'Sister Boniface Mysteries' Season 3 Will Reinhabit BritBox Come April

BritBox may have been bought out by the BBC at the end of February, but change is not in the cards for the British streaming service, at least not right away. The going theory in circles right now is that BBC didn't buy BritBox to change how the already successful streamer was doing business, but to expand on it. It took BritBox several years to discover spinning off already-successful series like the BBC's hits Father Brown and Death in Paradise with Sister Boniface Mysteries and Beyond Paradise was the way to go. Beyond Paradise has already set a date for Season 2's return, and now Sister Boniface is doing the same.

Both spinoffs were last seen in December 2023, when their respective Christmas specials arrived on BritBox in the week before the holiday. In the case of Sister Boniface, the "Festive Special" functioned much like the Madame Blanc Mysteries special does over on BritBox's main rival Acorn TV, in that the December special is technically the premiere episode of the new season, just divided off from the pack. So even though "The Star of the Orient," a retelling of Murder on the Orient Express, just reset in Great Slaughter, was treated like a one-off snowbound adventure, technically it was Episode 301, aka Season 3, Episode 1.

The rest of Season 3 will not arrive until late April on BritBox, pushing the show even further back from the initial February debut window it occupied in Season 1. (Season 2 debuted at the top of April 2022.) As usual, the show does not yet have a release date in the UK and is not expected to cross the pond to air on UK TV until after it finishes airing in the States. Father Brown, meanwhile, continues to be a BBC property. Lorna Watson did double duty as Sister Boniface, appearing in both shows for 2024, in a Season 11 episode that now technically acts as a backdoor pilot directly leading into Sister Boniface Season 1. (Shhhh. No one needs to know it didn't exist until Sister Boniface was officially established as a hit first. it can be our secret.)

Here's the synopsis for the show's forthcoming third season:

In Season 3, a famous organist is murdered mid-tune in the chapel, Great Slaughter’s first sci-fi convention results in a mysterious kidnapping, and a ‘dead cert’ at the screen tests for the new ‘Agent Best’ ends up, well… dead.  To top it all, Felix has a challenge of his own when his fiancée Victoria arrives from Bermuda with an ultimatum that could change everything…

Watson returns with the rest of the show's regular cast, including Max Brown (The Tudors) as Detective Inspector Sam Gillespie, Jerry Iwu (Sex Education) as Detective Sergeant Felix Livingstone, and Ami Metcalf (Nan) as Constable WPC Peggy Button. Miranda Raison (Warrior), who played reporter Ruth Penny in Season 1 and only guested in Season 2, is not expected to return this season. 

Series creator Jude Tindall is the head writer for Season 3's eight episodes, with Ian Barber as lead director. Executive producers include Stephen Nye, Will Trotter, Emily Powers, and Jonathan Karas for BritBox.

Sister Boniface Mysteries Season 3 will premiere on BritBox on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, with two episodes. It will follow a two-episode-a-week format for its four-week run.