PD James’ Dalgliesh novels starring Doctor Foster’s Bertie Carvel will stream exclusively on Acorn TV next month — around the same time it screens in the UK.

It’s the second time the enigmatic sleuth has had his own TV series, the first being in the 1980s when Roy Marsden memorably played him.

This version will adapt up to 14 novels and follow Dalgliesh’s crime-solving from the 1970s to today.

The first three are Shroud for a Nightingale, The Black Tower and A Taste for Death. Reads the blurb:

Dalgliesh meticulously pieces together peculiar cases, occasionally drawing on personal tragedy, to solve unusual murders, revealing long-buried secrets along the way. The fiercely private and cerebral detective often finds himself in a race against time to catch a killer before they strike again. Tall, dark, handsome and astute at hunting murderers, this Mr. Darcy-meets-Sherlock Holmes drama is sure to keep you captivated.

The first two-episode story arc sees Dalgliesh sent to a nursing school to investigate the death of a student poisoned during a demonstration. As he investigates the case and uncovers the secrets hidden in the school, can Dalgliesh identify the killer before they strike again?

In the second, Dalgliesh is invited to Dorset by an old friend, only to discover that he has recently died, as has a resident at a mysterious nearby home for the disabled. Though technically off-duty, Dalgliesh wonders if there’s a connection between the deaths and if he can identify the murderer before they escape or kill again – or could he himself be next?

In his third case, Dalgliesh is called in to investigate when two bodies are found in a London church with their throats slashed – a homeless man and an aristocratic Tory MP who had recently resigned after a guest drowned at his wife’s birthday party. Discovering more home truths about the MP’s family, Dalgliesh is forced to draw on his own personal tragedies to disarm the killer.

Also new to Acorn next month will be the 2009 Maureen Lipman-Anne Reid comedy about two widowed pen-pals, Ladies of Letters, and the 2009 Robbie Coltrane murder mystery Murderland.

Here’s next month’s full slate:

November 1