‘Miss Scarlet and The Duke’ writer reveals Season 4 hopes
It looks like we can expect to see plenty more of Miss Scarlet and The Duke!
The period crime drama launched in the UK back in March 2020 and made its US debut in early 2021 on PBS.
It’s been a big hit in both countries, with 8 million viewers watching in the US, where the second season is airing right now on Sunday nights.
Watch the trailer here:
Miss Scarlet and The Duke stars English actress Kate Phillips (Wolf Hall, The Crown) as Eliza Scarlet, the fictional first ever female detective in Victorian London.
She’s joined by Stuart Martin (Jamestown) as Inspector William “The Duke” Wellington.
It was revealed this summer that fans won’t have long to wait for the third season.
Watch a teaser:
Season 3 will be premiering in the US in just a couple of months’ time from Sunday 8th January on PBS.
In the UK, it’ll air on Alibi in “early 2023.”
As for its future beyond that, the creator and showrunner of Miss Scarlet and the Duke is already feeling positive about Season 4 happening.
Rachael New told the Masterpiece Studio podcast recently: “I would say there is a good chance of this. That’s all I’m going to say.”
She added cautiously: “I always say this, but ‘watch this space’ – you never know.”
If a fourth season gets the green light from PBS and Alibi, we’d expect it to arrive on our screens in the first quarter of 2024.
Rachael New also chatted about how she came up with the idea for Miss Scarlet and the Duke.
She told the podcast: “I had the characters in my head for quite, quite a long time, but I think it was around possibly 2016 — I was sitting in my garden and I sort of was feeling inspired. I wanted to write a spec script, because I’d just come off of a detective show in the UK.
“And so I just started to jot some ideas down and, and then about three hours later, I wandered in into my kitchen and said to my husband, ‘What do you think about London’s first lady detective?’ And he was like, ‘I love it.’ So I was like, ‘Okay,’ And he’s kind of the toughest audience.
“So I was like, ‘There might be something in this.’ And then it kind of just went from there, really. It was such a passion project. And in my head, it was a really easy script to write. But I’m pretty sure that I’ve just created that illusion all these years later!”
Discussing what she drew her to the show’s setup, New explained: “It was a mixture of all my passions – detective shows, a very strong female protagonist…
“I love historical drama, I love historical fiction. I’m really interested in the Victorian era. So it was just a mix of all these different things, really.”
Miss Scarlet and The Duke is currently showing on PBS as part of their Masterpiece Mystery line-up, alongside alongside Magpie Murders and Nicola Walker’s Annika.
Miss Scarlet and The Duke is available on DVD on Amazon.