BritBox has added another British mystery to its television catalogue as Ann Cleeves’ The Long Call is streaming today. Viewers can watch all four episodes now.
The Long Call is the latest television adaptation from award-winning author Cleeves, bringing her Detective Inspector Matthew Venn character to the small screen for the first time. Ben Aldridge (currently starring as Thomas Wayne in HBO MAX’s Batman prequel Pennyworth) leads the cast as DI Venn, who returns to his hometown after 20 years to head up a murder investigation. Like most great detectives he uncovers more than he expected.
Simultaneously, Venn and his husband Jonathan must deal with the death of Venn’s father and the emotions of coming back to a community that drove Matthew out two decades earlier. Will people be more accepting now than they were then, or will he continue to face rejection and opposition, even while trying to stop the murderer in their midst?
The cast of The Long Call also includes former Doctor Who companion Pearl Mackie, British mystery veteran Martin Shaw—who played the title character in Judge John Deed and George Gently—and BAFTA nominee Juliet Stevenson of Law & Order: UK and The Hour.
Lee Haven Jones, whose credits include the latest Doctor Who special “Resolution of the Daleks,” directs all four episodes.
The gripping drama adds to Cleeves’ lengthy resume of book-to-TV success stories; she’s also the mastermind behind long-running whodunits Vera and Shetland, both of which were adapted from other series of her novels. If you want to check out the first Matthew Venn novel that The Long Call is based on, you can find it on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback formats. Cleeves has already released a sequel, The Heron’s Cry.
The series joins BritBox’s already impressive lineup of British mysteries, which includes every season of Line of Duty, Midsomer Murders, Scott & Bailey, Inspector Morse and Silent Witness—to name just a few. Other titles in the BritBox catalogue include classics like Spooks (also known as MI-5 to the American audience), Blackadder, QI and Red Dwarf. Subscriptions start at just $6.99 per month.
The Long Call is now streaming on BritBox. Watch BritBox today with a 7-day free trial.
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