Rosemary & Thyme
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Rosemary & Thyme | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover |
|
| Genre | Crime fiction |
| Creator(s) | Tom Clegg Brian Farnham |
| Starring | Felicity Kendal Pam Ferris |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 22 (2 unaired) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Carnival Films |
| Running time | 2x120 minutes 20x60 minutes (including adverts) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV1 |
| Original run | 31 August 2003 – 22 February 2006 |
Rosemary & Thyme was a British television series that stared Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris as gardening detectives Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme. The show began on ITV1 in 2003, and the third series ended in early 2006. On 12 May 2006, ITV announced that the third series was the last.
The show is a mixture of gardening and detective investigation as the green-fingered sleuths delve into the world of crime, solving the various mysteries that happen to follow them around the country — and in other countries as well.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
A mystery series set in a variety of beautiful English and European country gardens, Rosemary & Thyme features two friends who, although partners in a gardening business, often find themselves in the middle of a crime scene.
Laura Thyme (Pam Ferris) is a former policewoman whose husband has abandoned her for a younger woman; Rosemary Boxer (Felicity Kendal) is a plant biology lecturer whose academic career is cut short. A sudden death brings them together and they discover their shared love of the soil and a natural inquisitiveness.
Forced to reassess their lives, they hope their new-found friendship will lead to future gardening commissions, not more detective work. But whilst Laura and Rosemary don’t think of themselves as sleuths – they are just as interested in a problem with a rosebush as with a dead body – mysteries have a habit of following them around.
The fact that they are inconspicuous gardeners means that they overhear secrets and dig up clues which not only lead them to rectify the floral problems but also solve the crime and capture the criminal.
[edit] Title
The title of the series is taken from the old English poem "Scarborough Fayre", later made famous in the song "Scarborough Fair" by Simon and Garfunkel from their album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. The title borrows from the first two lines: "Are you going to Scarborough Fair / Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme...".
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Series 1 (2003)
- "And No Birds Sing"
- "Arabica and the Early Spider"
- "The Language of Flowers"
- "Sweet Angelica"
- "A Simple Plot"
- "The Tree of Death"
[edit] Series 2 (2004)
- "The Memory of Water" (feature length episode)
- "Orpheus in the Undergrowth"
- "They Understand Me In Paris"
- "The Invisible Worm"
- "The Gongoozlers"
- "The Italian Rapscallion"
- "Swords Into Ploughshares"
- "Up The Garden Path"
[edit] Series 3 (2006)
- "The Cup of Silence" (feature length episode)
- "In A Monastery Garden"
- "Seeds of Time"
- "Agua Cadaver"
- "Three Legs Good"
- "The Gooseberry Bush"
- "Racquet Espanol"
- "Enter Two Gardeners"
The final two episodes have not yet been broadcast on ITV and there is no news on when these last ever episodes will be shown.
Due to the outdoor nature of the show and the brevity of the British summer, it became the practice to set two of each series episodes in overseas locations. Two stories were in preparation for shooting in Portugal when the ITV Network Centre decided to cancel plans for a fourth series.
[edit] Novels
Three novels, written by series creator Brian Eastman and based on episodes of the series, have been published in Britain by Allison and Busby, and in Australia by Hardie Grant Books. These novels are:
- And No Birds Sing (first published in 2004, and based on the pilot episode)
- The Tree of Death (first published in 2005, and based on the final episode of Series 1)
- Memory of Water (first published in 2006, and based on the first episode of Series 2)
[edit] DVD Release
Rosemary & Thyme, Series 1,2 and 3 is available on DVD in the UK and the US.
[edit] Short Story
The Case of the Dead Wait, by Peter Lovesey (January 2007 Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine)
[edit] Other countries
A list of international television stations which have previously, currently or are planning to screen Rosemary & Thyme.
| Country | TV Network(s) | Weekly Schedule |
|---|---|---|
 Australia |
Channel Seven (replays, 2nd run) Hallmark Channel (replays) |
Saturday 8.40pm Sunday 6.30pm |
