Season 1
-
Kate Phillips
as Eliza Scarlet
- Stuart Martin as DI William Wellington
- Danny Midwinter as Frank Jenkins
- Ansu Kabia as Moses
- Andrew Gower as Rupert Parker
- Matthew Malone as PC Honeychurch
-
Cathy Belton
as Ivy
-
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 1, Episode 1]
Inheritance
Shown 31st March 2020
This is set in Victorian-era London,
but it was filmed on location in Dublin.
What a pity that they missed the opportunity to actually set it in Victorian Dublin.
Unfortunately Irish History seems to begin at Easter of 1916.
Miss Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) inherits her father's business.
He was a private detective,
although this is set before the age of
Sherlock Holmes
. An elderly man hires Miss Scarlet to locate his missing female relative.
We are also introduced to Miss Scarlet's love interest.
He is a senior police detective called Wellington,
nicknamed The Duke.
Miss Scarlet interferes with the local prostitutes,
who are the best career-women in town.
She also becomes frenemies with Moses,
a big scary black man.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 1, Episode 2]
Miss Scarlet And The Duke
Shown 7th April 2020
Miss Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) has a new client,
the wife of a man accused of murder.
The victim had a tattoo of a dark blue rose.
It turns out that this was a secret symbol
for closeted homosexual men -
in an era when it was highly illegal.
Miss Scarlet rejected her potential suitor,
an effeminate mothers-boy,
but he is happy to be a silent partner in her business.
It turns out that he had no more interest in her,
or in any woman, than she had in him.
In other words, she would have been a beard not a gold-digger.
Now they just have a business contract instead of a marriage one.
Just as well, because his mother -
an empowered woman and example of Matriarchy -
is Miss Scarlet's landlady ... and the rent is overdue!
Somehow, the justice system seems to have done away with trials.
Instead the suspect is about to be publicly executed
in only one hours time.
Our heroine must race against time to save the day.
Yes, it is completely contrived and unrealistic.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 1, Episode 3]
Deeds Not Words
Shown 17th April 2020
Miss Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) is hired by Wellington to infiltrate a gang of political extremists.
Is it the Irish or the socialists?
Worse - the Suffragettes!
The previous episode dealt with closeted homosexuals,
so it makes sense that the next item on the Social Justice list
would be the suffragette movement.
That said, this show is shot in Ireland
so there are many other aspects involved.
The Victorian era saw the beginning of social change,
such as Gladstone ending child labour,
but the episode wants to imply it is happening too slowly.
Modern-day sensibilities are foisted onto an era
almost a century and a half ago.
One example is the insinuation that families
would teach their sons literacy,
but not their daughters.
In reality, lower class people regarded boys as beasts of burden
who were denied education
while literacy was reserved for females.
One of the Suffragettes is suspected of murdering a man.
It turns out that she was obsessed with a Gentlemen's club,
a social venue which acted as a safe space for male people.
She complains that men go to clubs, brothels and gambling dens -
echoing Scarlet's complaint about Wellington
and his manly pastimes of drinking, womanizing and gambling.
If this was produced thirty years previously,
we would assume that Miss Scarlet was flirting with Wellington.
Their antagonistic relationship might be intended as
Han-and-Leia type banter,
but to a modern audience it is clearly just meanness on her part.
Why must a woman detective prove herself to men?
Perhaps because she is an uneducated amateur,
while the men are professional police officers.
The fact is that she constantly chides Wellington for his manliness,
and then complains that he is unchivalrous
because he treats her like an equal.
Finally, the Suffragette chides Miss Scarlet.
Although she is a self-employed businesswoman
in a business normally associated with men,
and thus a trail-blazing role model for other women,
her customers are all men.
In reality, there is nothing to stop her doing business with women -
after all, the landlord that she owed rent to is a woman.
Also, Wellington was her client this week
and he ultimately takes payment and orders from Queen Victoria!
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 1, Episode 4]
Memento Mori
Shown 21st April 2020
Miss Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) has a new case, involving spirit photography.
She gets involved in the local spiritualist scene,
and meets a medium who claims to speak with Miss Scarlett's deceased father.
The other great glimpse at Victoriana is when a house-maid
sends a message using a postcard-delivery service.
Yes, this is set in an age before telephones
or even the domestic telegraph.
Inspector Wellington has problems of his own.
He has to curry favour with his boss
if he wants to be promoted to Chief Inspector.
A journalist (Kevin Eldon -
Hyperdrive
) has offered to write a story glamourising the work of the Police.
Unfortunately the current open cases are somewhat mundane.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 1, Episode 5]
Cell 99
Shown 28th April 2020
Wellington has a new case to solve.
This time it is the disappearance of Miss Scarlet herself.
Worse, the clock is ticking
because Wellington's boss invited him to a formal-atire event.
The trail leads to a disused prison
that was closed because of a smallpox virus.
Wellington and Scarlet get trapped together,
like an old-fashioned Dangerous Hours plot.
However, this is not a filler episode -
it is a key part of the story arc
concerning the mysterious death of Scarlet's father.
Wellington and Scarlet both have conversations with Mr Scarlet (deceased).
He is presented as a figment of their imagination,
not a ghost, which explains his absence from the previous episode.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 1, Episode 6]
The Case Of Henry Scarlet
Shown 5th May 2020
After the events of the previous episode,
Wellington has the biggest forgery case in Scotland Yard's history on his hands.
Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) is put into witness protection, for what good it does.
It looks like Moses the Jamaican was somehow involved.
Was he the brains of the operation?
Or is one of the other supporting characters a secret criminal mastermind?
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 2, Episode 1]
Pandora's Box
Shown 14th June 2022
This Season is still set in London,
but the filming location has been shifted from Dublin to Serbia.
The Duke has a new boss.
Instead of the old aristocratic one,
now he has an old meritocratic one.
The new boss is a plain-speaking working-class man
who worked his way up through the ranks,
not unlike Wellington himself.
This is reminiscent of the police chief
in the similar show Murdoch Mysteries,
although that character seems to be intended
as a strawman for the patriarchy and toxic masculinity.
The new boss brought some of his own men with him from his old unit.
One of them, Fitzroy, is a complete incompetent -
and Wellington wants to fire the man before someone gets killed.
Unfortunately, this is the one man it is impossible to fire.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 2, Episode 2]
The Black Witch Moth
Shown 21st June 2022
The Duke still struggles with his incompetent employee, Fitzroy,
who goes out of his way to find even more ways to screw up.
For example, the man is now an opium fiend.
Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) publicly humiliates yet another rich old person,
who might have become a useful ally if treated better.
This time it is a woman,
so at least Scarlet is an equal opportunities offender.
Scarlet gets hired to locate a stolen piece of art,
a sketch which was created by Charles Darwin himself.
The prime suspect is the owner's ex-husband,
an embittered man who is unhappy with the women in his life.
Yes, a typical straw-man villain.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 2, Episode 3]
A Pauper's Grave
Shown 28th June 2022
Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) has lost her mother's ring.
Luckily the police have found it for her.
The bad news is that it was at a crime scene,
so she has to go on the run as a suspect.
The Duke has to team up with Moses to catch a gang of grave-robbers.
He presumes this is because they want to sell bodies to anatomists,
although by the year 1882 this trade had ended.
Yes, we know the year because this case is linked to events
25 years earlier, in 1857.
The incompetent detective, Fitzroy,
is beginning to show more competency.
However, the Superintendant is obsessed with social climbing ...
and when he is not kissing up to his social superiors,
he is demanding unquestioning obedience from his minions.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 2, Episode 4]
Angel of Inferno
Shown 5th July 2022
Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) is hired to investigate an extortionist.
One of the clients is a South Asian,
but there is actually a good explanation for this casting.
The bad news is that Scarlet has a rival,
a private detective who has a larger firm.
The good news is that she has a friendlier male admirer -
the elderly curator of the Royal Botanical Society.
The Duke gets chewed out by the Police Commissioner,
who wants his son - Detective Fitzroy -
to be on the front line of policing.
Luckily the Chief Inspector has a plan:
put Fitzroy in harm's way, so he can die a hero's death.
Strange that the Duke is in the Chief's good books
after their falling out in the previous episode.
After all, Scarlet's servant is still dating the coroner
so the consequences of the previous ep are acknowledged.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 2, Episode 5]
Quarter to Midnight
Shown 12th July 2022
The Duke gets promoted to Chief Inspector.
The bad news is that the position is in Glasgow.
Yes, the boss has pulled a few strings
and arranged a transfer from the London Metropolitan Constabulary
to an entirely different police department
in a country with a different legal system.
Of course, among other things this will leave Fitzroy
at the mercy of his enemies in the department.
Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) and the Duke investigate a murder
that resembles one in a recently-published thriller novel.
They interview the novelist, who has an alibi.
Nobody realises that his sister seems to be the brains of the operation.
This leads on to a subplot about female oppression -
if a spinster makes a lot of money,
is it a bad thing if her business partners get their share?
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 2, Episode 6]
The Proposal
Shown 19th July 2022
Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) decides to make a deal with the rival PI, Patrick Nash.
However, someone takes a shot at them.
Her first job for her new business partner
is to catch the shooter, and whoever hired him.
Inspector Wellington is preparing for his move to Glasgow.
His superior officer has done everything possible to save his career –
the transfer is an alternative to unemployment.
However, his subordinates might actually pull through for him.
This episode ties up a lot of loose plot threads from this Season.
It involves a villain from Season One,
who used to be a criminal mastermind but now is sadly incompetent.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 3, Episode 1]
The Vanishing
Shown 24th November 2022
A magician does a disappearing trick on stage ...
and fails to reappear.
Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) is hired to find the missing man.
Since the female assistants are the real brains of the trade,
Miss Scarlet should be in her element.
The Duke discovers that his investigations
are undermined by a tabloid journalist.
Police detectives are supplementing their income
by selling details of the investigations to the press,
who then publish them - allowing the suspects to
pervert the course of justice.
When the Duke orders his detectives to cease and desist,
the journalist just hires Miss Scarlet instead.
She is remarkably susceptible to flattery,
because he offers to write a series of articles
that turn the Lady Detective into a popular heroine.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 3, Episode 2]
Arabella
Shown 24th November 2022
Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) and The Duke go on a fake date.
An unusual number of customers of restuarant they visit
have been victims of mugging or burglary.
By incredible coincidence,
the restuarant's owner is Arabella -
a former school-mate of Miss Scarlet.
One would expect Miss Scarlet to be accepting
of a fellow female entrepreneur.
However, she holds a childhood grudge.
This seems entirely one-sided,
as Arabella seems oblivious to Scarlet's emnity.
The villains are a mob of Hungarian jewel thieves,
perhaps chosen because this show is made in Serbia.
Presumably the Serbians are not fond
of their Hungarian neighbours.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 3, Episode 3]
Hotel St Marc
Shown 24th November 2022
This seems to owe a lot to
The Hateful Eight
, which itself was incredibly referential to movies like
The Thing
. Basically, Eliza (
Kate Phillips
) and her rival Patrick Nash
are trapped in a French hotel during a snowstorm.
They have to work together to discover
which of their suspects is a notorious con-man,
and who is innocent.
Also, a Russian mobster has sent an assassin
to kill the suspect.
Eliza claims to find Nash untrustworthy.
However, she is the one who constantly lies to him.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 3, Episode 4]
Bloodline
Shown 24th November 2022
The previous episode had none of the regulars,
except for Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) herself, and only one recurring character.
This episode makes up for it,
featuring as many regulars and recurrers
as they could possibly squeeze in.
Inspector Wellington has been reassigned to Birmingham.
Detective Sergeant Phelps has seniority,
so he becomes the Acting Detective Inspector.
This is not great news for Detective Fitzroy,
who is in Phelps' bad books.
This gets worse when Fitzroy sees Phelps plant evidence.
With nobody else to turn to for help,
Fitzroy hires Miss Scarlet.
The suspect is a member of the Galianis Crime Family,
a group of Greek immigrants who have spent the last twenty years
taking over a district of London.
This is a bit like the Hungarian jewel thieves
a couple of episodes ago.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 3, Episode 5]
The Heir
Shown 24th November 2022
Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) takes a job as an Heir Hunter.
The good news is that she finds the illegitimate son
of the richest dead man in England.
The bad news is that he only has a day or two
in which to collect his inheritance.
Worse, he then gets abducted and ransomed back!
Eliza tries to come to terms with Wellington's
new-found friendship with Arabella.
In all fairness,
she should just hook up with Patrick Nash.
However, her real love is wealth and power.
She wants to spend all her money on re-branding her business,
putting it in her own name rather than that of her father.
VI Warshawski
, a century later, used her initials because
she knew that gender-neutral is default male.
Unfortunately Eliza was never that intelligent.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 3, Episode 6]
The Jewel of the North
Shown 24th November 2022
Someone leaves dynamite bombs for Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) and her three male co-stars -
Patrick Nash, Moses and Inspector Wellington.
This looks like the works of Irish rebels,
so the Police Special Branch take over the investigation.
Eliza and her regulars team up to investigate a train robbery.
Four thousand pounds of the railway company's cash was taken,
presumably by terrorists looking to fund their next campaign.
Wellington is still dating Arbella.
Unfortunately all he is ever talks about is Eliza.
It seems he is caught between the two women,
and they both see it even if he does not.
Arbella knows that Eliza's ambition will outweigh everything,
even her love for Wellington.
Nothing will ever be enough for her,
especially not the future Wellington envisions for them.
Eliza gets another job offer from Nash.
As per the events of
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 3, Episode 3] Hotel St Marc
, he is opening a branch in Paris and needs a business partner.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 4, Episode 1]
Elysium
Shown 7th January 2024
The good news is that Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) has become manager of the Nash Agency.
The bad news is that her skills as an investigator
are not applicable to her new job as manager.
She did not trust her new male underlings,
preferring to micro-manage and abuse them.
As a result, she caused them to quit and now has no staff.
Luckily, she also has no customers.
The Duke has problems of his own.
His precinct has been expanded to cover counties outside of London.
This leaves him undermanned,
so he will eventually hire Eliza again.
A gunman has raided a high-class brothel,
robbing the clients and even hospitalising one of them.
The clients were VIPs including Government ministers.
They have a lot of expenses,
since their careers rely on socialising.
It's not what you know, it's who you know.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 4, Episode 2]
Six Feet Under
Shown 7th January 2024
Despite Wellington handing his boss some negotiating leverage
in the previous episode,
the police are more short-handed than ever.
Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) gets hired to solve the murder of an undertaker.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 4, Episode 3]
Origins
Shown 7th January 2024
In the aftermath of the previous episode's cliffhanger ending,
Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) comes to visit her wounded hero in the hospital.
The Ward sister was reluctant to let an unmarried woman in -
possibly this might be the Matron from two episodes ago.
The story flashes back twelve years,
to when the title characters were both sixteen years old.
Eliza's father has been a police officer for 24 years,
since he joined in November 1848.
This puts the story in temporal perspective.
William Wellington was a homeless teenager
freshly arrived in London from the Glasgow workhouse.
He witnesses a murder,
and thus meets the interest of Detective Inspector Scarlet.
The Inspector takes young Wellington home with him.
Eliza was back home, after being expelled from college yet again.
Instead of wanting a female career like a governess or home-manager,
she is obsessed with transitioning into a male career as detective.
She falls foul of Mrs Parker, the landlady,
who wants Eliza to marry young Rupert.
This is long before Eliza discovers that Rupert prefers men,
so she treats him as if he were a sexual predator.
Not only does this prove she lacks detective instincts,
but she is something of a toxic person.
Instead of bothering to get to know Rupert,
a closeted gay man in search of a female friend,
she lies to William and drags him along to their social engagements.
The replacement cast do not look a mere dozen years younger,
but they certainly do a good job of imitating the originals.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 4, Episode 4]
The Diamond Feather
Shown 7th January 2024
Patrick Nash is back,
and less than happy at the mess Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) made of his business.
The good news is that she has found a new client.
The bad news is that the client turns out to be a gangster,
who insists the Agency recovers his stolen property for free.
The Duke is convalescing at Eliza's home.
He has to sort out his feelings for her.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 4, Episode 5]
The Calling
Shown 7th January 2024
Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) and Nash are overwhelmed with new applicants.
However, they cannot agree on a shortlist.
Luckily they get a new case -
a double fatality at a meeting of telephone company employees.
This is Murdoch Mysteries territory,
as we see an early version of a modern technology.
There are 2512 telephones in London,
and the odd couple have to find out which one the killer used.
The Duke has taken his minion's dream posting in New York.
Eliza is reluctant to write to him.
Meanwhile, Phelps has taken over as acting Detective Inspector.
As always, Eliza does nothing to gain favour with him.
Since she has no intention of making friends or influencing people,
it falls on Nash to do the hard work.
She seems attached to the idea of getting all the credit,
like it is an attention-seeking ego-boost,
rather than concentrating on getting paid.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 4, Episode 6]
The Fugitive
Shown 7th January 2024
Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) and Nash work together to take down a wanted man.
It is two months since the Duke left,
and the Agency is now successful again.
But before Nash can return to Paris,
he gets a mysterious telegram.
He rushes off ... and later he is a suspect in a murder case.
Detective Fitzroy is put in charge of the murder case,
since Phelps is not going to get the promotion.
Because the Commissioner is Fitzroy's father,
it looks like a case of nepotism.
Worse, Fitzroy junior is stressed out by the extra work.
While the previous episode was in Murdoch Mysteries territory,
this one is far better.
The focus is on the human characters,
rather than an early version of a modern technology.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 5, Episode 1]
The Rival
Shown 08 Dec 24
DI Alexander Blake (Tom Durant Pritchard) is now in command
of the local police station,
and refuses on principle to hire private detectives.
He catches Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) at a crime scene, and the rest of the episode is a flashback
as we see how Blake and Eliza conducted parallel investigations
until they end up crossing paths in the bookend sequence.
The criminal case of the week involves the burglary of the home
of a Lord who disappeared years earlier
after being implicated in the death of a servant.
Yes, this resembles the 1970s Lord Lucan case.
Blake pressurises
Mr Grint (Karl Theobald -
Plebs
) into acting as an unpaid informant in the case.
He is a black marketeer in a Chinatown venue,
auctioning high-priced stolen goods to a masquerade crowd.
Yes, the kind of things the Plebs' Landlord might get into ...
although the Roman was much less of a weasel.
Eliza visits Patrick Nash in prison.
He is doing quite well under the circumstances.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 5, Episode 2]
The Guild
Shown 08 Dec 24
Ms Scarlet (
Kate Phillips
) is approached by the Guild of Private Detectives,
who want her to influence DI Alexander Blake (Tom Durant Pritchard)
into hiring their members.
Their methods are underhand - they want to cancel him
by faking a #MeToo situation - so she refuses.
However, her morals convince Blake to hire her.
Unfortunately he does not need her to do homicide investigations,
but to do background checks on female clerical staff.
Eliza thinks herself too good for this,
but Ivy the Cook puts her in her place.
With Nash and Sons out of business,
the premises have been taken over by Malone - a character from
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 3, Episode 3]
Hotel St Marc.
He is standing for election as the Guild's new President.
The current President is found murdered.
Eliza investigates for free,
even though she should be a suspect.
In all fairness, all the private detectives seem somewhat underhand.
There are two thousand of them in the Guild,
so it is surprising that it has never been mentioned
in the previous four Seasons!
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 5, Episode 3]
The Thames Reaper
Shown 08 Dec 24
A serial killer is drowning people in the river Thames.
Well, drowned bodies appear in the river
and letters naming the victims are delivered to a newspaper.
Since Eliza will not get hired by DI Alexander Blake (Tom Durant Pritchard)
to solve the mystery,
she tries to get the newspaper to hire her.
The coroner reveals that there are several drowning suicides
every month, which means that the letter-writer might just
be taking responsibility for natural deaths.
The victims are in different parts of the river,
which means they are in different police jurisdictions.
This allows Eliza to convince Blake to hire her,
since she can collate the info from all different departments.
However, as this would cause a conflict of interest
she has to resign from working for the newspaper.
At least this allows her the opportunity to date the journalist,
although as a complete Asexual she declines the offer.
Ivy has become a careerwoman,
giving up her job as cooker and cleaner
so she can shuffle papers late at night in the cop shop.
Luckily her boyfriend can cook and clean,
and even tries to teach Eliza a few of these skills.
Yes, a man can explain stuff to a woman without it being offensive.
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 5, Episode 4]
The Deal
Shown 08 Dec 24
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 5, Episode 5]
The Enchanted Mirror
Shown 08 Dec 24
Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020) [Season 5, Episode 6]
Dangerous Liaisons
Shown 08 Dec 24
