A unique and well done riff on the detective mystery, Miss Scarlet and the Duke takes place in Victorian London and centers on a young women trying to make it as a private eye. The series, a joint UK/American production created by Rachel New, shows on PBS. Kate Phillips plays Eliza Scarlet, the middle-class daughter of a former London policeman who takes over his private eye practice upon his death in the early 1880s (just a few years before the Jack the Ripper crimes). Her challenge, to make a success of the business to avoid the default alternative for financial security, marriage. Stuart Martin plays Inspector William "Duke" Wellington. He and Eliza are old friends and – though they seem not to know it – in love with each other.
The show’s dynamics center around Eliza’s efforts to plow through the prejudices and obstacles against a female private eye and the sometimes clashes with the Duke trying to solve the same crime. Eliza – single and hard to imagine otherwise – is kept company at home by her reliable housekeeper and friend Ivy. In the early episodes she enlists help from Moses Valentine, a gifted criminal played wonderfully by Ansu Kabia. Eliza ends up at some point working for (or with, it’s a conundrum) her rival PI, Patrick Nash.
The series coyly plays with the relationship between Eliza and the Duke but it doesn’t get too soppy or interfere with the good solid detective work by both. Now it its fourth season on PBS, the show apparently will be back for a fifth. A solid show, a 4+.
Btw, it used to be that PBS would get to pick up the mysteries from BBC and ITV. But as these shows have become more popular, the UK networks have put their shows into their own streaming channels, including Britbox and Acorn. So PBS has begun co-producing its own including Miss Scarlet as well as showing foreign shows from Walter Presents. One of the best of the latter – and I’m afraid they all may be almost too good to miss, a friend has suggested Origins and I will get to it – is Astrid. There is a new season on PBS, it is quite amazing.
Thanks for this review. I find the writing and excellent cast quite good, too. And I've watched several of the LEWIS seasons since your great review. Glad you nudged me to give it another try. So enjoyable.
Ginny