BritBox Kicks Off May with 'Death Valley'

BritBox is chugging along in 2025, full steam ahead, no holds barred, cozy crime caper after cozy crime caper, with a few A-list British actors starring in horrifying thrillers in between and the occasional reality series. April highlighted all of those aspects with Ludwig, the David Mitchell-starring, “case-of-the-week mystery-crime-comedy-drama.” Now the show will follow up in May with a different show that falls within that particular description: Death Valley, a series about a retired actor who played a cop on TV getting into solving mysteries, assisted by a local detective in need of a partner and a few solved cases to show to her superiors.

Death Valley is a Welsh production, although unlike some of BritBox's more recent acquisitions, such as Tree on a Hill (Pren ar y Bryn) and Rough Cut (Dal y Mellt), it is not available in both languages, only in English. It falls into one of the more standard styles of cozy crime series, the "amateur & professional" odd couple, exemplified by Grantchester.  The "amateur" half of the cozy crime-detecting duo is one John Chapel, a world-renowned actor and "national treasure" after starring for years as the lead in the cozy crime series Caesar, which was a hit on both sides of the pond. Naturally, playing a detective on TV makes Chapel a natural at solving crimes in his Welsh community, as he has learned a great deal from playing the main role in a police procedural.

Pity his partner-in-crime-solving, DS Janie Mallowan, who is in such dire straits at her job that she decides to ask the man who used to star in her favorite crime series for help.