For folks who’ve been waiting for The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher telefilms to begin streaming stateside, your wait is over.
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is a series of four made-for-TV movies starring two-time BAFTA Film Award winner Paddy Considine (Tyrannosaur, Dog Altogether, Peaky Blinders) as Jack Whicher, one of the first eight real-life members of the new Detective Branch set up by Scotland Yard in 1842.
The first telefilm — The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: The Murder at Road Hill House — is based on the book The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale, which won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction in 2008. The story is based on an actual case investigated by Detective Inspector Whicher, which centered on the horrific murder of a three-year-old boy in June 1860 in Wiltshire, England.
The movie stars Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who), Tom Georgeson (Bleak House), Emma Fielding (Close to the Enemy), Kate O’Flynn (Doctor Thorne), Donald Sumpter (Game of Thrones), Ben Miles (The Crown), and Alexandra Roach (No Offence).
The second through fourth films are are fictionalized accounts of Whicher’s subsequent career as a private investigator.
The first of these is The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: The Murder in Angel Lane, which revolves around Whicher’s inquiries into the disappearance of Mary Drew, the 16-year-old niece of Susan Spencer (Olivia Colman, Broadchurch). Upon the discovery of Mary’s lifeless body in Angel Lane, Spencer engages Whicher’s services again, this time to find her niece’s murderer.
Whicher’s request for help from his former police colleagues yields little, as both Dolly Williamson (William Beck, Casualty), the (real-life) head of the Detective Branch, and Commissioner Richard Mayne (the late, great Tim Pigott-Smith, North & South), the (also real-life) head of the Metropolitan Police, warn him off meddling in a police matter. A demoralized Whicher is on the verge of giving up when he discovers a new clue about the murder, but his efforts are thwarted by individuals in positions of power and he finds himself in danger.
Costars in the movie include Shaun Dingwall (Maigret), Billy Postlethwaite (Tomb Raider), Mark Bazeley (Home Fires), Sean Baker (WPC 56), Alistair Petrie (Undercover), Justin Edwards (The Thick of It), and Justine Mitchell (Amber).
In The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: Beyond the Pale, former Home Secretary Sir Edward Shore (Nicholas Jones, Kavanagh QC) hires Mr. Whicher, the man he fired from the police force, to find out who’s been making threats against his son. Captain Charles Shore (John Heffernan, Dickensian), who recently returned to London from India with his wife and children, has been pursued by lascars seeking retribution. But Whicher’s investigation is complicated by the murder of an Indian man.
Featuring in this telefilm are Nancy Carroll (Father Brown), Laura Morgan (The Hollow Crown), Muzz Khan (Galavant), and Ellora Torchia (Indian Summers).
The final movie in the series is The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: The Ties That Bind, which finds Mr. Whicher engaged in a Cheaters-like assignment for Sir Henry Coverly (Risteard Cooper, Delicious), who suspects his wife, Lady Jane Coverly (Helen Bradbury, Sherlock), of infidelity.
It looks to be a simple matter until Lady Jane’s lover is murdered and a man who swears he’s innocent is about to hang for the crime.
Richard Dixon (Taboo), Joanna Horton (Endeavour), Gwyneth Keyworth (Hidden/Craith) James Northcote (The Last Kingdom), Alex Robertson (The Village), and Luke Thompson (In the Club) feature in the film.
All four of The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher movies began streaming yesterday in the US on Prime Video.
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