MASTERPIECE Must-Knows: New Shows in Fall 2020
What’s on the Fall 2020 schedule for MASTERPIECE on PBS? Find out news, airdates, episodes, who’s cast alongside Hugh Laurie and Imelda Staunton, and how to watch our three thrilling new shows: Van der Valk, Flesh and Blood, and Roadkill! Keep up with breaking news about these shows and more when you subscribe to the MASTERPIECE email newsletter!
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Van der Valk
Steely-eyed, street-smart, and unapologetic, detective Piet Van der Valk (Marc Warren, Beecham House) investigates high profile cases and gritty murders in Amsterdam, a city of bikes, boats…and bodies. In three gripping 90-minute episodes, Van der Valk and his colleagues face a trio of challenging cases set amid the city’s canals, galleries, bars, and industrial areas, where the city’s stylishness and toleration go hand in hand with murder.
Based on author Nicolas Freeling’s legendary crime thrillers, this reboot of the popular series which ran on British television from 1972 to 1992 showcases today’s modern Amsterdam, where it’s filmed entirely on location. Costarring are Maimie McCoy (The Musketeers), Elliot Barnes-Worrell (Ready Player One), Darrell D’Silva. MASTERPIECE viewers might recognize Emma Fielding (MASTERPIECE’s Unforgotten Season 3, Les Misérables, Dark Angel,and Cranford), Daniel Lapaine (The Durrells in Corfu), and Tom York (Poldark).
Watch all three episodes of Van der Valk now with PBS Passport, an added member benefit!
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Flesh and Blood | Premieres Sunday, October 4
Get ready to hit the beach, find romance, sniff out lies, cringe at mistakes, and suspect everyone in Flesh and Blood, a family drama/thriller that will have you guessing and obsessing through all four episodes.
When glamorous widow Vivien (Francesca Annis, Home Fires, Cranford) finds unexpected romance with retired surgeon Mark (Stephen Rea, The Crying Game, V for Vendetta), her adult children have mixed reactions—just another complication heaped onto the mounting problems of their own, be it money troubles for debt-ridden Jake (Russell Tovey, Little Dorrit, Years and Years, Sherlock: The Hounds of Baskerville); professional troubles for executive Helen (Claudie Blakley, Cranford, Pride & Prejudice, Gosford Park); or relationship troubles for other-woman Natalie (Lydia Leonard, Gentleman Jack). And what does desperately lonely, unnervingly nosy neighbor/amateur sleuth, Mary (Imelda Staunton, Harry Potter, Vera Drake, and slated to play Queen Elizabeth II in Season 5 of The Crown), think? You’ll delight in finding out. But right now, all you need to know is that the series opens with a body, bloodstained rocks beneath a broken balcony, and the flashing lights marking the start of a police inquiry! Who did what to whom?
Watch all four episodes of Flesh and Blood now with PBS Passport, an added member benefit!
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Roadkill | Premieres Sunday, November 1
Hugh Laurie (House, Veep, The Night Manager) stars as a scheming politician in Roadkill, a taut, propulsive drama scripted by Sir David Hare (the Worriker trilogy, The Hours). Laurie plays Peter Laurence, a self-made former salesman who has risen to the heights of the British government thanks to a natural gift for populism, all while walking the tightrope of Machiavellian party politics. He’s shamelessly untroubled as revelations about his personal life are laid bare. But beset by enemies who want to take him down, ambitious colleagues who want to overtake him, family and lovers who want what he can’t—or won’t—give, and a past that he can’t outrun, will he be able to claim the ultimate political prize? And at what cost?
Helen McCrory (Peaky Blinders) plays the savvy, calculating Prime Minister, Saskia Reeves (Wolf Hall, Belgravia) plays his wife, and Sarah Greene (Normal People) and Pip Torrens (Poldark) play a reporter and her editor at the paper fighting Laurence’s libel suit.
Watch the Roadkill official trailer now, and don’t miss the riveting premiere of Roadkill on Sunday, November 1 at 9/8c on MASTERPIECE on PBS!
