Masterpiece Brings Imelda Staunton's 'Flesh & Blood' To PBS This October
Flesh and Blood on MASTERPIECE Sundays, October 4-25, 2020 on PBS Imelda Staunton and Francesca Annis star in a juicy mystery about the perils of late-life romance. Claudie Blakley, Russell Tovey, and Lydia Leonard play the grown-up children of Annis’s character. Stephen Rae is her new gentleman friend. Staunton stars as the inquisitive next-door neighbor. And David Bamber is the detective who tries to work out whether an unfortunate incident was an accident or a heinous crime. “A brilliantly intense crime thriller,” judged the London Daily Mirror. Shown from left to right: Imelda Staunton as Mary, Stephen Rea as Mark, Francesca Annis as Vivien, Russell Tovey as Jake, Claudie Blakley as Helen and Lydia Leonard as Natalie For editorial use only. Courtesy of MASTERPIECE
Perhaps it speaks to the mood of 2020 that Masterpiece's Sunday 9 p.m. hour will be given to mysteries and thrillers this fall. September brings the rebooted version of Van Der Valk for audiences to check out. And as soon as that series ends, the next one to follow will be the horror-esquely titled Flesh & Blood, in which an older widow's relationship with a younger man incites suspicion and concern among her family and next-door neighbor.
The four-episode series will run the length of October, ending just before Halloween, so perhaps a little bit of thrill will be just what the doctor ordered. Imelda Staunton (Downton Abbey) and Francesca Annis (Home Fires) lead an all-star ensemble cast that includes Russell Tovey (Years and Years) and Stephen Rea (War & Peace). The story follows the return home of three adult siblings after their father's passing, only to have their mother declare she's fallen in love with a new man, further upending all their lives.
Annis plays Vivien, the mum of the story, who is just turning 70 when retired GP Mark (Rea) sweeps her off her feet. Tovey joins with Claudie Blakley (Manhunt) and Lydia Leonard (Gentleman Jack) as siblings. They are Jake, Helen, and Natalie, and dealing with the shockwave their parents 45-year marriage wasn't the happy one they'd assumed it was. But they're not the only ones digging into Mark, trying to find out who mum's new man is. Imelda Staunton plays Mary, the nosy next-door neighbor who's spent 40 years living next door to Vivien, and perhaps is a little too invested in this sudden redirection of her life.
The mystery begins when Mary teams up with local DI Doug Lineham, played by David Bamber (A Very English Scandal), to discover more about Mark, and they uncover more than they bargained for.
Here's the series' official synopsis:
The lives of three siblings are disrupted when their recently widowed mother declares she's in love with a new man. The older woman's budding romance provokes suspicion among her adult children and their inquisitive next-door neighbor, and a detective investigates whether an unfortunate incident was an accident or a heinous crime.
Despite the description and the ominous title, this is no noir tale. Director Louise Hooper says she was going for something a little more lighthearted.
There’s lots of crime dramas really anchored in location and clues but this is something that could be a bit more heightened so that’s what I jumped off in terms of tone. I wanted it to be like a modern parable, you’ve got the sea which you’ve got no control over, you’ve got the shingle and the two houses. A bit like a theatre stage, you’ve got the characters that come into that. There’s no town or city, we’re not anchored to anything so it floats in its own little heightened story… We’re trying to do something different from the gritty, monochromatic noir which is very plot and detail driven. It’s something which is light and funny and joyful I hope.
Flesh & Blood begins airing on Sunday, Oct. 4, at 9 p.m. ET on Masterpiece. As always, check your local listings.
