With The Marlow Murder Club<\/a> and a new season of Beyond Paradise<\/a> dropping already this year, and Richard Osman\u2019s star-studded film The Thursday Murder Club<\/a> recently announced, you can\u2019t escape sleepy village drama on the small screen.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, recent BAFTA winner Timothy Spall<\/a> is getting in on the action \u2013 having been announced as the lead of new BBC comedy Death Valley.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Wicked Little Letters<\/a>\u2019 Spall will star as \u201ceccentric national treasure John Chapel\u201d, according to the synopsis, \u201ca retired actor and star of hit fictional detective TV show Caesar\u201d, and will join forces with Gwyneth Keyworth\u2019s disarming detective sergeant Janie Mallowan to solve a case of the week.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Set in Wales, Death Valley will follow the unlikely crime-solving partnership as they work together \u2013 and annoy each other, in classic odd couple fashion \u2013 to get to the bottom of \u201cgripping murders\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> The synopsis continues: \u201cThrown together by the murder of John\u2019s neighbour, John and Janie are an odd yet hilarious duo with opposing instincts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEvery week, they get to the bottom of gripping murders, with various stunning Welsh locations providing a backdrop to their investigations.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen John and Janie are not arguing about a case, they\u2019re inevitably up in each other\u2019s personal business. Despite their differences, they soon realise they are the closest thing each other has to a best friend, and unwittingly help one another move on from the past.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Written and created by Paul Doolan (Mammoth, Trollied), the project marks a shift away from the more heavy-hitting drama Spall took home the Best Actor BAFTA for, The Sixth Commandment<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Explaining his decision to join the series, he said: \u201cI\u2019m relishing the prospect of getting stuck in as we embark on creating this truly oddball detective duo who develop their unusual combined eccentric skills to hilarious and surprisingly successful effect in beautiful rural Wales and its gorgeous towns and villages.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to teaming up with the brilliant Gwyneth Keyworth and the fantastically talented team of creatives and technicians on this new and unique comedy drama.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Jon Petrie, director of comedy at the BBC, added: \u201cThis series has all the hallmarks of a BBC Comedy classic; it\u2019s the perfect comedy drama caper which never forgets the funny. We feel thoroughly spoiled to have such a wonderful cast on board.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n No release date has yet been announced, with filming set to begin in Wales next month, but it will arrive on BBC Two, BBC One Wales and BBC iPlayer once production wraps.<\/span><\/p>\n Death Valley is coming to BBC Two and iPlayer soon.<\/b><\/p>\n Check out more of our\u00a0Comedy<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to find out what\u2019s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n Spall will join Gwyneth Keyworth as “an odd yet hilarious duo with opposing instincts”. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":51735,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/timothy-spall-leads-new-bbc-comedy-murder-mystery-death-valley-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/timothy-spall-leads-new-bbc-comedy-murder-mystery-death-valley-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/timothy-spall-leads-new-bbc-comedy-murder-mystery-death-valley-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/timothy-spall-leads-new-bbc-comedy-murder-mystery-death-valley-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/timothy-spall-leads-new-bbc-comedy-murder-mystery-death-valley-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/timothy-spall-leads-new-bbc-comedy-murder-mystery-death-valley-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/timothy-spall-leads-new-bbc-comedy-murder-mystery-death-valley-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Spall will join Gwyneth Keyworth as \"an odd yet hilarious duo with opposing instincts\".","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/51734"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Timothy](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/The-Sixth-Commandment-Timothy-Spall-2330db4.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"The")
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