‘Miss Scarlet and the Duke’ Renewed for Season 2: What We Know So Far
Eliza Scarlet is back on the case. Detective drama Miss Scarlet and the Duke has been renewed for season 2. The show, which stars Kate Phillips and Stuart Martin, premiered in February 2021 on PBS. The renewal is welcome news for fans of the series, who may have worried it would suffer the same fate as recent Masterpiece series Sanditon and Beecham House, which both ended after just one season.
‘Miss Scarlet and the Duke’ Season 2 will air in 2022
The news that Miss Scarlet and the Duke is returning isn’t a huge surprise. Show creator and writer Rachael New said during a January 2021 appearance on the Telly Visions podcast that the original goal had been to start shooting in September 2020, but the pandemic forced a change in plans.
Now, a sophomore season of the show — which focuses on Eliza Scarlet (Phillips), a female detective working in Victorian London, and her unofficial partner/love interest, Scotland Yard investigator William “The Duke” Wellington (Martin) — has officially been confirmed.
“I’m absolutely thrilled at the news that Miss Scarlet and The Duke will be back for a season 2,” New said in a statement. “I have so much in store for Duke, Eliza and her crew. With even more action, adventure and of course a nice big dollop of romance, it’s going to be a cracking season. The fans are going to LOVE it!”
The new episodes will air on Masterpiece on PBS sometime in 2022.
‘Miss Scarlet and the Duke’ was a ratings win for PBS
Miss Scarlet’s crime-solving adventures were a hit with PBS viewers. According to the network, 8 million people tuned in to watch the show’s six-episode first season; 3.6 million people streamed the series. On Super Bowl Sunday, the fourth episode of season 1 attracted 1.9 million viewers. That helped make PBS the second-most-watched network of the night, after CBS, The Wrap reported.
“Miss Scarlet and The Duke was an instant fan favorite,” says Susanne Simpson, executive producer of MASTERPIECE. “Our audience couldn’t resist its lighthearted tone and the appealing characters so wonderfully portrayed by Kate Phillips and Stuart Martin.”
What’s in store for ‘Miss Scarlet and the Duke’ Season 2?
Season 2 of Miss Scarlet and the Duke will continue to explore the lives of the characters viewers have come to love — not just Eliza and William, but also Eliza’s one-time suitor Rupert (Andrew Gower)
In a February 2021 interview with Salon, New spoke about her hopes for an upcoming season. “I would have lots of things in store for Rupert and how he’d navigate his domineering mother, and try and have some semblance of a happy life.”
She also hopes to delve more deeply into Duke’s background.
“Duke came from Glasgow, from really poor beginnings – basically, the Victorian workhouse. He came to London as a kind of scrappy young man, and [Eliza’s late father] Henry Scarlet found him probably doing things that he shouldn’t be doing: pickpocketing and robbing and all sorts of things.”
Henry became Duke’s mentor, which led to him joining the police force. “That’s when Duke and Eliza would have, their worlds would have orbited each other but also he would have been to her house when they were teenagers,” she added.
Miss Scarlet and The Duke Season 1 is currently streaming on PBS Passport. It is also available to watch on the PBS Masterpiece Channel on Amazon Prime Video.
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