Communiqué
New Victorian mystery series on MASTERPIECE “Miss Scarlet & The Duke” – Starts January 17 at 8 p.m.
< < Back toMiss Scarlet & The Duke
Kate Phillips and Stuart Martin star in a new Victorian mystery series on MASTERPIECE
Sundays, January 17 – February 21, 2021 on PBS
Before Marple and Tennison, there was Scarlet—Miss Eliza Scarlet, private detective. Kate Phillips (Wolf Hall) stars as Victorian London’s brilliant, beautiful, and first-ever female sleuth, with Stuart Martin (Jamestown) as her friend and associate, Detective Inspector William “The Duke” Wellington. Celebrating MASTERPIECE’s 50th anniversary in 2021, Miss Scarlet & The Duke premieres with six thrilling episodes, Sundays, January 17 – February 21, 2021 at 8 pm on WOUB.
Courtesy of MASTERPIECE
Lighthearted yet gripping, the series features Kevin Doyle (Downton Abbey) as Eliza’s father, Henry Scarlet, who is also her mentor in crime-solving. Danny Midwinter (Casualty) plays the Duke’s profane but proficient sergeant, Frank Jenkins. And Ansu Kabia (World on Fire) is the shadowy underworld figure, Moses, whose motives keep the police guessing.
Also appearing are Andrew Gower (Poldark) as the companionable aristocrat Rupert Parker, who is living a double life; Cathy Belton (Philomena) as Eliza’s devoted housekeeper and former nursemaid, Ivy; and Nick Dunning (The Tudors) as the Duke’s insufferable boss, Superintendent Stirling.
Miss Scarlet & The Duke is set in London at the start of the Sherlock Holmes era, circa 1880. Eliza’s father, Henry, is a widowed retired police officer, currently a private detective running up bills and drinking through his occasional earnings. Nonetheless, he is a talented investigator, and he has taught his only child, Eliza, the trade since she was a girl. She is now determined to break into this male-only profession.
Fortunately, Eliza’s childhood friend happens to be a detective inspector at Scotland Yard: William “The Duke” Wellington. He gets his nickname from the most famous Englishman of the 19th century: the Duke of Wellington, victor over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. Like that other Wellington, the Duke is cool and decisive in a scrape. And he is also a ladies’ man, which leads to interesting complications with Eliza.
Courtesy of MASTERPIECE
Sometimes working together—but often at odds—Eliza and the Duke tackle a series of fascinating cases. On launching her business, Eliza’s initial challenge is not criminals or clients so much as getting society to take a female detective seriously, even one who has mastered wounds, poisons, motives, and red herrings. But she forges ahead and sees her first commission—a simple search for an older gentleman’s lost niece—turn into something very sinister, which she resolves with the Duke’s help.
And with that her career, if not her income, is off and running. Eliza’s exploits range from an open-and-shut murder case that only she realizes is not so clear-cut, to a dastardly plot that will make history if it succeeds, to a client being harassed from beyond the grave. In her final investigation of the season, spanning Episodes 5 and 6, Eliza is pursuing the mystery of her father’s demise when she unwittingly lures the Duke into a deathtrap. Naturally, the ordeal is a bonding experience for the two quarrelsome but secretly affectionate crime-solvers.