Acorn TV highlights for the month of May include Signora Volpe, The Shell Seekers and Four Seasons.
Signora Volpe
Acorn TV Original
World Premiere May 2 with first episode
Episode to follow every Monday through May 16
English actress Emilia Fox, known for her roles in Silent Witness, Delicious and The Pianist, stars in the three-part detective drama Signora Volpe. Filmed on location in the stunning Lazio and Umbria regions in Italy, the contemporary Acorn TV Original series follows Sylvia Fox, a disillusioned British spy turned detective in the beautiful heart of Italy.
Top British spy Sylvia Fox is in Italy for her niece’s wedding when the groom goes missing, leaving a dead body behind him. Sylvia solves the mystery and falls in love – with Italy, and with a crumbling old house on a hillside. Disillusioned with her job and longing to reconnect with her family, Sylvia decides to stay on and start a new life in the little town of Panicale. But trouble has a habit of seeking Sylvia out and she finds herself tackling a fresh mystery every week – and in the process, becoming increasingly close to handsome local cop Giovanni Riva.
The Shell Seekers
Acorn TV Exclusive
Premieres May 9 – Full Series Binge
Based on the novel by Rosamunde Pilcher and starring Academy Award-winners, Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell, The Shell Seekers is set in 1980s England and follows Penelope (Redgrave) as she recovers from a heart attack.
The daughter of acclaimed painter Lawrence Sterne, Penelope has to deal with her children Noel and Nancy, as they try to convince her to sell her father’s painting ‘The Shell Seekers’, which he gifted as a wedding present, to ease their financial burdens. Penelope may not have had a happy marriage, but the painting holds special value for her, depicting the beach in Cornwall where she was once so happy.
As Penelope continues to recover, she reflects on her life, as a disillusioned wife and briefly enthralled lover. Embarking on a trip to the Mediterranean to visit her third child Olivia, she encounters the young and beautiful Antonia, who is in the grip of a passionate romance, something Penelope realises she briefly enjoyed. The secrets, passions and heartbreaks of Penelope’s past threaten to be repeated by the young couple unless they can learn from her misfortune and be honest with each other.
Four Seasons
Acorn TV Exclusive
Premieres May 30 – Full Series Binge
Focusing on the Combes family and their magnificent country estate, Endellion. Patriarch Alex (Frank Finlay, The Pianist) reigns over the estate with a mildness that infuriates his eldest son Stephen (Michael York, Cabaret), a high-powered financier, but perfectly suits his younger, more relaxed son Charles (Tom Conti, Reuben, Reuben). After many years of unruffled tranquility, life at Endellion is about to enter a turbulent new phase with the return of Stephen’s ex-wife Julia (Senta Berger), and division over granddaughter Abby (Paula Kalenberg), whose mother had died never revealing the father’s name.
Setting the scene for a sweeping saga playing out within one eventful year across four episodes, Endellion becomes host to the three women of three different generations. Julia, banished from Endellion, whose return triggers the turbulent events; Abby, who wants to know the secret of her past so that she can face the future; and Charlotte, Julia’s daughter and Abby’s mother, who allegedly killed herself but who is still very much alive in the hearts of the Combe family –and perhaps somewhere near Endellion as well.
ABOUT ACORN TV
Hailed as “Netflix for the Anglophile” by NPR, AMC Networks’ Acorn TV is the streaming service offering a carefully curated, quality slate of compelling UK and international TV series, all streaming ad-free on demand. Subscribers can enjoy a wide range of popular Acorn TV Originals, including My Life is Murder starring Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess) as a private investigator tackling bizarre, hard-to-solve crimes; The Chelsea Detective starring Adrian Scarborough (Killing Eve) which delves into a range of thrilling cases in the dark underside of London’s beautiful, affluent borough; crime capers with Agatha Raisin starring Ashley Jensen (Extras); the detective drama London Kills, described as a “superb British crime series” by the Los Angeles Times; effervescent comedy drama Under the Vines starring Rebecca Gibney (Wanted) and Charles Edwards (The Crown) as the unlikely inheritors of a failing vineyard; the quirky and wildly fun murder investigation series, Emmy-nominated Queens of Mystery, dubbed “a sure-fire crowd-pleaser” by Los Angeles Times; the intriguing murder investigations of Dalgliesh, based on P.D. James’ bestselling novels and starring Bertie Carvel (Doctor Foster); The Madame Blanc Mysteries which follows antiques expert Jean White(Sally Lindsay, Mount Pleasant) to the South of France as she tries to solve the mysterious death of her husband; Whitstable Pearl starring Kerry Godliman (After Life) cracking cases in the dark underside of a beautiful British coastal town; Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and its 1960s set spinoff Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries; and much, much more. Fan favourites also include Agatha Christie’s Marple and Poirot, Brokenwood Mysteries, Taggart, Murdoch Mysteries, Suspects, Rosemary and Thyme, The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, Line of Duty, George Gently, Foyle’s War and Midsomer Murders.
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