Miss Scarlet and The Duke is a British-Irish period crime television drama created by Rachael New, starring Kate Phillips and Stuart Martin as a pair of Victorian investigators.[1][2]
| Miss Scarlet and The Duke | |
|---|---|
| Genre | crime drama Mystery Period drama |
| Created by | Rachael New |
| Directed by | Declan O'Dwyer Ivan Živković |
| Starring |
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| Country of origin | Ireland United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 12 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Producer | Aaron Farrell |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production companies |
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| Release | |
| Original network | Worldwide: Alibi United States: PBS |
| Original release | 31 March 2020 (2020-03-31) – present |
The first series began broadcasting on Alibi on 31 March 2020[3] and premiered in the US on 17 January 2021, as part of PBS's Masterpiece anthology series.[4] Miss Scarlet and The Duke was the first series that PBS purchased from, or co-produced with, a British channel other than the BBC, Channel 4, or ITV. In Canada, it airs on CBC Gem.
A second season was announced on 29 March 2021 by Masterpiece PBS [5] and started airing on Alibi on 14 June 2022, with the PBS run scheduled to start on 16 October 2022.
The series was later renewed for season three, which will premiere on PBS on 8 January 2023.[6]
In Victorian London (1882), Eliza Scarlet is left almost penniless when her father, Henry Scarlet, unexpectedly dies. Although marriage would appear to be the only option for a woman’s financial security, Eliza resolves to continue her father's detective agency alone, working under his name. Struggling to build her reputation in the male-dominated world of crime-solving, she frequently calls on her old friend William Wellington (Duke), a gruff, womanising Detective Inspector of Scotland Yard, to help her acquire cases, but this seldom works. Instead, Eliza often resorts to stealing case files from William's office.
Eliza Scarlet is determined, clever, and wily. Series writer and creator Rachael New took inspiration for the character from Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennett (Pride and Prejudice) and Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind. Born into a middle-class family, Eliza uses her appearance as a refined Victorian lady to her advantage when working on cases. But underneath Eliza is scrappy and feisty, much to many people's surprise, which works in her favour. William and Eliza work on numerous cases together, though she is uncredited, causing disputes between them. Eliza employs the services of a known criminal, Moses, much to William's annoyance. Moses is amused by Eliza's gumption and they connect as outsiders to society. Eliza befriends Rupert Parker, a wealthy man who loans her money for her agency as an investment. Rupert is the bachelor (and secretly gay) son of Mrs. Parker, who owns Eliza's house, and relies on Eliza's advice to navigate his personal life. Eliza lives with Ivy, who cooks for her and helped raise her after Eliza's mother died (some time before the series begins). Eliza and William bicker and argue constantly, but also share moments of subtle flirtation and care for each other deeply.
William is known in the police force as "The Duke", a nickname referring to the Duke of Wellington. Eliza's late father Henry had saved William from the Glasgow streets as a child, and later mentored him through the police academy. When William and Eliza were teenagers they once shared a chaste kiss. William looked up to Henry as an honourable and good man. Though William is irritated by Eliza's detective aspirations, he cares for her and gradually begins to show respect for her skills.
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | U.K viewers (millions) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Inheritance" | Declan O'Dwyer | Rachael New | 31 March 2020 (2020-03-31) | N/A | |
| After the death of her private detective father, Eliza Scarlet tries to take on a case for herself while claiming that her father is still alive, but the investigation is complicated when she realises that she has been manipulated to help a man gain custody of his wife's inheritance. With the aid of her father's old protégé, Detective William Wellington (known as 'the Duke'), and a con artist named Moses, Eliza is able to find a loophole that leads to the man being arrested and his wife allowed to go free. | ||||||
| 2 | "The Woman in Red" | Declan O'Dwyer | Rachael New | 7 April 2020 (2020-04-07) | N/A | |
| Eliza finds that her father allowed the lease on her ancestral home lapse and is told she will have to vacate if the funds are not paid. She offers her assistance to the Duke for a fee and is rebuffed, so her next case is seemingly impossible: the wife of a man hires her to prove his innocence after he pled guilty for being found at a murder scene with a bloodied knife in his hand. She again meets Moses, who says he wishes to hire her to find a snuff box that the dead man was holding for him in his safe. | ||||||
| 3 | "Deeds not Words" | Declan O'Dwyer | Rachael New | 14 April 2020 (2020-04-14) | N/A | |
| Eliza is hired by Duke to go undercover and infiltrate a women's suffrage group campaigning for the vote, where she finds the leader is willing to go to any means to justify the end. | ||||||
| 4 | "Memento Mori" | Declan O'Dwyer | Ben Edwards | 21 April 2020 (2020-04-21) | N/A | |
| Eliza finds herself contacted by a death photographer who is receiving bizarre and threatening messages from beyond the grave. She later makes a surprising discovery about her father and realizes that the Duke is taking all the credit for solving cases that she herself has solved. | ||||||
| 5 | "Cell 99" | Declan O'Dwyer | Ben Edwards | 28 April 2020 (2020-04-28) | N/A | |
| Eliza's discovery of her father's casebook leads her to an abandoned prison on the outskirts of London. She and the Duke investigate what seems like an empty building, but they soon discover that it is the hideout for a criminal gang. Moses is believed to be involved by William, but Eliza defends him. | ||||||
| 6 | "The Case of Henry Scarlet" | Declan O'Dwyer | Rachael New | 5 May 2020 (2020-05-05) | N/A | |
| Eliza has discovered things are not what they seemed with her father, presumed to have died from a heart attack. With time running out, she has to solve a perplexing puzzle. Moses tells her that William is not the man she thinks he is. | ||||||
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date [7] | U.K viewers (millions) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 1 | "Pandora's Box" | Steve Hughes | Rachael New | 14 June 2022 (2022-06-14) | N/A | |
| Eliza is hired to investigate the disappearance of a young woman who works at the Wentworths shop, a case which has already been dismissed by Duke. | |||||||
| 8 | 2 | "The Black Witch Moth" | Steve Hughes | Rachael New | 21 June 2022 (2022-06-21) | N/A | |
| Eliza is hired by an insurance company to investigate the disappearance of a rare sketch by Charles Darwin, but the case becomes more complicated when it turns out the insurance company that hired her doesn't exist. | |||||||
| 9 | 3 | "A Pauper's Grave" | Steve Hughes | Rachael New | 28 June 2022 (2022-06-28) | N/A | |
| Eliza is accused of breaking into the city morgue and stealing files when her mother's ring is found there, but the subsequent investigation reveals ties to a series of past thefts. | |||||||
| 10 | 4 | "Angel of Inferno" | Ivan Zivkovic | Rachael New | 5 July 2022 (2022-07-05) | N/A | |
| Eliza is hired to investigate a blackmail case at the same time as rival private detective Patrick Nash tries to force her to join his agency. | |||||||
| 11 | 5 | "Quarter to Midnight" | Ivan Zivkovic | Ben Edwards | 12 July 2022 (2022-07-12) | N/A | |
| Duke is offered a promotion to Chief Inspector that would require him to transfer to Glasgow, while a series of murders are revealed to be based on a writer's work. | |||||||
| 12 | 6 | "The Proposal" | Ivan Zivkovic | Ben Edwards, Rachael New | 19 July 2022 (2022-07-19) | N/A | |
Although set in London, the series was shot in Dublin.[2] The street where Eliza Scarlet lives is Mount Pleasant Square, Ranelagh, Dublin 6. The distinctive green dome of Mary Immaculate, Refuge of Sinners Church, Rathmines is visible in some street scenes. The police station where the Duke works is the CBS Westland Row in Cumberland Street. Although part of the skyline is CGI including the train tunnel arches which are not open in reality. There is a train station, Pearse Station behind the school with St Andrew's Church alongside.