'The Madame Blanc Mysteries' Season 4 Premiere Brings Fun, Sun & Murder

Acorn TV’s fourth series of The Madame Blanc Mysteries opens with the holiday episode, which aired in December 2024 in the U.K. on Channel 5, back-to-back with what is technically the first episode of Season 4 in the U.K., but listed here as Season 4, Episode 2, “Beach Club.” The gorgeous sunny Mediterranean setting is littered with tinsel, Christmas hats, and holiday cheer in the fictional French town of Sainte-Victoire. 

The Madame Blanc of the series title, Jean White (Sally Lindsay), is a widowed antiques expert with a sideline in detective work, who relocated to France after the death of her husband. Four seasons in, she’s now a member of a genial community of British ex-pats. Lindsay and Sue Vincent, who play Jean’s friend Gloria Beauvillier, are co-creators/directors of the series.

Jean is also close friends with taxi driver Dom Hayes (Steve Edge), and it’s a friendship that’s developing into something more. Dom offers her a ring box, and they’re both flustered and embarrassed when she opens it to find a key to his house. Neither is quite ready for a proposal, and they agree to keep their romance a secret in this gossipy community. They’re on their way to visit ditzy Jeremy and Judith Lloyd-James (Robin Askwith and Sue Holderness), who are celebrating their wedding anniversary as well as the holidays. But, unsurprisingly, they don’t stay long, as Jean is summoned to a crime scene by Police Chief Inspector André Caron (Alex Gaumond).

The local Christmas fair features a traditional Guignol puppet show presented by a father-son team, Christian (Philippe Spall) and Frederick Delise (Pavel Douglas), who are busy knocking back wine in between entertaining a crowd of children. But during a break, Christian disappears and is found unconscious. He suffers from a bleeding disorder, and his injuries may prove fatal as he’s rushed to the hospital. On the scene, Jean’s antique expertise kicks in, and she examines the puppet found next to him. It appears authentic at first glance, but upon closer examination, it proves to be a modern copy equipped with razor blades. 

Joanna (Melanie Kilburn), Christian’s ex-wife & Frederick’s estranged mother, shows up to comfort him, only to bear the brunt of his grief and anger. She left her marriage when Frederick was ten years old, and now has custody of Fred's daughter, her granddaughter Giselle (Cleo Quesne).

Meanwhile, we know something is bothering the Lloyd-Jameses, and it’s connected to their wedding, which took place almost four decades ago. Judith visits Gloria and tells her she received a card from her former bridesmaid with the message that her wedding to Jeremy is invalid. She’s terrified he’ll find out. Predictably, Jeremy has also received the same information from another friend, and he’s terrified she’ll find out. As he tells Dom's uncle, Patrick (Tony Robinson), who runs the bar Jeremy owns, the priest who married them 38 years ago was not ordained but a member of the Paris Mafia in disguise. 

(Really? Never mind, just enjoy the ride.)

Dom drives Jean home, stopping to show her a constellation that resembles a Christmas tree. She invites him in, and he admits he has an overnight bag in his car, making a further confession that it’s been there for weeks, just in case. The next morning, they exchange Christmas gifts, but the festive atmosphere changes when Jean receives the news that Christian Delise has died. 

Jean and André visit Joanne at home with her husband, Hans (Lino Mintoff), and granddaughter, Giselle, to tell her that the case has now escalated to murder. The family is exchanging Christmas gifts, and Jean admires the Civil War shaving set Hans has received. He admits grooming is his passion. (Yes, it's weird.) Giselle goes outside, ostensibly to call a friend, but instead calls her father. Joanne tells Jean she left her alcoholic husband because he abused both her and Frederick. Under French law at the time, since reformed, fathers had sole rights over their children; Joanne tried to rescue her son, but it was too late. 

When she left the family, the violence and drinking escalated. Joanne was fearful for her granddaughter and successfully applied for custody. The police discover that Frederick recently took out a €100,000 insurance policy on his father. But he shows them the signature on the policy is his father’s and suggests Joanne killed him. But Joanne and Hans have an alibi that they were at the theater at the time of the murder. Jean snoops around the bathroom and, after they leave, presents André with a razor blade, similar to those used to cut Christian, which he confirms matches. She also noticed that Giselle gave her grandmother a hand-sewn patchwork apron for Christmas.

Jean meets Dom for a drink, and he tells her that Joanne and Hans couldn’t have gone to the theater because it was closed for an emergency sprinkler system repair. The couple is arrested, and their alibi is destroyed. They confessed that Frederick was threatening to sell their house, to which Joanna had no legal claim, so they arranged a meeting at which Hans’s brother would put pressure on him (and they created their alibi just in case things got out of hand). But the police can’t contact Hans’s brother, and the trail seems to have gone cold.

André and Jean turn their attention to Giselle, with Children’s Services present since she’s a minor. She was captured in a press photograph near the puppet show the day of Christian’s death. She admits she hated her grandfather, and under questioning, confesses to having made the lethal duplicate puppet. She’s arrested, and sadly, Dom is the only one to suggest that possibly her family might bear some responsibility for her actions.

Meanwhile, Judith and Jeremy Lloyd-James accept an invitation from Patrick to an Advocaat tasting that evening, where they finally confess to each other that they know they’re not legally married. However, to their surprise, Patrick has arranged an emergency wedding service for them, with their friends in attendance. Happy Christmas!

Jeremy and Judith Lloyd-James are treating themselves to a stay at the luxurious Miroir de l’Ocean Beach Club, both swathed in leopard-print wraps. As ridiculous as Jeremy looks, you have to admire his male confidence in dressing to match his wife. As they enter the Club’s lobby, receptionist Xena (Greta Holland) informs them that a guest is missing, Antoine Lefevre (Nicky Naude), CEO of SL2K Holdings, who went missing following a party last night. But then we’re diverted by a detour into Hawaii-Five-0 as Jeremy and Judith zoom away on Jet Skis. 

Naturally, they come across a dinghy floating unattended in the water with a corpse on board, a plastic bag over his head, and coins in his eyes, apparently strangled. They tow the boat and its passenger back to shore, where conveniently a Dr. Martin (Malcolm Galeo) turns up, takes charge, and finds the body has a faint pulse. However, he’s too late, and when Antoine’s business partner Nicolas Arlez (Dan March) returns from the hospital, he reports Antoine has died.

Police Chief Inspector André Caron asks the Lloyd-Jameses to stay on at the Beach Club while he solves the murder, which they’re happy to do. He then calls his sidekick, Jean, who, with her partner Dom, is making an elaborate pretense of meeting by accident in Patrick’s bar. Patrick is tasting some wine that has just been delivered, grumbling about the cost and inconsistent quality. He and Gloria set off for the winemakers’ vineyard, Rotto Sisters, in her new van, named Electric Ladyland.

Despite her whimsical fluffiness, Gloria is the successful owner of Saint-Victoire’s auto business. She agrees that two bottles of wine, supposedly identical, taste entirely different. (Dom has also tasted it and come to the same conclusion.) When they arrive, they hear the sisters complaining about “that idiot Englishwoman,” none other than Judith Lloyd-James. The sisters are running a scam by putting expensive labels on inexpensive wine. Patrick tries to call Judith, who doesn’t believe him and, distracted by a hot stone massage, becomes incoherent. 

The only option Patrick has is to go to the police, but Dom points out that English expats accusing lovely old ladies of crimes won’t go down too well. When Judith and Patrick start to plot an after-hours visit to the wine dealers, Dom refuses to be involved.

Jean identifies the coins found on the body’s eyes as rare antiques, valued together at €8,000. It’s an expensive tribute to the ancient world’s custom of placing coins on the eyes of the dead to pay Charon, the ferryman of the Underworld. Antoine was a keen coin collector, they learn, as she and André interview Nicolas and IT consultant Marilyn Feo (Samantha Power). The only enemy Antoine had was his daughter Cherise’s ex-boyfriend, Hugo Levé (Miguel Formosa), who, some years ago, was responsible for her death in a traffic accident. After he served his time, Antoine hounded and harassed him, forcing Hugo to move to Toulouse. Marilyn adds that Antoine told her he’d seen Hugo recently on the beach.

André and Jean find that the plastic bag on Antoine’s head came from a deli chain with only three branches, all in Toulouse. As they set off to interview Hugo, Jean sees Nicolas leave, chauffeured by someone we recognize as Dr. Martin, who helped get Antoine to the hospital. Hugo assures them that the guilt he feels for Cherise’s death far outweighs any hatred he may have for Antoine. He was seen on CCTV at the hotel because he’d gone there to pick up his girlfriend Xena, who now enters the apartment and confirms his statement. André and Jean leave, knowing they have insufficient evidence for an arrest.

The coins have been identified as the property of internet coin dealers Echange de Metaux, which Jean is familiar with, and she and André visit. Owner Marie (Michelle Martin), deep in the throes of menopause, didn’t even know the coins were missing since they were there when she’d cleaned her inventory the previous day. Her only visitor since then was her marketing consultant — none other than Marilyn Theo.

Marilyn confesses she and Antoine were lovers and that she took the coins at his request after he explained the business had cash flow issues. But once he had the coins, he told her he was “reconsidering” their relationship. André arrests her.

Dom, waiting for Jean at the Beach Club, joins Jeremy and Judith for drinks, and they panic when Jeremy chokes on a nut. Judith sees “Dr. Martin” getting into a car and calls for help, but he drives off, leaving Dom to do his first Heimlich maneuver. (He claims he learned it from Mrs. Doubtfire.) Jean arrives with an explanation for Martin’s behavior: he’s an impostor — he’s Nicholas’s driver. She prises Dom from Jeremy’s grateful embrace, and they follow the fake doctor to a house where they see the supposedly deceased Antoine Lefevre enjoying a smoke. As she phones André, Nicolas reaches through the open car window and holds a knife to her throat, confirming she’s right that the whole fake murder is a setup.

Once inside the house, all is explained as it’s a convention of the genre that villains love to chat interminably. Marilyn was expendable, Antoine explains, because she became annoying. The company’s insurance was set up so that if one partner died, all debts would be forgiven. Antoine and Nicolas planned to meet up after a year and live happily ever after in Barbados.

At the last moment, André arrives with reinforcements, and the villains are arrested. He’s done what he should have done before, checked out the details of Antoine’s “death” and found that the address given for the hospital is a supermarket, and everything else, including the ambulance, was faked.

As for Patrick and Gloria’s after-hours visit to the winery, they invite Jeremy and Judith to the unmasking of the Rotto Sisters. Thanks to Gloria’s expertise with the label printer, every bottle now declares: “Your wine is not worth the glass it’s bottled in.”

The Madame Blanc Mysteries Season 4 continues with new episodes every Monday through August 11, 2025, on Acorn TV. Seasons 1 through 3 are available to stream on Acorn TV. You can also watch Seasons 1 and 2 on select PBS Passports. As always, check your local streaming services.