Sherlock Holmes as a 1940s bookshop owner? Why not? Mark Gatiss, the brains behind the Sherlock series starring Benedict Cumberbatch (plus all sorts of Doctor Who stories) is starring in his own new historical mystery series, Bookish. A barely recognizable Gatiss (looking a lot like Kevin Kline) plays Gabriel Book, a London bookshop proprietor and antiquities expert who uses his books and an assemblage of characters not unlike the Baker Street Irregulars to solve local crimes. Book feels a bit like Clarence William III’s character in the series Mystery Woman.
Familiar genre actors on cast include Polly Walker, Joely Richardson, Daniel Mays, Paul McGann, Connor Finch, and Buket Kömür, plus Blake Harrison, Rosie Cavaliero, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Tom Forbes, Amanda Drew, and Luke Norris.
Check out this trailer for Mark Gatiss’s mystery series Bookish:
Catch up with our reviews of other quality British TV series, beginning with our Top 10: Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes, Zen, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, Mr. Selfridge, Guilt, The Hour, The Gentlemen, Black Doves, and Shetland. You could stay pretty busy with our full list of top British TV recommendations, including Van Der Valk, the first season of Sherlock, Death Valley, Dept. Q, Bodkin, The Bletchley Circle, Grace, Hinterland, Glitch, Mystery Road, Culprits, The Day of the Jackal, Professor T, Supacell, plus Marchlands, Lightfields, State of Play, I, Jack Wright, Protection, After the Flood, Traces, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Ordeal by Innocence, Unforgotten, The Bay, Wild Bill, Quirke, Requiem, The Gloaming, The One, The Tower, Collateral, Roadkill, Stay Close, The Salisbury Poisonings, and A Confession.
Other British series across genres that are worth checking out (a few still to be reviewed here) include police procedurals Luther and Case Histories, fun romps like Monarch of the Glen, Para Handy, Cranford, Viva Blackpool, and As Time Goes By, and “cozy mysteries” Rosemary and Thyme, Father Brown, Hetty Wainthropp, and Death in Paradise. One of the best of all British productions is the reboot of All Creatures Great and Small, which is in our British Top 10 (and the original is good, too). Of course there’s always Doctor Who for your sci-fi fix (and spin-offs Torchwood and Class), The Watch for your fantasy fix, Truth Seekers and Sea of Souls for your supernatural fix, and Spaced for more sci-fi fun, and we really should add House, MD, for Brit lead Hugh Laurie’s one-of-a-kind performance. (We’ve also reviewed but don’t heartily recommend so much Dublin Murders, The ABC Murders, The Pale Horse, The Silence, The Five, The Missing, Thirteen, or Broadchurch, as well as No Offence, which could have merited a review for its first season but, like Sherlock, its later seasons were a disappointment).
Bookish does not yet have a U.S. streamer or streaming date (but it’s expected July 16 in the UK), and it has already been renewed for a second season. It’s likely to land on PBS Mystery.
C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg
