“Call” Set to Be Received

British television network ITV has scheduled its four-part adaptation of The Long Call, Ann Cleeves’ first Detective Inspector Venn novel (published in 2019). It will premiere on Monday, October 25, and run till the 28th. Here’s The Killing Times’ thumbnail of the plot:

Matthew was brought up in the Barum Brethren before leaving to go to University. At 19 he knew he couldn’t continue amongst the [religious] community and to his mother’s shock and dismay, he declared publicly he no longer believed. Now he’s back, not just to grieve for his father, but to lead a shocking murder investigation back where it all began for him.

The Long Call, we’re told, is set “in a small community in North Devon [where Venn lives] with his husband, Jonathan.” There’s no word yet on when this program might become available to U.S. audiences.

* * *

Meanwhile, the same source alerts us that “Filming has begun on the third series of ITV crime drama McDonald & Dodds starring Tala Gouveia and Jason Watkins … The four-part series starts with ‘Belvedere,’ where a young woman is found dead sitting in a deckchair in broad daylight in one of Bath’s most beautiful and populated parks. Why did this woman die with a smile on her face?”

McDonald & Dodds’ return is expected sometime in 2022.