'Unforgotten's Sanjeev Bhaskar to Head 'Inspector Singh Investigates'
Sunny (Sanjeev Bhaskar) in 'Unforgotten'
Mainstreet Pictures for ITV/MASTERPIECE
Since the one-two punch of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, British mysteries have been one of the U.K.'s most popular exports in the entertainment business. The genre is so popular that PBS's Masterpiece had to create a separate franchise branch, Mystery!, to cover them all. From action-ride contemporary thrillers like Line of Duty to victorian rom-com mysteries like Miss Scarlet & The Duke, they are ratings gold. Naturally, BritBox has been leaning into them heavily since getting into the original programming game. Their latest will star the lead of a Masterpiece Mystery favorite, as Sanjeev Bhaskar has signed on to lead Inspector Singh Investigates.
The new series is based on mystery novel series of the same name written by Malaysian author Shamini Flint. The series began with the 2009 novel Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder and runs seven books, the last of which was published in 2016. Flint's titular detective is a misfit in the hypermasculine Singaporean police force culture: middle-aged, balding, overweight, disheveled, disorganized, and a bit of a klutz. However, his genius at finding and solving crimes means he has success wherever his superiors try and shunt him off.
Though Bhaskar became famous here in the states as the calmer, more sensitive half of the Unforgotten team alongside Nicola Walker's DCI Cassie Stuart, he initially started as a comedian, stealing scenes in Notting Hill and Scoop. He's best known for his work in U.K. TV comedies Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No. 42, where he starred alongside his eventual wife, Meera Syal.
The crime drama is based on the novel of the same name from author Shamini Flint, following Bhaskar as the titular Inspector Singh as he investigates complex murders rooted in the cultural DNA of exotic Asian countries.
Despite the slightly cringy use of "exotic," Inspector Singh follows what is quickly becoming a hallmark of BritBox's three-part mysteries: British mysteries set in places other than London. Between Karen Pirie's Scottish setting, Murder in Provance's French fare, and now Inspector Singh Investigates' South Asian milieu, it seems like BritBox is all in on English mysteries that happen to take place not in England.
However, the comedic nature of Inspector Singh's fish out of water detective seems like the perfect blend of the two genres for Bhaskar and a chance to show Americans his comedic skills, even though BritBox billed the new series as "a three-part drama." (Meanwhile, his wife, Syal, is also getting into the mystery business in another comic mystery, Mrs. Sidhu Investigates, which also is slated to debut in 2023 on BritBox's main rival Acorn TV.)
Inspector Singh Investigates does not yet have a release date, but BritBox International CEO Reemah Sakaan mentioned it in conjunction with several other 2023 titles and suggested the show is planned to release next year.
