'The Trouble with Maggie Cole' Recap: Season 1 Episode 1
It’s Sunday night and that can only mean one thing. A new British series has arrived on PBS and this time it’s The Trouble with Maggie Cole. For the next six weeks, we’ll be getting to know the residents of Thurlbury, a fictional, picturesque coastal village. Starring Dawn French in the titular role, she and a talented ensemble cast play out a distinctly cautionary tale about the pitfalls of spreading rumors with intrigue and a bit of humor.
The debut episode spends a fair amount of time introducing us to the townsfolk of Thurlbury which, we learn early on, is about to celebrate its 500th anniversary. We begin, of course, with Maggie Cole (French), the curator of the Thurlbury Historic Keep. Her husband Peter (Mark Heap) is the headmaster of the town’s primary school and is counting down the days to his retirement.
Maggie calls him bursting with news that she’s been asked to do a local radio interview concerning the Thurlbury anniversary celebration. During the course of this conversation, we are shown that Maggie is quite the busybody – guessing the identity of the "dead bird boy" in Peter’s office and assigning her husband the task of pestering their son and daughter-in-law about having a baby when they come over for dinner that night.
