Dalgliesh

At the school, the students find out who will be playing the “patient” during that day’s demonstration. Heather Pearce (Beccy Henderson) has been switched to the patient role, after the initial student, Josephine Fallon (Siobhán Cullen), falls ill. She’s supposed to be fed warm milk through an esophageal tube to demonstrate the technique, but when she’s given the milky substance, it turns out to be a corrosive household cleaner instead. The doctor in charge of the school, Stephen Courtney-Briggs (Richard Dillane), cuts her open to massage her heart, but to no avail.Dalgliesh Season 1 Download

DCI Adam Dalgliesh (Bertie Carvel) is called to the scene, meeting his brash younger investigative partner, DS Charles Masterson (Jeremy Irvine), at the school. Dalgliesh is a thoughtful sort, who has a second life as a published poet, and he’s pretty sure that Pearce’s death wasn’t accidental, and it wasn’t meant for someone else.Suspicion first falls on Christine Dakers (Helen Aluko), who seemedto be the only nursing student who associated with Pearce. But Dalgliesh isn’t convinced; he still thinks that Dr. Courtney-Briggs, who turns out has associations with Fallon and Sister Brumfett (Amanda Root), one of the school’s instructors. Brumfett is consistently seen at the side of the school’s matron, Mary Taylor (Natasha Little), who chafes less at the presence of Dalgliesh and Masterson than any of her staff seems to.The format of Dalgliesh, based on P.D. James’ popular novel series, follows that of many British detective series, with the season consisting of three 90-minute, self-contained mysteries. For Acorn TV, the 90-minute episodes are split into two 45-minute parts. Dalgliesh himself is basically Benedict Cumberbatch’s version of Sherlock Holmes, but with more empathy and less drug-taking.Our Take: James’ Dalgliesh novels, especially Shroud For A Nightingale, which is this new series’ first mystery, have been adapted for television before. What this series, written by Stephen Greenhorn and Helen Edmundson, does is put Adam Dalgliesh in 1975, shortly after losing his wife. We know he’s a poet of some renown, and we know that he’s not one of those kinds of detectives that browbeats confessions out of his suspects. He’s a thoughtful, empathetic detective, who also seems to look authoritative in his wide-lapeled ’70s-era three-piece suits.