Shakespeare & Hathaway

Season 3 BBC Brit (*120) 19:00 Drama

Wherever there’s crime, detective duo Frank Hathaway (Mark Benton) and Luella Shakespeare (Jo Joyner) are sure to follow in British cop drama Shakespeare & Hathaway. They’ve gone from private investigator (Hathaway) and his client (Shakespeare), to become a dynamic team who won’t stop at anything to solve crime in their village of StratfordUpon-Avon (it’s actually filmed there too) in Britain, where the playwright William Shakespeare lived in the 1500s.

As the pair have developed, so has the show and the crimes and cases are more intense, yet still full of laughs, more than ever, explains Mark. “It’s the wonderful thing about television – there is always another story to be told. For us, we have a writing team who come up with believable mysteries and situations that our characters find themselves in.” And one of the easiest problems for detective TV characters to be put in is facing off with a past nemesis, which is in the season 3 premiere tonight. “Hathaway is asked to help with a dodgy bingo hall and he walks into a criminal he arrested about a decade earlier for violent crimes,” says Mark, whose character is in a tight spot when the ex-con confesses to a recent murder, but Frank has his doubts.

The season will also see the lead characters bond more than ever, which was a lot of fun, says Jo. “Lu and Frank have an interesting connection, and I don’t think it’s right for that to be messed with in terms of romance. Instead, they are like good friends who get better as each episode goes on.” The actress adds that she’s excited by developments later in the season “because season 4 is going to be heavily impacted by them”.