Wednesday 22 June 2016

AGATHA RAISIN - EPISODE 3: THE WELLSPRING OF DEATH (SKY 1)

[Spoiler-Free] The chairman of the Ancombe parish council is found dead near the local wellspring. 

He was about to cast his vote over whether to allow the lorries of the Ancombe Water company an access to the water through the village.

Agatha Raisin is back on track after last week's lacklustre and quite worrying Hell's Bells. Directed by Paul Harrison (Trollied), The Wellspring of Death is adapted from M.C. Beaton's novel Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death (1998) by Stewart Harcourt. Agatha Raisin (Ashley Jensen) is ready to attend the pub quiz when Roy Silver (Mathew Horne) offers her a well-paid freelance PR gig... for Ancombe Water. She refuses but changes her mind when James Lacey and his new girlfriend Mary Fortune decide to investigate the death of the parish council chairman.

Aggie displays her PR magic to the Ancombe villagers and Ancombe Water boss Guy Freemont is under her spell. Jealous of Mary Fortune, she decides to find the killer before James and Mary, with the assistance of Gemma (Katy Wix). DCI Wilkes is inspired by Inspector Morse, which would be reassuring in some respects but his main suspect is a persian cat. James doesn't like to be Mary's "Watson". Agatha's product launch is ruined by a demonstration and another murder.

Everything you expect from the TV version of the Agatha Raisin books is in this excellent episode: Agatha and her London PR queen manners in the Cotswold equivalent of Midsomer County, her complicated love life, some rural comedy à la Doc Martin, the totally clueless cops, etc. The only one who truly believes he's in your average detective drama is DCI Wilkes (the fantastic Jason Barnett). English actor and singer Jules Knight (Holby City) is very good as Guy Freemont. Let's hope the rest of the series is like this episode.

Also with Jamie Glover (James Lacey), Matt McCooey (DC Bill Wong), June Watson (Mrs Josephs), Daisy Beaumont (Mary Fortune) and Ron Donachie, Elizabeth Hopper, etc. Produced by Mammoth Screen and Free@Last TV for Sky. Michelle Buck and Stewart Harcourt are the executive producers for Mammoth Screen. Barry Ryan and David Walton exec produce for Free@Last TV. Produced by Matthew Mulot. Music by Rupert Gregson-Williams and Christopher Willis. Titles by Light Creative. Distributed by Sky Vision.

http://www.mcbeaton.com/uk/
http://www.agatharaisin.com/

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