Frankie Drake Mysteries
Frankie Drake Mysteries is a Canadian drama which premiered on CBC on November 6, 2017. The series stars Lauren Lee Smith and Chantel Riley as Frankie Drake and her partner Trudy who run an all-female private detective service in Toronto, Canada in the 1920s. In May 2020, the series was renewed for a fourth season, which is scheduled to air in early 2021.[1]
| Frankie Drake Mysteries | |
|---|---|
| Genre | |
| Created by | Carol Hay Michelle Ricci |
| Starring |
|
| Country of origin | Canada |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 31 |
| Production | |
| Production location(s) | Toronto, Ontario London, England |
| Running time | 43 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Shaftesbury Films UKTV |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBC |
| Picture format | 1080i (HDTV) |
| Original release | November 6, 2017 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
| Production website | |
Overview
Lauren Lee Smith portrays the fictional Frankie Drake, the first female private detective in 1920s Toronto, with Chantel Riley as her crime-solving partner Trudy Clarke.[2][3] Frankie and Trudy are often assisted on their cases by Mary (Rebecca Liddiard), a morality officer in Toronto's police force, and Flo (Sharron Matthews), a pathologist at the Toronto City Morgue.
Cast and characters
Main
- Lauren Lee Smith as Frankie Drake, Toronto's first female private detective and the owner of Drake Private Detectives
- Chantel Riley as Trudy Clarke, Frankie's partner and friend
- Rebecca Liddiard as Mary Shaw, a morality officer in Toronto's police force who often helps Frankie with her cases
- Sharron Matthews as Flo Chakowitz, a pathologist at the Toronto City Morgue who provides information to Frankie
Recurring
- Wendy Crewson as Nora Amory, Frankie's mother and a con artist
- Karen Robinson as Mildred Clarke, Trudy's mother. A good Christian woman who is not afraid to speak her mind when needed.
- Grace Lynn Kung as Wendy Quon, the owner of Quon's Cafe, a speakeasy in the Ward that is frequented by the main cast
- Romaine Waite as Bill Peters, a friend of Trudy's who works at city hall and helps the girls out with information at times
- Emmanuel Kabongo as Moses Page (seasons 1 & 3), Frankie's boxing instructor and love interest
- Richard Walters as Tickles Malone, a musician who Frankie bumps into at different clubs around Toronto
- Anthony Lemke as Detective Grayson (season 2), recently transferred to the Toronto police and a thorn in Frankie's investigations
Guest
- Laurence Fox as Greg Mills (season 1), a pilot
- Steve Lund as Ernest Hemingway (season 1), a writer and reporter for the Toronto Star
- Romane Portail as Coco Chanel (season 2), who hires Frankie to determine who shot at her in Toronto
- Natalie Brown as Bessie Starkman (season 2), a bookie who operates out of a flower shop
- Honeysuckle Weeks as Agatha Christie (season 3), whom Frankie meets in the United Kingdom
Episodes
Series overview
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | ||||
| 1 | 11 | November 6, 2017 | February 5, 2018 | ||
| 2 | 10 | September 24, 2018 | November 26, 2018 | ||
| 3 | 10 | September 16, 2019 | December 2, 2019 | ||
Season 1 (2017–2018)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Mother of Pearl" | Ruba Nadda | Michelle Ricci | November 6, 2017 | |
| Frankie partners with a surprising ally when she's named as the number one suspect in a robbery that looks like the work of her dead father. | ||||||
| 2 | 2 | "Ladies in Red" | Ruba Nadda | Cal Coons | November 13, 2017 | |
| Frankie and Trudy are hired by a factory owner to root out communists working for him, but things are not as they appear. | ||||||
| 3 | 3 | "Summer in the City" | Norma Bailey | Carol Hay | November 20, 2017 | |
| When a dead body turns up in the luggage of a young man, the case brings Frankie and Trudy into Toronto's elite social circles. | ||||||
| 4 | 4 | "Healing Hands" | Sudz Sutherland | Andrew Burrows-Trotman | November 27, 2017 | |
| When Trudy gives shelter to a faith-healing preacher's daughter, she and Frankie find themselves investigating Toronto's Jazz scene. | ||||||
| 5 | 5 | "Out of Focus" | Sudz Sutherland | John Callaghan | December 4, 2017 | |
| Frankie and Trudy go undercover in the glamorous world of film in order to solve a seemingly impossible murder on a silent movie set. | ||||||
| 6 | 6 | "Whisper Sisters" | Leslie Hope | Adriana Maggs | December 11, 2017 | |
| After a shooting injures the young son of a friend, Frankie and Trudy's investigation leads them into the dangerous world of bootlegging. | ||||||
| 7 | 7 | "Ties That Bind" | Eleanor Lindo | Carol Hay | January 8, 2018 | |
| Mary recruits Frankie and Trudy to find a missing teacher, but their investigation leads them to family secrets, Chinatown and murder. | ||||||
| 8 | 8 | "The Pilot" | Leslie Hope | Carol Hay | January 15, 2018 | |
| A day off turns into a day at the office for Frankie and Trudy when the infant son of a charismatic aviator is kidnapped during an air show. | ||||||
| 9 | 9 | "Ghosts" | Peter Stebbings | Ian Carpenter | January 22, 2018 | |
| The horrors of war haunt Frankie when an investigation into a soldier's murder reunites her with a friend left traumatised by his tour of duty. | ||||||
| 10 | 10 | "Anastasia" | Cal Coons | Michelle Ricci | January 29, 2018 | |
| Frankie is hired to confirm the identity of a young woman claiming to be a Russian princess and protect her from those who want her dead. | ||||||
| 11 | 11 | "Once Burnt Twice Spied" | Peter Stebbings | Michelle Ricci | February 5, 2018 | |
| When Frankie gets a mysterious call from a British spy, Mary discovers how she and Trudy met, and how Drake Private Detectives was formed. | ||||||
Season 2 (2018)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 1 | "The Old Switcheroo" | Ruba Nadda | Carol Hay | September 24, 2018[upper-alpha 1] | |
| Nora has a legitimate job at the Toronto Museum, where an old enemy of Frankie's tries to pull a con job and almost pulls a con on Nora herself. In the end, Frankie goes to the United States to meet up a famous archeologist to get some information. Meanwhile, Flo and Mary unite to find out the truth about a mysterious man involved in a seemingly straight-up death. | ||||||
| 13 | 2 | "Last Dance" | Ruba Nadda | James Hurst | October 1, 2018[upper-alpha 2] | |
| A case of mistaken identity has a diabetic man kidnapped during a dance marathon. Frankie meets Detective Grayson for the first time. The accidental kidnapped victim is diabetic is on a ticking clock to get a newly invented medication called insulin. | ||||||
| 14 | 3 | "Radio Daze" | Cal Coons | Ruba Nadda | October 8, 2018 | |
| A producer of a local radio station tries to use a radio play as a cover to pull a bank job, but Mary figures it out and tries to warn Frankie. | ||||||
| 15 | 4 | "Emancipation Day" | Ruba Nadda | Andrew Burrows-Trotman | October 15, 2018 | |
| Marcus Garvey is in town to lend his support to a fundraiser for a black girls' orphanage and offers a Trudy a job in Chicago. Flo and Mary take a trip to a NY police station, where they encounter a female police officer. | ||||||
| 16 | 5 | "Dressed to Kill" | Sudz Sutherland | Jessie Gabe | October 22, 2018 | |
| Coco Chanel hires Frankie, while visiting Toronto, when someone tries to shoot her when the police did not take it seriously. A local gossip columnist in the Toronto Star called Lipstick writes about the goings-on happening before Coco's fashion show. Lipstick is revealed to be Nora. | ||||||
| 17 | 6 | "Extra Innings" | Sudz Sutherland | John Callaghan | October 29, 2018 | |
| A female baseball player is killed while playing, who Frankie finds out that was being paid to throw the game. Mary joins the team to help solve the murder, while Frankie meets Bessie Starkman, who is a racketeer. | ||||||
| 18 | 7 | "50 Shades of Greyson" | Cal Coons | Jessie Gabe | November 5, 2018 | |
| Mary suspects Detective Greyson of hiding evidence and decides to spy on him on her own, only to get caught by Greyson himself and fired instead. It is revealed that the case is familiar to Greyson because it is similar to one at his old precinct. They discover that one of the killers is someone from Mary's past. | ||||||
| 19 | 8 | "Diamonds are a Gal's Best Friend" | Peter Stebbings | Carol Hay | November 12, 2018 | |
| A famous diamond is stolen and Frankie and Trudy take the case with some help from Nora. | ||||||
| 20 | 9 | "Dealer's Choice" | Ruba Nadda | John Callaghan | November 19, 2018 | |
| Frankie and Trudy agree to help a young man retrieve his pocket watch, which has sentimental value. Their search takes them to Bessie Starkman's casino, who is not happy to see Frankie, but admits her casino has been robbed at gunpoint a few times. The two women agree to help each other out. | ||||||
| 21 | 10 | "Now You See Her" | Ruba Nadda | James Hurst | November 26, 2018 | |
| Frankie goes undercover as a magician's assistant when his first assistant dies in a magic act gone wrong. | ||||||
Season 3 (2019)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | 1 | "No Friends Like Old Friends" | Ruba Nadda | Carol Hay | September 16, 2019 | |
| Agatha Christie helps Frankie solve the disappearance and poisoning of an old friend of hers from the war, while Frankie is visiting in England. Trudy and the gang help Frankie out at home, while dealing with leaky plumbing. | ||||||
| 23 | 2 | "Counterpunch" | Mina Shum | John Callaghan and Keri Ferencz | September 23, 2019 | |
| Frankie steps into the boxing ring to stop illegal boxing and meets up with her old friend Moses Page. | ||||||
| 24 | 3 | "School Ties, School Lies" | Ruba Nadda | Jennifer Kassabian | September 30, 2019 | |
| A favourite teacher at a private school is killed and Frankie is hired to find the killer. | ||||||
| 25 | 4 | "A Brother in Arms" | Mina Shum | Karen Hill and Ley Lukins | October 7, 2019 | |
| Frankie discovers her long lost half brother, who asks her help in exonerating a condemned friend. | ||||||
| 26 | 5 | "Things Better Left Dead" | Ruba Nadda | Cal Coons | October 14, 2019 | |
| Frankie investigates a murder involving a medium she suspects to be a con artist. | ||||||
| 27 | 6 | "Life on the Line" | Stephen Reizes | Keri Ferencz | October 28, 2019 | |
| 28 | 7 | "Out on a Limb" | Ruba Nadda | Carol Hay | November 4, 2019 | |
| 29 | 8 | "Ward of the Roses" | Stephen Reizes | Andrew Burrows-Trotman | November 11, 2019 | |
| 30 | 9 | "A History of Violins" | Cal Coons | John Callaghan | November 25, 2019 | |
| 31 | 10 | "A Sunshine State of Mind" | Ruba Nadda | Jennifer Kassabian & Keri Ference | December 2, 2019 | |
Production
The series was created by Carol Hay and Michelle Ricci; both women also served as writers and producers and previously worked on Murdoch Mysteries together.[4][5] It is produced by Shaftesbury Films.[6]
On April 5, 2018 the show was renewed for a second season of ten episodes.[7] On March 25, 2019, the show was renewed for a third season of ten episodes.[8] The third season premiere was filmed in England, with Honeysuckle Weeks playing the role of British author, Agatha Christie.[9]
On May 27, 2020, Frankie Drake Mysteries was renewed by CBC for a fourth season, which will air in early 2021.[1] Also as of 2020, an animated spinoff for kids called Mary and Flo: On the Go! is in production.[10]
Connections with Murdoch Mysteries
It is revealed in Frankie Drake Mysteries that the series takes place in the same universe as Murdoch Mysteries and that it takes place years after the events of Murdoch Mysteries. Some main and recurring characters from Murdoch Mysteries make appearances in Frankie Drake Mysteries, such as Inspector Thomas Brackenreid (Thomas Craig) who is revealed to have retired as an inspector and head of Station House Four. Also Constable George Crabtree (Jonny Harris) is revealed in the eighth episode of the first season ("The Pilot") to have retired from Constabulary to become a successful investor and Detective Llewellyn Watts (Daniel Maslany) is revealed to have become the successor to Brackenreid as the new inspector and head of Station House Four.[11][12]
Broadcast
Alibi in the United Kingdom aired the second season starting January 21, 2019, with the third season to come in 2020. Ovation in the United States aired seasons one and two back to back, beginning on June 15, 2019,[13][14] and started airing season three on April 4, 2020.[15] The show has also been picked up in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.[16]
Home media
| Title | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | Extras | Discs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season One | May 8, 2018 | May 9, 2018 (also Blu-ray, Region B locked) | June 27, 2018 | N/A | N/A |
| Season Two | June 25, 2019 | April 8, 2019 (also Blu-ray, Region B locked) | June 26, 2019 | N/A | N/A |
Reception
The series has received generally positive reviews since its release.[17] John Doyle of The Globe and Mail remarked "it's a hoot and as silly as all get-out," and concluded that "thanks to its charm and the frocks, skirts, suits and, well, the gorgeous furniture, it's frightfully good entertainment."[18] Johanna Schneller of the Toronto Star wrote that "the messaging in CBC series sometimes hits you over the head, but it's fun to watch women run their own show."[5]
Notes
- The Old Switcheroo", season 2, episode 1, was preempted from the September 24, 2018 in New Brunswick due to provincial elections. Instead it aired on October 1, 2018 at 5:00 pm AT.
- "Last Dance", season 2, episode 2, was preempted from the October 1, 2018 in Quebec due to provincial elections.
References
- "CBC announces new and returning series in 2020-21 programming slate" (Press release). CBC. Retrieved May 27, 2020 – via TV-eh.com.
- "The TV home of Murdoch Mysteries is getting a new detective drama". Toronto Star, April 4, 2017.
- "Frankie Drake". Shaftesbury. Archived from the original on September 1, 2017. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
- "Female-detective drama 'Frankie Drake Mysteries' set to debut on CBC". National Post. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
- Schneller, Johanna (November 12, 2017). "In Frankie Drake Mysteries, some characters get a chance to sashay". The Toronto Star. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
- "CBC greenlights Shaftesbury’s Frankie Drake". Playback, April 4, 2017.
- "UKTV Co-Production 'Frankie Drake Mysteries' Renewed For Season 2". Tvwise.co.uk. April 5, 2018. Retrieved May 24, 2020.
- "CBC announces first round of renewals for the 2019-20 season". tv-eh.com. March 25, 2019.
- "'Frankie Drake Mysteries' Heads To London For Season 3, Honeysuckle Weeks To Guest Star". Tvwise.co.uk. May 16, 2019. Retrieved September 4, 2019.
- Yeo, Debra (May 12, 2020). "Mary and Flo from 'Frankie Drake Mysteries' get their own animated TV series". Hamilton ON. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
- https://thebritishtvplace.com/2018/09/frankie-drake-mysteries-light-mystery-drama-from-canada-available-in-the-us/
- https://www.cbc.ca/frankiedrake/m_videos/a-frankie-drake-cold-case
- "Ovation Sets Premiere Dates for "Murdoch Mysteries" and "Frankie Drake Mysteries"". TheFutonCritic.com. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
- "OVATION CELEBRATES THE ART OF MYSTERY WITH THE RETURN OF MURDOCH MYSTERIES". Ovationtv.com.
- "FRANKIE AND TRUDY ARE BACK! OVATION ANNOUNCES PREMIERE DATE FOR SEASON THREE OF FRANKIE DRAKE MYSTERIES". Ovation TV. February 4, 2020. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
- "U.S. Deal for Frankie Drake Mysteries". Worldscreen.com. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
- "Frankie Drake | TV, eh?". www.tv-eh.com. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
- "CBC's Frankie Drake Mysteries is fabulously fun Canadian content". Retrieved December 16, 2017.
External links
- Frankie Drake Mysteries at CBC.ca
- Frankie Drake Mysteries on IMDb