Acorn TV May 2022 Highlights

Episode 1 Premiere Monday, 2nd May 2022

Episode 2 Premiere Monday, 9th May 2022

Episode 3 Premiere Monday, 16th May 2022

SIGNORA VOLPE

WORLD PREMIERE

ACORN TV ORIGINAL

Trailer

Top British spy Sylvia Fox (Emilia Fox, Silent Witness, The Pianist) is in Italy for her niece’s wedding when the groom goes missing, leaving a dead body behind him. Sylvia solves the mystery and falls in love – with Italy, and with a crumbling old house on a hillside.

Disillusioned with her job and longing to reconnect with her family, Sylvia decides to stay on and start a new life in the little town of Panicale. But trouble has a habit of seeking Sylvia out and she finds herself tackling a new case every week including the disappearance of a young woman a quarter of a century ago, to the theft of a truffle pig and a blackmail plot against the son of a Russian politician – and in the process, becoming increasingly close to handsome local cop Giovanni Riva (Giovanni Cirfiera, American Crime Story; The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Queen of the South).

Episode 3 Premieres Monday, 2nd May 2022

Episode 4 Premieres Monday, 9th May 2022

Episode 5 Premieres Monday, 16th May 2022

Episode 6 Premieres Monday, 23rd May 2022

THE IPCRESS FILE

NEW ZEALAND PREMIERE

ACORN TV EXCLUSIVE

It’s 1962, at the height of the Cold War, and ex-soldier and thief Harry Palmer (Joe Cole, Peaky Blinders, Gangs of London) is recruited to an unorthodox British spy unit whose boss, Dalby (Tom Hollander, Bird Box, The Night Manager), wants help retrieving a missing A-bomb scientist.

Working alongside the cool, ambitious agent Jean (Lucy Boynton, Bohemian Rhapsody, Locked Down), Harry soon finds himself under fire in East Berlin. Harry knows he and Jean are making progress when a stranger attempts to blow them up, with the trail leading to an unconventional psychiatrist, a cocktail of drugs and the mysterious acronym IPCRESS. Harry’s fate then takes a dark turn when he is subject to a regimen of mental torture. Heading back to London, Jean scrambles to decipher the meaning of IPCRESS.

Premieres Monday, 23rd May 2022

MY LIFE IS MURDER, Series 2

Trailer

New Zealand’s very own Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess, Battlestar Galactica, Ash vs Evil Dead, Parks and Recreation), is back as the fearless and unflinching Detective Alexa Crowe. Finding herself back home in Aotearoa for the first time in years, Alexa can’t help herself when she is asked to look into a bizarre unsolved murder.

Alexa quickly finds herself investigating other murder mysteries in surprising, glamorous worlds filled with intriguing characters who are hiding dangerous and deadly secrets. Madison (Ebony Vagulans, Doctor Doctor, The Letdown) quickly follows her mentor across the ditch and the sleuthing duo begin working with charismatic Auckland homicide detective, Harry Henare (Rawiri Jobe, The Brokenwood Mysteries, Shortland Street).

Kiwi audiences will spot a bevy of familiar faces with Joe Naafahu (Game of Thrones, Spartacus) rounding out the key cast as café owner Reuben and guests stars including Martin Henderson, Antonia Prebble, Robyn Malcolm, Kita Mean, Anna Hutchinson, Matt Whelan, Jay Ryan, Bill Bailey and William Shatner.

FULL SCHEDULE – MAY 2022

Monday, 2nd May

SIGNORA VOLPE, Series 1, Episode 1 of 3

WORLD PREMIERE; ACORN TV ORIGINAL

EPISODE 1: AN ANXIOUS AUNT

Disillusioned British spy Sylvia Fox travels to Italy for the wedding of her niece. When the groom goes missing, leaving a dead woman behind, Sylvia begins an investigation that begins with an empty pizza box and a stolen children’s book and ends in a dramatic showdown with a killer.

THE IPCRESS FILE, Series 1, Episode 3 of 6

NZ PREMIERE; ACORN TV EXCLUSIVE

Episode 3:

In Beirut, Randall holds Professor Dawson while awaiting his paymasters’ instructions. Jean and Harry arrive in hot pursuit, each of them reeling from the messy end of personal relationships. Meanwhile, suspicious of Dalby, ultra-hawkish US General Cathcart asks CIA contact Maddox to begin a surveillance operation.

THERESE RAQUIN

Based on the classic novel by Emile Zola. Therese Raquin is married to the sickly Camille when she begins a passionate affair with the handsome Laurent. The two plot Camille’s murder so they can be together, only to find themselves haunted by what they have done. (3 EPS, 1980)

Monday, 9th May

SIGNORA VOLPE, Series 1, Episode 2 of 3

WORLD PREMIERE; ACORN TV ORIGINAL

EPISODE 2: SECRETS AND SACRIFICES

Now settled in Italy, Sylvia helps out on an archaeological dig and finds a skeleton buried in a shallow grave. The locals think they know the identity of both corpse and killer, but Sylvia uncovers a hidden story of dark secrets, domestic abuse, and heroic sacrifice. Handsome Carabinieri officer Giovanni Riva is impressed…

WHITE SANDS
In order to solve the brutal murder of a young, German surfer, two police officers are secretly deployed to the tourist paradise of Hvide Sande on the Jutlandic west coast. (8 EPS, 2021)

THE SHELL SEEKERS

Penelope (Vanessa Redgrave, Atonement) is recovering from a heart attack and reflecting on her life’s adventures, from growing up as the as the daughter of an acclaimed painter, to life as a disillusioned wife and a brief time as a deeply enthralled lover. While Penelope looks back, her children pressure her to sell her father’s paintings to ease their financial burdens. (2 EPS, 2016)

THE IPCRESS FILE, Series 1, Episode 4 of 6

NZ PREMIERE; ACORN TV EXCLUSIVE

Episode 4:

Suspecting an American hand in the abduction of Dawson, Dalby challenges General Cathcart by sending Harry and Jean to snoop on the Pacific atoll where the neutron bomb is to be tested. Affected by his act of killing in Beirut, Harry follows orders to make the acquaintance of Karen Newton, an American psychiatrist and former colleague of the murdered Radley, whose presence on the island hints at a connection with the missing British physicist. Alert to the duo’s intentions, Maddox works skillfully to undermine Jean’s trust in her colleague.

Monday, 16th May

SIGNORA VOLPE, Series 1, Episode 3 of 3

WORLD PREMIERE; ACORN TV ORIGINAL

EPISODE 3: SECRETS AND SACRIFICES

When the son of an old friend is arrested for murder, Sylvia interrupts her hunt for a stolen truffle pig in order to investigate. She discovers that the killing is linked to a blackmail plot and a secret love affair, but the killer’s identity comes as a shock.

GARAGE SALE MYSTERIES, Series 2, (6 TV Movies)

Antique guru and amateur sleuth Jennifer Shannon (Lori Loughlin, Full House, Spin City) is back with six more intriguing mysteries. Highlights of the new capers see Jennifer fighting to clear an old friend's name, chasing a murderer who has left clues based on a mystery novel and uncovering the mysteries of a body discovered in an attic.

THE IPCRESS FILE, Series 1, Episode 5 of 6

NZ PREMIERE; ACORN TV EXCLUSIVE

Episode 5:

General Cathcart is dismayed by the cancellation of the neutron bomb project. He meets Maddox, wrestling with his own demons over past failures, and invites him to join a plan that will correct these errors of national direction. A conspiracy needs a fall guy. Harry Palmer, suffering in a brutal black site detention centre, is handed over to the Chinese military where he is subject to a bewildering regime of mental torture.

Monday, 23rd May

RESORT TO MURDER

Harriet Penny witnesses a murder in a fading seaside resort and soon after falls victim to murder herself. With suspicion falling on her husband Sam, and the police unwilling to look further, their estranged son sets out to find the man who really killed his mother. (5 EPS, 1995)

MY LIFE IS MURDER, Series 2

New Zealand’s very own Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess, Battlestar Galactica, Ash vs Evil Dead, Parks and Recreation), is back as the fearless and unflinching Detective Alexa Crowe. Finding herself back home in Aotearoa for the first time in years, Alexa can’t help herself when she is asked to look into a bizarre unsolved murder.

THE IPCRESS FILE, Series 1, Episode 6 of 6

NZ PREMIERE; ACORN TV EXCLUSIVE

Episode 6:

Harry, escaped from captivity and psychological torture, takes refuge in a derelict shack while Jean pursues her research into Maddox’s history of failed actions against Castro. Dalby learns from the Minister – distracted by a forthcoming American state visit –that his beloved organization is to be axed, a disaster for Dalby who needs high value secrets to pay Stok for Polina’s freedom.

Monday, 30th May

HIP

Despite her 160 IQ, Morgane works as a cleaning lady in a police station. One night she tidies up an investigation board and the officers realise she has brought them a huge step closer to solving the case. Morgane agrees to use her impressive intellect to support the police – on the condition that they reopen the investigation into the disappearance of her first love. [8 EPS, 2021]

FOUR SEASONS

Based on Rosamunde Pilcher’s drama, this special two-part miniseries focuses on the Combes family and its magnificent country estate, Endellion. After years of tranquillity, life is about to change with the return of Patriarch Stephen's ex-wife. (4 EPS, 2008)

ABOUT ACORN TV

Hailed as “Netflix for the Anglophile” by NPR, AMC Networks’ Acorn TV is the streaming service offering a carefully curated, quality slate of UK and international TV series, all streaming ad-free on demand. Subscribers can enjoy a wide range of popular Acorn TV Originals, including the quirky and wildly fun murder investigation series, Emmy-nominated Queens of Mystery, dubbed “a sure-fire crowd-pleaser” by Los Angeles Times; the intriguing murder investigations of Dalgliesh, based on P.D. James’ bestselling novels and starring Bertie Carvel (Doctor Foster); The Madame Blanc Mysteries which follows antiques expert Jean White (Sally Lindsay, Mount Pleasant) to the South of France as she investigates the mysterious death of her husband; Whitstable Pearl starring Kerry Godliman (After Life) cracking cases in the dark underside of a beautiful British coastal town; and The Chelsea Detective starring Adrian Scarborough (Killing Eve) which delves into a range of thrilling cases in the dark underside of London’s beautiful, affluent borough. The service features longstanding favourites such as Midsomer Murders, Vera, Cracker, Poldark, Endeavour, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Republic of Doyle, Agatha Christie’s Marple and Poirot, Lewis, Grantchester and Inspector Morse with shows such as the ITV hit The Hatton Garden Heist and acclaimed French favourite Candice Renoir released every week. Acorn TV carefully curates a world-class library of compelling crime thrillers, addictive dramas and intriguing mysteries providing Kiwi audiences with instant access to their favourite British and international shows, all in the one place. Acorn TV offers a free trial and thereafter monthly and annual subscriptions cost just $7.99 and $79.99 respectively. Sign up at acorn.tv.

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