Title: Rosemary and Thyme 
Starring: Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris
Produced by: Acorn Media/ Carnival Films
Number of Seasons/ Series: 3
Summary: Laura Thyme, a former policewoman and avid gardener, teams up with Rosemary Boxer, a plant biologist. Together, they solve mysteries both botanical and murderous.
My favorite element of this series is the beautiful location filming. The camera captures gardens, fields, waterfalls, meadows, etc with their gorgeous colors, textures, lights, and patterns. Watching each show makes me want to put on boots and tramp through the English countryside (or, alternatively, to finally weed around my rose bushes).
The music, as composed by Christopher Gunning and performed by guitarist John Williams, provides a charming compliment to the show’s beauty and simplicity. He quite naturally based the theme on the English folksong “Scarborough Fayre” (I, like many others, know it from the Simon and Garfunkel album), as the lyrics from the song have inspired the title and the characters’ names. Gunning also composed and directed the incidental music for the series. Apparently he has a cd available with music from the series. I’d quite like to hear that and may look around for it.
The mysteries involved are generally well-crafted and “cozy”. They usually involve a small group of people, most of whom have motives for the crime. In many ways, these stories model themselves on the Agatha Christie standard, and they (as I have previously mentioned about other mysteries) “play fair” with the audience as far as clues are concerned. Like Christies’s televised stories, the viewer must pay attention to each character and their slightest word or movement. These are not shows that you can just let play in the background while you do something else. However, given the beautiful photography, who wouldn’t want to feast their eyes, as well as their minds?
So far, I’ve seen seasons/ series (ah, fun with terminology from across the pond) one and two. I’m looking forward to my local library’s getting the final one.
If you like your mystery dramas soft, character-driven, and absolutely floral– check these ladies out!
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