'Patience' Rewarded with Season 2 Ahead of PBS Debut

Much like the Ben Miller version of Professor T, PBS' new series Patience arrives next month with a semi-built-in audience. Based on the super popular French crime drama Astrid, about an autistic researcher who helps her police precinct solve crimes, the new show is an English language remake of the Walter Presents favorite (four seasons and counting on PBS Passport). Foreign language fans who are big into the original will probably at least check out the new version. The English language edition also has one small but crucial alteration: the actor who plays the lead character, Patience Evans, Ella Maisy Purvis, is also on the autism spectrum. In fact, every character with a diagnosis of a spectrum disorder is played by an actor who has the same diagnosis.

Between the novelty of a show walking the walk of casting differently abled actors as differently abled characters, the popularity of the original, and Grantchester Season 10 directly following, it's pretty much guaranteed the show will at least do moderately well, if not land as a major hit. Perhaps that's why Channel 4 decided to announce the show was being renewed for Season 2, despite the series still being a month out from its U.S. premiere.

Purvis has been front and center of the U.K. media storm around this show, giving candid interviews where she discussed how it felt to be othered by her peers, how autistic women are usually infantilized in mainstream media, and how much the show means to her personally, both as an actor and as someone who on the spectrum, being the representation she's always wanted to see. In the press release for Season 2, Purvis said: "The response and popularity of Season 1 were staggering, so I am beyond thrilled to dive back into the world of Patience for Season 2, especially because we have some brilliant new cases to crack. Buckle up!"