Miss Scarlet's Already Got a New Partner for Season 5

One of TV’s most magnetic pairings split up earlier this year, when Stuart Martin, The Duke of Miss Scarlet and the Duke, announced he wouldn’t reprise his role as William Wellington opposite Kate Phillips (the eponymous Miss Scarlet). It was a huge bummer for fans of the cozy PBS Masterpiece detective drama, who’d waited for the investigative duo to become a romantic one after four seasons. Despite the duke’s proclamation of love at the end of Season 4, it was not to be.

But PBS is moving forward with more Miss Scarlet, which will be back for a fifth season — with a new partner in tow. Today, WGBH announced that Tom Durant Pritchard, a growing mainstay in period dramas like The Crown and The Tudors, has been cast as Alexander Blake, a “handsome former soldier and respected detective inspector” who’s set to become The Duke’s replacement at Scotland Yard. It’s not long before he meets Eliza, who’s continued with her private detective business in the duke’s absence. As she should — Ani Bundel wrote in March, Miss Scarlet’s already had a hand in changing the TV landscape.

A press release from PBS notes that Miss Scarlet will butt heads with Blake before any kind of team-up (romantic or otherwise); he refuses to let private detectives in on his investigations. But we know the likelihood of Eliza staying away from the action is virtually nonexistent, so it’s just a matter of time before they’re running into each other and developing “mutual respect for one another, and perhaps even an attraction.”

There’s no premiere date for Season 5 yet, but we do know that series regulars Evan McCabe, Cathy Belton, Felix Scott, Paul Bazely, Simon Ludders, and Tim Chipping are all returning.

Danette Chavez is the Editor-in-Chief of Primetimer and its biggest fan of puns.