Many fans of PBS’s Victorian-era crime show Miss Scarlet will miss the professional and potential romantic partnership of detective agency owner Eliza Scarlet (Kate Phillips) and William “The Duke” Wellington (Stuart Martin) who departed for NYC. However, there’s a new detective for her to have to handle this season: the smart, witty, and attractive former soldier, Detective Inspector Alexander Blake (Tom Durant-Pritchard).
Below, Durant-Pritchard shares with TV Insider what happens on the detective show when he and the very independent Miss Scarlet quickly cross paths. (The new season premieres on PBS on January 12.)
I’m a big fan of the amusing series. Were you a fan before you got the job?
Tom Durant-Pritchard: To be honest with you, I hadn’t seen the show. I knew of Kate Phillips and was a fan of hers. When I got the job, I did sort of a mad dash to try and catch up by watching as many episodes as possible.
What can you say about this new man in Miss Scarlet’s orbit?
He is ex-military and he has worked all over the world doing police work. He finds himself taking over from Wellington, and he has to forge a working relationship with the local private detective—Miss Scarlet.
He’s not happy about that?
No, he’s not. He does not like working with private detectives, and he’s a man who likes doing his business alone. But he finds her skill and charm almost impossible to ignore.
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Of course, he does. He doesn’t seem to be a misogynist like most of the cops of the era, but he doesn’t seem to trust private detectives in general.
The lovely thing about Blake is he treats everyone with the respect they deserve regardless of who they are. The only reason Blake would be annoyed with Miss Scarlet has nothing to do with her gender. It’s down to whether she can do her job properly. And she can! Which is doubly frustrating because it means he has to compromise.
How would you describe their relationship? Your dialogue at first is pretty biting. Why is Blake so tough on her when the fifth season begins?
Well, the relationship is tough to start with because he’s had dreadful experiences with private detectives in the past. So, their relationship gets off to a pretty frosty start. It thaws out as the season goes on because she continually proves herself to be more than competent. But it does add a complicated dynamic to their relationship because he’s constantly having to put up with Miss Scarlet arriving at every crime scene and having to solve all these things with her.
How does Eliza Scarlet feel about the new Inspector? Is she comparing him to Wellington?
When Blake arrives at Scotland Yards, there’s no way that she can’t compare the two men. She starts the series slightly concerned because the rumor is of him not wanting to work with her and she’s worried about what that means for her and her professional career. But I think it becomes pretty apparent quite quickly that Wellington and Blake are very different types of men, and they approach their love lives very differently.
How so?
Blake is methodical and won’t jump into anything without considering it intently. He’s been through tough relationships in the past, so he isn’t going to fall into some kind of relationship with someone on a whim. Plus he sees the best in people. So, if he has a weakness, it would be that he sees the goodness in humanity whereas I think Wellington, the Duke, didn’t.
How will the very confident Inspector’s relationship with Miss Scarlet evolve both professionally and personally? She and the Duke became fast friends and were beginning to be more. You two have nice chemistry for sure.
We meet these two characters when they’re both coming off the back of something quite difficult. Obviously, the Duke’s gone; Eliza’s kind of left alone in London with the wounds of that relationship. And Blake has had a pretty troubled past. So, they find each other at a pretty sensitive time for the two of them. These characters have found themselves in a position where the work is always going to be the most important thing. But yes, there is a sort of chemistry between the two which is undeniable, and I think they’re both in a place in their lives where they’d be foolish not to at least explore that a little bit. The relationship grows as the season goes on and they start to find more and more within each other that they can learn to respect and ultimately maybe even like a bit.
Sever Zolak / Miss Scarlet Limited and Masterpiece
How do the Scotland Yard cops feel about this new interloper as their boss? Paul Phelps (Tim Chipping), who had your position briefly, basically, well hates you.
For Phelps, the new arrival of a cop with a background from all over the world gets his back up and he doesn’t really know how to cope with it. Whereas young Fitzroy [Evan McCabe] finds the arrival of Blake quite impressive and likes the idea that there’s a new cop in town.
Speaking of interlopers, was it a little intimidating to come in to play Eliza’s sparring partner following the exit of Stuart Martin’s popular Duke?
Yeah, it’s always difficult to follow in the footsteps of someone that’s been so loved. And I know that the fans of the show are big fans of that storyline. But I do quite like coming in and shaking things up a little bit.
It’s working for me, though I worried at first. What can you say about Blake’s personal life?
Blake has had a life before he arrives in London, and I’m not sure what else I could really say without a spoiler.
How does Inspector Blake meet Eliza Scarlet?
Before the case even starts, Blake finds Miss Scarlet in his office. She’s let herself in, she’s doing what she normally does, and she’s there to pitch her and her business’ services to a rather irritable Blake, and as the case goes on, she thinks she’s solving it by herself, but unbeknownst to her, Blake is quietly going about his business behind the scenes and may have already done that.
Being beaten to the punch is not what Eliza expects; that has to be tough for a woman who has a certain kind of ego grown from being an underestimated, smart woman in a man’s field.
Miss Scarlet does have an ego and this season, she’s got somebody in the police department who is her equal in many ways. So, they’re constantly battling to be the best that they can be, and there is a competitive edge between the two of them because they both want to win the case for their own egotistical reasons.
Can you talk about the first case this season?
There’s a murder—a man is found with a knife in his chest—and Miss Scarlet has beaten Blake to the crime scene, which is where they meet for the second time. She tries to throw him off with false clues sending him on a wild goose chase.
She goes pretty far and blatantly lies to him!
Yes. She pushes boundaries and Blake won’t be standing for it. [Laughs]
I’ve enjoyed the scenes where they try to dig into each other to learn what makes them tick.
I think that the two characters, as much as they pretend they don’t want to be around one another, are drawn to one another, and they really admire the other person for how good they are at their job. Behind the scenes, they secretly really want to know the other person on a much deeper level. So, they’re constantly trying to work out all the weak points and the backstory so they can really get to know one another as deeply as possible—for work reasons and possibly a bit more.
You and Kate seem to be having fun in those bantering scenes with each other. True?
We get on so well doing the job and those scenes with her were always fun, always a little bit special. It felt like there was something interesting between us. You could feel it on and I’m excited for people to see this season and what surprises are in store for us in the future.
Miss Scarlet, Season 5 Premiere, Sunday, January 12, 8/7c, PBS
