Loyalties will be tested
Doctor Lucien Blake faces personal and professional challenges.
The Doctor Blake Mysteries Season 5 Wednesdays (from 26 April) ITV Choice (*123) 20:30
Combining medicine and detective work is a specialty that Lucien Blake (Craig McLachlan) has mastered over the last four seasons of The Doctor Blake Mysteries (2013- current). But by the end of season 4 (May 2016), the medical examiner and sleuth from the Ballarat Police Station in ’50s Australia’s skills failed him and he was thrown in the slammer for murder. As the new instalment kicks off, just a week after it airs in Australia, Craig teases that “Blake’s got his hands full with new challenges and enemies, but hopefully there will also be time to find love through all the mystery work”.
ROMANCE ON THE HORIZON
And he couldn’t be more right about Lucien getting some partnership as season 5 waves goodbye to the ’50s and hello to the ’60s. While the lead actor is staying tight lipped on Blake sweetening his deal with housekeeper Jean Beazley (Nadine Garner), show co- creator George Adams teases that “Doctor Blake and his long-suffering housekeeper and confidante will face a new future together that’s full of possibilities. But life has a few more surprises in store for both of them…”
CRIMES & GOODBYES
Fans will have to make do without Chief Superintendent Frank Carlyle this season. Actor Rodger Corser was cast in the lead of Aussie drama series Doctor Doctor (2016- current) and doesn’t have space in his schedule to return. But someone who is coming back is Anna McGahan, who will reprise her role as journalist Rose Anderson.
While Doctor Blake’s production company has kept a lid on any leaks, they have revealed one or two predicaments that the good doc will deal with in season 5. They say that “Blake will face mysteries in the boxing ring, vineyards, gypsy camps and more as loyalties are tested, friendships broken and faiths are challenged”.