The Final Preview for 'Annika' Season 1 Regrets Not Bringing Cupcakes

The loss of Nicola Walker as DCI Cassie Stuart from Unforgotten was one of the big dramas of 2021. Though to be fair, her character had been written into a corner, and her passing made sense for the story to continue, it was still a blow to see one of the few female-led detective shows lose a fan-favorite actress. But the gap was short-lived for those with PBS Passport, as last spring, the Alibi series Annika arrived on streaming. A televised adaptation of the BBC 4 Radio series of the same name Walker already headlined, it put her right back in the thick of things.

Now those dependent on linear PBS will get to join in the fun, as Walker's series arrives just in time for Halloween as part of Masterpiece's mystery lineup. Walker is the perfect addition to the slate, with kicks off with Kate Phillips as Miss Eliza Scarlet, a 19th-century London private detective, and then moves into Lesley Manville as editor-turned-amateur detective Susan Ryeland, moving from her present-day surrounding to the 1950s novel that will help her solve who killed her most lucrative author client. Walker is a professional detective in a thoroughly modern setting as part of the Scottish Police Force.

Not that Walker will be forced to do a Scottish brogue. Her character, Annika Strandhed, in the radio series was from Olso. Here she is a Detective Inspector in the Scottish Police; however, she's a recently transferred one. She's just joined the Glasgow Marine Homicide Unit, meaning she can keep her everyday accent that PBS viewers are already familiar with. As she says in the new trailer, it's a new name, a new team, and a new town, but the mysteries they solve and the crimes committed are as familiar as ever. Pass the cupcakes.