#SmallScreenScenes ACORN TV ANNOUNCES MARCH 2020 SLATE MARCH 2020 – BLOOD, MISS FISHER AND THE CRYPT OF TEARS FEATURE FILM, THE SCHOUWENDAM 12, MURDOCH MYSTERIES
Exclusives Feature Return of Acclaimed UK Series BLOOD Starring Line of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar, MISS FISHER AND THE CRYPT OF TEARS Movie Starring Essie Davis (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries), New Episodes of Canadian Hit Series MURDOCH MYSTERIES and New Dutch Series THE SCHOUWENDAM 12
Let AMC Networks’ Acorn TV be your streaming destination this March for a wide range of alluring premieres – from world-class thrillers to high-quality dramas to suspenseful mysteries. Many eagerly-anticipated exclusives abound this month, including Acorn TV’s first feature film with the latest installment of international phenomenon Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (and its first since 2015), series 2 of the acclaimed Irish drama BLOOD (starring Adrian Dunbar, co-star of UK hit Line of Duty), new episodes of long-running Canadian series MURDOCH MYSTERIES, and more. Binge on!
AMC Networks’ leading streaming service for Britain and Beyond has the following exclusive premieres for the offering:
BLOOD, the gritty Irish psychological thriller TIME calls “one of the best overlooked shows of 2018” returns with a powerful second series and stars award-winning actor Adrian Dunbar, who plays Lt. Hastings in UK’s #1 2019 drama, Line of Duty. (Trailer)
MISS FISHER AND THE CRYPT OF TEARS, Acorn TV’s first feature film continues the intriguing story of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, one of the most popular Australian series worldwide starring Essie Davis (The Babadook, Game of Thrones). This is the series’ first installment since the third season wrapped in 2015 and it recently had its World Premiere at the prestigious Palm Springs International Film Festival. (New U.S. trailer)
Award-winning Canadian series MURDOCH MYSTERIES unrolls new episodes on Mondays with more whodunnit intrigue and its trademark engaging stories (through April 13, 2020).
THE SCHOUWENDAM 12, the spellbinding sequel series to Acorn TV’s Dutch drama The Oldenheim 12, focuses on an investigation into mysterious disappearances of two teens in a village 25 years ago. (w/English subtitles)
Also, in March, Acorn TV adds the following:
THE RETURN, a made-for-TV ITV film starring Julie Walters (Harry Potter, Mamma Mia!) and Neil Dudgeon (Midsomer Murders) in a drama of murder and betrayal,
LOVEJOY, BBC’s hit series starring Ian McShane (American Gods, Deadwood) as the irresistible rogue with a keen eye for antiques. Co-starring Chris Jury, Dudley Sutton and Phyllis Logan. (Series 3 and 4 binge premieres),
LIVERPOOL 1, a gritty ensemble British police drama starring Samantha Womack, Mark Womack and Paul Usher (Series 1 and 2 binge premiere), and
MOUNT STEWART: THE BIG HOUSE REBORN, the documentary series following the National Trust’s restoration of a historic manor house in Northern Ireland.
MARCH 2020- Acorn TV Calendar
Monday, March 2, 2020
MURDOCH MYSTERIES, Season 13, Episode 12 (Streaming exclusive, new episodes premiere weekly on Mondays)
In this beloved, award-winning Canadian series, Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) uses radical forensic techniques like fingerprinting and ultraviolet light to solve turn-of-the-century Toronto’s most intriguing mysteries, with the help of Constable Crabtree (Jonny Harris, Still Standing), Dr. Julia Ogden (Hélène Joy), and Inspector John Brackenreid (Thomas Craig).
In episode “Fox Hunt,” when a body is found during a fox hunt, Murdoch and Brackenreid suspect a group opposed to the sport is responsible. (1 EP, 2020)
LOVEJOY (Series 3)
Based on the successful novels of Jonathan Gash, this highly-rated BBC series stars Ian McShane (Deadwood, American Gods) as a rakish antique dealer gifted at sorting the real from the fakes. Which should help, given the shady, dangerous nature of his business, one where certain collectors would kill for the perfect set of antique pistols-quite literally. It’s a wild, unregulated world flooded with aristocrats, con men, and criminals, all of whom Lovejoy goes up against with the help of his young, mopey assistant Eric (Chris Jury, The Big Game), the genially intoxicated Tinker (Dudley Sutton, The Football Factory), and Lady Jane (Phyllis Logan, Downton Abbey), an upper-cruster who serves as his confidante. (13 EPS, 1992)
Monday, March 9, 2020
BLOOD Series 2, Episodes 1 and 2 (Exclusive U.S. Premiere, new episodes premiere weekly on Mondays)
Compared to Broadchurch and The Killing by critics and called “a dark, addictive and unmissable crime drama” by The Guardian, this highly-rated Irish psychological mystery stars BAFTA nominee Adrian Dunbar (Line of Duty) as Jim Hogan, a respected ex-doctor in a small Irish town with a family full of secrets.
Episode 1 Synopsis: Jim Hogan (Dunbar) returns home a year later after the suspicious death of his wife. He finds that his eldest daughter Fiona (Gràinne Keenan, Black Mirror) is ailing, slowly succumbing to the same illness that afflicted her mother, and her cash-strapped husband Paul (Ian Lloyd Anderson, Love/Hate) is struggling. Jim’s determined efforts to make amends and reconnect with his family only seem to add to their grief, and things become even more difficult when he stumbles upon some suspicious activity at the farm where Paul works. When Fiona’s car veers off the road and crashes into a canal, her family gather round to support her. But they are shocked to their core when Detective Dez Breen (Sean Duggan, The Lobster) arrives with news of a disturbing discovery: a body is found in the trunk of her car. Is Fiona responsible?
Episode 2 Synopsis: As Fiona is brought in for questioning, we flash back to the events of the preceding weeks. (2 EPS, 2020)
MURDOCH MYSTERIES, Season 13, Episode 13 (Streaming exclusive, new episodes premiere weekly on Mondays)
In episode “Kill Thy Neighbour,” a trail of incriminating evidence in the grisly murder of his unpleasant neighbour leads directly to Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson). (1 EP, 2020)
MOUNT STEWART: THE BIG HOUSE REBORN (Series)
This fascinating documentary series grants exclusive access to capture the trials and tribulations of the £8 million restoration of Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland. Filmed over 3 years, see this National Trust-owned 18th Century neo-classical manor house and its extensive gardens restored to their former glory. For more than 200 years, The Mount Stewart House was the luxurious summer home of one of the most influential political and land-owning dynasties in Ireland. (6 EPS, 2015)
Monday, March 16, 2020
BLOOD Series 2, Episode 3 (Exclusive U.S. Premiere, new episodes premiere weekly on Mondays)
Detective Dez Breen (Sean Duggan, The Lobster) continues with his interrogation of Fiona (Gràinne Keenan, Black Mirror). (1 EP, 2020)
MURDOCH MYSTERIES, Season 13, Episode 14 (Streaming exclusive, new episodes premiere weekly on Mondays)
In episode “In the Company of Women,” Julia Ogden (Hélène Joy) and Effie Newsome (Clare McConnell, Star Trek: Discovery) try to untangle the death of a hair salon owner that occurred outside Murdoch’s jurisdiction. (1 EP, 2020)
THE RETURN
In this suspenseful drama, Lizzie Hunt (Julie Walters, Billy Elliot, Harry Potter), a former alcoholic, is locked up for the murder of her husband and, after ten years in prison, returns home to the village where her son (Glen Barry, Dracula Untold) is now living. Having been drunk on the night of the murder, she has no recollection whatsoever of events, yet accepts her guilt. As time goes on, her recollection starts to return and things take a different turn. Neil Dudgeon (Midsomer Murders) plays a policeman and an old flame of Lizzie’s who becomes a very supportive ally. The Guardian raves, “Julie Walters was as mesmerising as ever, inhabiting the character so effectively that you forgot you were watching Julie Walters.” (TV Movie, 2003)
Monday, March 23, 2020
MISS FISHER AND THE CRYPT OF TEARS (Movie, Exclusive U.S. Premiere) – on Acorn TV, as well as in select theaters this spring
*World Premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January, 2020
This highly anticipated, gorgeously shot feature film continues the story of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, which aired for three seasons (2012-2015) and is one of the most popular Australian series worldwide. Essie Davis (The Babadook, Game of Thrones) returns in her breakthrough five-time Logie-nominated title role as the seductive, slinky and risk-taking 1920s-era Melbourne detective Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher. In this film, Fisher embarks on an exhilarating new journey of mystery and mayhem through exotic 1920s British Palestine and the opulence of grand London manors. Fisher frees a Bedouin girl, Shirin Abbas (Izabella Yena, High School Lover) from unjust imprisonment in late 1920s Jerusalem, and unravels a wartime mystery concerning priceless emeralds, ancient curses and the truth behind the suspicious disappearance of Shirin’s forgotten tribe. The film also features series regular Nathan Page as Detective Inspector Jack Robinson. (Feature-length, 2020)
BLOOD Series 2, Episode 4 (Exclusive U.S. Premiere, new episodes premiere weekly on Mondays)
The day of the twins’ communion has arrived, and the whole Hogan family is reunited for the first time since the events of last year, including the youngest Hogan daughter, Cat (Carolina Main, Unforgotten.) But as the rest of the family focus on the celebrations, Jim Hogan (Adrian Dunbar, Line of Duty) and Paul (Ian Lloyd Anderson, Love/Hate) are distracted with more serious issues. (1 EP, 2020)
LOVEJOY (Series 4)
Based on the successful novels of Jonathan Gash, this highly-rated BBC series stars Ian McShane (Deadwood, American Gods) as a rakish antique dealer gifted at sorting the real from the fakes. Which should help, given the shady, dangerous nature of his business, one where certain collectors would kill for the perfect set of antique pistols-quite literally. It’s a wild, unregulated world flooded with aristocrats, con men, and criminals, all of whom Lovejoy goes up against with the help of his young, mopey assistant Eric (Chris Jury, The Big Game), the genially intoxicated Tinker (Dudley Sutton, The Football Factory), and Lady Jane (Phyllis Logan, Downton Abbey), an upper-cruster who serves as his confidante. (14 EPS, 1993)
MURDOCH MYSTERIES, Season 13, Episode 15 (Streaming exclusive, new episodes premiere weekly on Mondays)
In episode “In the Trail of Terrance Meyers,” Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson), Dr. Julia Ogden (Hélène Joy), and Inspector John Brackenreid (Thomas Craig) are summoned to a secret tribunal trying to prosecute spy Terrence Meyers for treason. (1 EP, 2020)
Monday, March 30, 2020
BLOOD Series 2, Episode 5 (Exclusive U.S. Premiere, new episodes premiere weekly on Mondays – season finale premieres Monday, April 6)
Detective Dez Breen (Sean Duggan, The Lobster) believes he’s getting closer to the truth, as Jim Hogan (Adrian Dunbar, Line of Duty) tries to explain the events leading up to Fiona’s car accident and the discovery of the body in her car trunk. (1 EP, 2020
THE SCHOUWENDAM 12 (U.S. Premiere, Foreign Language, Dutch w/English subtitles)
In the popular foreign-language drama series The Oldenheim 12, a village community was caught up in a number of inexplicable disappearances, but after an intensive search for the truth, the culprit was unmasked and all of the questions were answered. In this sequel series, we get to know the people who live and work in another Dutch village, Schouwendam, located on the water. Once again, there are secrets and unexpected connections among all of the people we meet – for years, the villagers of Schouwendam have been worried about two mysterious disappearances of two teenagers in the summer of 1995. Not only do we follow the tension in the present day, but we also see what happened 25 years ago that led up to the double disappearance. Like its precursor, The Schouwendam 12 is a series about the relationships within a village community put under pressure by life-changing events and about the hunt for a culprit that engages the viewer in its puzzles. (10 EPS, 2019)
LIVERPOOL 1 (Series 1 and 2)
Tensions run high in this gritty police drama set in the heart of Liverpool’s underworld. Day to day, on the streets, the vice squad at Bridewell, Liverpool 1 is at the sharp end of the fight against the drug pushers, porn barons, pedophiles and pimps who run the crime networks in this renowned port. In this dark unequal world, DC Isobel de Pauli (Samantha Womack, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Kingsman: The Golden Circle) is a stranger – not to crime, but to the ancient, unseen blood connections that pulse in the veins of Liverpool’s criminals… and cops. The series also stars Mark Womack (The Vanishing Man, Playing the Field) and Paul Usher (Robin Hood, Brookside). (12 EPS, 1998 and 1999)
MURDOCH MYSTERIES, Season 13, Episode 16 (Streaming exclusive, new episodes premiere weekly on Mondays)
In episode “Rigid Silence,” Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) and Julia Ogden (Hélène Joy) investigate an inmate’s suspicious suicide reported by the imprisoned former Chief Constable Giles. (1 EP, 2020)
UPCOMING IN 2020:
April 6: DEADWATER FELL, the highly-rated and heavily-praised UK thriller starring David Tennant (Broadchurch, Doctor Who) and Cush Jumbo (The Good Fight, The Good Wife) about a Scottish village ruptured after the murder of a seemingly perfect and happy family
April 20: BALTHAZAR, Series 2 –the hit French crime drama starring Tomer Sisley (Messiah, Philharmonia) as a brilliant forensic pathologist who can make the dead speak like no one else to help solve Paris’ most baffling crimes. With English subtitles.
Read announcement on other upcoming 2020 premieres: https://www.rljentertainment.com/acorn-tv-announces-2020-lineup-featuring-a-record-five-commissioned-series/
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About Acorn TV: Called a “glorious streaming service… an essential must-have” (The Hollywood Reporter)and “Netflix for the Anglophile” (NPR), AMC Networks’ Acorn TV is North America’s largest streaming service specializing in British and international television and is now serving more than one million paid subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. Acorn TV adds exclusive new programs every week with a deep library of mysteries, dramas, and comedies with no set end dates or commercials. Subscribers can stream many of their favorite international series and discover new and classic programs previously unavailable to U.S. audiences. Coming up in 2020, Acorn TV will feature a record five commissioned series as well as several returning favorites, including Irish period mystery series Dead Still, British mystery Agatha Raisin, Irish comedy drama The South Westerlies, as well as the return of award-winning Australian drama Mystery Road, Irish thriller Blood, the #1 UK drama of 2019 Line of Duty, and Acorn TV’s first feature film with Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears. Acorn TV offers a free trial and thereafter is just $5.99/month or $59.99/year. Facebook: OfficialAcornTV – Twitter @AcornTV
