PASADENA, Calif. — Dogged detective Jane Tennison will be back on PBS’s “Masterpiece” in 2017 — a specific summer airdate has not been announced — but this time she’ll be significantly younger than when viewers last saw Helen Mirren in the role.
“Prime Suspect: Tennison” is a prequel that introduces the character as a 23-year-old newcomer to the police force in the 1970s played by actress Stefanie Martini.
The three-part first season of “Tennison” is based on a novel by Lynda La Plante, creator of the original “Prime Suspect.”
“There is a something that Jane wanders into and kind of figures out in the course of this story,” said “Masterpiece” executive producer Rebecca Eaton. “But it’s also Jane’s story. … Jane Tennison is actually posh. She’s from a very middle-class, maybe even slightly upper-middle-class, family.”
She’s assigned to a rough neighborhood police station.
“You get a lot more information in this about her parents, her sister, what they think of her joining the police,” Ms. Eaton said. “They don’t support it. They don’t think it’s a good idea. They don’t understand it. … [It’s] closer to the time when there were no women in the police force. And the women who came in in the ’70s were among the first.”
Ms. Eaton said Ms. Mirren was supportive of a “Prime Suspect” prequel.
“I think she feels no exclusivity of ownership to it,” Ms. Eaton said.
But Ms. Martini said she’s never met or spoken to Ms. Mirren about the role.
“I did watch most of the ‘Prime Suspects,’ and she’s brilliant, and it’s incredible, and it’s really useful to know where my character ends up,” Ms. Martini said. “But I tried not to do an imitation or a watered down version of it.”
“Tennison” is just one of the many projects in the “Masterpiece” pipeline as the PBS drama series settles into a post-“Downton Abbey” existence. Ms. Eaton is quick to point out ratings for “Masterpiece” are on the rise even when “Downton” and “Sherlock” are not part of the equation.
“Since 2010, aside from the ‘Downton’ ratings and the ‘Sherlock’ ratings, the ratings for ‘Masterpiece’ at 9 [on Sunday] have gone up 20 percent, so that is the rising tide that lifts all boats,” she said. “That is the ‘Downton’ effect, but it truly has affected our other shows.”
TV Land throws ‘Shade’
The podcast “Throwing Shade,” hosted by Erin Gibson and Bryan Safi, gets turned into a TV series of the same name tonight at 10:30 on TV Land. The pair, who previously appeared on the smart but little-seen “InfoMania” on the now-defunct Current TV, will host TV Land’s “Throwing Shade” in front of a studio audience while seated at a desk.
Tonight’s episode was shot late last week, an effort to keep it topical with a frequent focus on pop culture, politics, feminist and LGBT issues.
“So think sort of like a ‘Daily Show,’ but within the news pieces we keep throwing to different cutaways and sketches,” Mr. Safi said at a press conference Saturday. “So instead of doing field pieces or that kind of thing, we go into sketches with different characters and setups.”
Channel surfing
Bob Beckel will return as co-host of “The Five” on Fox News Channel after being dropped from the show in 2015. … TBS has ordered “The Cops,” an animated comedy starring Louis C.K. and Albert Brooks as L.A. police officers. ... Sunday's Steelers game on NBC averaged 37.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched prime-time game ever in the NFL's divisional and wild card playoff rounds.
A portion of this column originally appeared online in the Tuned In Journal blog. Post-Gazette TV writer Rob Owen is attending the Television Critics Association winter press tour. Follow RobOwenTV at Twitter or Facebook. You can reach him at 412-263-2582 or rowen@post-gazette.com.
First Published: January 17, 2017, 5:00 a.m.
