PBS Heats Up the Summer With Five Returning Dramas
Returning shows include Professor T, Grantchester, and D.I. Ray.
By: Josh Sharpe May. 30, 2024
This summer, PBS will have audiences dusting off their detective hats and trying on their “Roaring 20s” attire as familiar faces return and new characters emerge in mysteries with shocking revelations and unexpected twists.
An evening of crime-solving begins on June 16th with the return of PROFESSOR T. In the season opener, the Professor finds himself in jail, yearning to return to his old life but still using his incredible mind to help the police crack mystifying crimes. Then, travel to 1961 for a new season of GRANTCHESTER ON MASTERPIECE, where a new vicar, the Reverend Alphy Kottaram, is learning that in Grantchester, murder is never far away. Finally, in D.I. RAY, audiences are reunited with Detective Inspector Rachita Ray as she returns to investigate another layered and insidious mystery, bringing new excitement and twists to the classic whodunit.
The drama continues July 25th with the return of COBRA: REBELLION, which picks up amidst the chaotic and consequential situations Prime Minister Robert Sutherland finds himself in. The PM must now face a dangerous rebellion, forging from an unexpected place. Finally, on July 28th, we journey back to the magical Italian Rivera in HOTEL PORTOFINO, where tensions are escalating, dark secrets are threatening to be revealed, and forbidden love is in the air.
“This summer brings extraordinary new seasons of our favorite dramas,” says Maria Bruno Ruiz, Vice President, Program Content Strategy and Scheduling at PBS. “A charming new Vicar is welcomed on GRANTCHESTER, the Professor finds himself in prison with his career on the line in PROFESSOR T, and Bella and Cecil — now estranged — are being forced to come together to find a way forward in HOTEL PORTOFINO.”
All programs are listed below in airdate order (check local listings) and will also be available to stream on PBS.org, the PBS app, available on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast and VIZIO.Summer dramas will also be available to stream on PBS Passport and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel.
Season Premiere: June 16, 2024, 8 p.m. ET
The multi-award-winning, much-loved crime drama starring Ben Miller, Frances de la Tour and Juliet Stevenson is back for a third season. Season 3 starts with Professor T in jail awaiting trial. As the Professor struggles to get his old life and job back, he is helped by Dan and Lisa, who again rely on his brilliant criminal insight and analysis to solve some tricky and intriguing crimes. This season, the Professor also finds out what really happened the night his father died.
GRANTCHESTER ON MASTERPIECE, Season 9
Season Premiere: June 16, 2024, 9 p.m. ET
It’s 1961, and times are changing in Grantchester. Will has begun to seek new challenges elsewhere, while Geordie and Cathy deal with an independent Esme being free in a dangerous world. It’s not long before Reverend Alphy Kottaram arrives as the new vicar, immediately enchanted by the glorious village. But will the locals ever be able to accept him as one of their own?
Season Premiere: June 16, 2024, 10 p.m. ET
After being suspended from the force when her fiancé was found to have links to organized crime, DI Rachita Ray returns to homicide to investigate another sensitive and high-profile case centering on the murder of Frank Chapman, the head of a notorious crime family and a local nurse caught in the crossfire. Their deaths ignite tensions across the city, putting DI Ray in a race against time to uncover the truth before the Chapman family act out their revenge and an all-out gang war erupts onto the streets. All evidence points towards a rival crime family, the Mochanis, being responsible for the murders, but as DI Ray starts pulling at the threads of the case, a much more insidious mystery begins to unravel. Once again, the series will explore deep personal conflicts for Rachita as both a British Asian woman and as a police officer.
Season Premiere: July 25, 2024, 9 p.m. ET
Prime Minister Robert Sutherland is plunged into chaos when an environmental demonstration meets with grave consequences, just as his popularity is plummeting in light of a controversial police-protest bill. As an investigation gets underway, the PM is forced to reckon with the possibility that the most dangerous rebellion has come from within.
Season Premiere: July 28, 2024, 8 p.m. ET
Starring Natascha McElhone and Mark Umbers, HOTEL PORTOFINO Season 3 is an exhilarating period drama about a British family who runs a hotel for upper- class travelers on the magical Italian Riviera during the glamourous ‘Roaring 20s’ but also under the dark cloud of Fascist Italy. Bella is preparing for her father and sister’s arrival but is thrown when Cecil appears requesting a divorce. Over the weeks, Bella must decide her future as well as avoid fascist leader Danioni. But with the Wall Street Crash, things get worse as Bella and Cecil lose everything. Dark secrets are exposed during another adventure in this sun-soaked 1920s Italian drama.
The series below will be available to stream with PBS PASSPORT:
SHERLOCK ON MASTERPIECE (Beginning June 30)
SHERLOCK stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the brilliant Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as his loyal friend, Doctor John Watson. The series follows their adventures in solving crimes, going up against dreadful villains, and their unlikely friendship.
CALL THE MIDWIFE Seasons 10-13 (Beginning August 1)
CALL THE MIDWIFE follows the nurses, midwives and nuns from Nonnatus House, who visit the expectant mothers of Poplar, providing the poorest women with the best possible care.
WOLF HALL ON MASTERPIECE (Beginning August 1)
Tony Award-winning actor Mark Rylance and Emmy Award-winner Damian Lewis star as Thomas Cromwell and King Henry VIII in this adaptation of Hilary Mantel's novels. A historical drama for a modern audience, WOLF HALL charts Cromwell's meteoric rise in the Tudor court - from blacksmith's son to Henry VIII's closest advisor, trapped between his desire to do what is right and his instinct to survive.
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