Tessa Peake-Jones & Jason Watkins Team Up in ‘Last Resort’
Robson Green and Tessa Peake-Jones are following the same path out of 'Grantchester' with new mystery series co-starring Jason Watkins on 5.
With the conclusion of Grantchester, British actors who have spent the last decade of their working lives playing characters we know and love are starting to scatter in search of new roles. Most of them are currently picking up guest star roles while they look for a new series – Kacey Ainsworth just did episodes of The Madame Blanc Mysteries and Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators; Al Weaver was in Miss Scarlet; and Melissa Johns was in Adolescence.
However, both Robson Green and Tessa Peake-Jones were long-established actors before they took on the roles of DI Keating and Mrs. Chapman, and both have jumped into new series with both feet. Moreover, they both wound up heading to the same network, the newly rechristened 5 (nee Channel 5), and even found themselves working with the same co-star, Jason Watkins (McDonald & Dodds), in two different brand-new mystery series.
Green starred in The Game alongside Watkins, which was released in late 2025 in the U.K., arrived on BritBox at the beginning of 2026, and is already renewed for Season 2. Peake-Jones will now also co-star alongside Watkins in a totally different mystery series for 5, titled Last Resort. The series doesn’t have a release date in the U.K. yet, or an American distributor, but if the premise is anything to go by, it will almost certainly find its way to BritBox in 2027.
Here’s the synopsis:
The series finds retired librarian Gail, her sister Joy, who suffers from early-stage dementia, and old friends Dee and Charlie setting off on a fun-filled holiday meant to be Joy’s bucket-list trip. But when tragedy strikes in the idyllic holiday town, the police are quick to call it an accident. However, the group are convinced it is murder and set out to prove it.
The friends dive into their own investigation with the help of Joy’s daughter, Kate, and soon cross paths with DI Simon Lund. As old crimes surface and dark patterns emerge, the group of friends finds that this seemingly idyllic resort town – with its beach walks, pub lunches, and good-natured bickering - hides something far more sinister. Together they must piece together one devastating mystery and track down a killer who has been hunting in this close–knit coastal community and beyond.
Watkins and Peake-Jones star as Dee and Charlie, with Caroline Quentin (The Lazarus Project) as Gail, Niamh Cusack (Big Mood) as Joy, Bronagh Waugh (Ridley) as Kate, and John Hannah (The Last of Us) as DI Lund. Further cast confirmed includes Cathy Belton (Miss Scarlet), Chizzy Akudolu (Woman in the Wall), Conor Mullen (Mr Bates vs. The Post Office), Jonathan Harden (Time), Tadhg Murphy (Time Bandits), Jane Brennan (Hidden Assets), Nora Nagys (The Last Duel), Geff Francis (Midsomer Murders), Ella Dacres (Paddington in Peru), Simon Coury (Harry Wild), Karyna Khymchuk (Urchin), and Robin Maher Kavanagh (My Battle with Blue).
The series was co-created by Samuel Kissous and Matthew Thomas, the latter of whom is lead writer, alongside David Turpin (The Ex-Wife) and Rebecca Wojciechowski (Silent Witness). Director Sean Ellis (The Cut) helms all episodes. Kissous executive produces for Pernel Media, with Richard Cook and Angela Squire for Peer Pressure.
Last Resort is currently filming and set to air on 5 in 2027. The series does not yet have American distribution.
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