A delightful and quirky new cosy mystery series just premiered on BritBox, and I think you might like it.

I stumbled upon it last week and couldn’t have been happier to have done so. Death Valley, a seemingly ominous name given to a very light-hearted caper series, stars winner of stage and screen Timothy Spall as a retired tv actor, John Chapel, known for being a long-running detective in a tv series called Caesar. Now living a more reclusive, but really simply a quiet life in the Welsh countryside, he happens to meet a young up and coming junior detective Janie Mallowan played by Gwyneth Keyworth when one of his neighbors suddenly dies.

Mallowan is starstruck upon finding out that John Chapel lives near the crime-scene, and as you will see below in the trailer, her normally unflappable and professional self trips over her words as she introduces herself to him while investigating the death. While initially dismissing his observations about the behaviors of his neighbors, she quickly realizes they would make a valuable team with her detective observations and his psychological insights into motive.

Both characters are holding back pain from the past, and so their camaraderie becomes a balm for one another that neither openly understands but definitely welcomes. Gradually, with each episode, we come to understand the loss of the loved one that each is carrying, but along the way, they are solving crimes and sprinkling moments of hilarity that prompt chuckles from the audience (at least I was chuckling ☺️).

Death Valley premiered on May 29th on BritBox releasing two episodes and will release a new episode each Thursday. There are six episodes in the series. Have a look at the trailer below.

Death Valley was chosen as the Petit Plaisir for episode #405 of The Simple Sophisticate podcast, “How to Be Loving to Ourselves which Allows Us to Heal”

~Explore all of TSLL’s Petit Plaisirs in the Archives.