'The Chelsea Detective': Episode 1 Recap

As the name implies, Acorn TV's The Chelsea Detective is set in the Borough of Chelsea, a Thames-side area in west London that is now associated with elite billionaires, who are the only ones who can afford the area’s historic houses. But although the setting and some of the residents may be beautiful, Detective Inspector Max Arnold (Adrian Scarborough) knows otherwise.

Aboard his houseboat on the Thames––Max likes it, but others refer to it as dark and smelly––the day starts badly when he burns his coffee using a stovetop espresso maker, and then his bike almost gets stolen as he stops off in front of the bookstore his late father owned. The would-be thief gets alarmed when he realizes he’s stealing a copper’s bike, and Max orders him to buy a new bike chain––new, he emphasizes, not stolen, and with a receipt––and deliver it to the police station (he does). Despite his gentleness and mild manner, Max, we realize, can be forceful. It becomes clear that he’s suffering losses. In addition to his father’s death, he’s struggling to make sense of the end of his marriage, featuring an epic fight over ownership of a fancy coffee maker.

To his surprise, his partner DS Priya Shamsie (Sonita Henry), returns to work after only three months of maternity leave. The rest of the team–– DC Jess Lombard (Lucy Phelps) and DC Connor Pollock (Peter Bankolé)––are curious, but back off when Priya won’t or can’t talk about the baby. Max asks after the baby, whose name he’s forgotten, she offers sympathy for the recent loss of his father. And they get to work. At the local tube station, a man fell or jumped under a train.