Synopsis: – Frank and Lu are not alike. Frank is a talented but decidedly grumpy detective. Lu is an ex-hairdresser with masses of charm and a keen sense of trouble. The two shouldn’t work together yet, somehow, they do. The highly unlikely and hugely entertaining detective duo are back on the case in pretty tourist town Stratford-Upon-Avon. Foul play festers at the local tennis club and a pedigree pooch is held for ransom. Fraud, extortion, vice, identity theft and corruption lurk beneath the town’s idyllic surface. Welcome to the birthplace of the Bard – where fact is stranger than fiction and low-life criminals get caught up in deliciously high drama.
Cast: – Starring: Mark Benton, Joy Joyner and Patrick Walshe McBride.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Episode 1 – Monday, 6 April 2026
(Outrageous Fortune)
Lawyer George Gonzalo seeks Frank and Lu to help a client with a difference – he’s got four paws and is worth his weight in gold. Mongrel Tim, heir to the late Theodore Athenaeus’ vast shipping fortune, has run away from his life of luxury at the opulent Miranda Park. With the promise of a £25,000 reward for his safe recovery, Frank and Lu vow to sass out where, and why Tim would flee, questioning Tim’s plethora of staff, vet Antigone Carter, personal trainer Wayne, animal stylist Benoit and eccentric animal undertaker Leonard Baxter along the way. The case heats up when Gonzalo receives a ransom video demanding £200,000, revealing that Tim didn’t run away – but was kidnapped.
Episode 2 – Tuesday, 7 April 2026
(The Play’s The Thing)
Adrian Messenger, creator of The Legends of Engel world, successfully controls the loves and lives of his LARP characters, but struggles with his own; he suspects wife Maggie, aka Queen Margaret, of having an affair with the Duke of Yorcastria, aka Major Tony Suffolk, and employs Frank and Lu to find proof. Undercover in the game, our PIs witness a devastated Maggie threatening to kill Tony when he breaks things off. When Tony, along with Adrian’s assistant Katie, is shot during battle by real arrows fired by Maggie, it seems an open and shut case, although Maggie denies knowing her arrows were real.
Episode 3 – Wednesday, 8 April 2026
(This Cursed Hand)
Failed actor Harold Hamworthy has a penchant for mischief and hogging the limelight, but when he absconds with Sebastian’s tourists during a Shakespearean ghost walk, something finally upstages him – in the form of a dismembered human hand. Harold finds himself in hot water when sinister figures Alek and Dimitri try to snatch the hand, but he manages to give them the slip. Meanwhile, Lu and Frank are hired to find missing multimillionaire, Pavel Kusk, by his wife, Anastasia.
Episode 4 – Thursday, 9 April 2026
(Beware The Ides of March)
When a falling studio light nearly kills Julienne Fortby live on air during psychic TV show, The Fortby Sisters, the horrified psychic visits Frank and Lu – someone’s trying to kill her. Frank’s skeptical of the medium, although Lu’s impressed when Julienne gets a “message” from her late grandmother. Julienne suspects her jealous sister and co-host, Marcia, who lacks ‘the gift’, is responsible. Investigating at Calpurnia Studios, our PIs discovered a host of suspects, among them broadcast technician Scott Blacksell and security guard Bruce Perry, not to mention ex-fan Enid Kascar who the sisters have recently sued after she accused them of fakery. But when Marcia is hit by the Fortby Orb during a live show and hospitalized, the case is thrown wide open.
Episode 5 – Monday, 13 April 2026
(No More Cakes and Ale)
Late one night at Touchstone Farm, farmer Eddie Dogberry’s violently assaulted when he accosts three thieves attempting to steal his quad bike. The thieves leave Eddie for dead, witnessed by bag lady, Cynthia Sly, concealed in a haystack… 6 months later Portia Montgomery, Solicitor Advocate, visits Frank and Lu with a plea for help. She’s defending Ant Donohue in court for burglary and assault of Eddie Dogberry. Portia suspects Ant’s being threatened on remand in prison, but he previously told the police there was a witness there that night who could prove his innocence.
Episode 6 – Tuesday, 14 April 2026
(The Offered Fallacy)
Arden Constabulary’s inundated with complaints about con-artists doing the rounds – and there’s something familiar about the duo. At HQ, Frank and Lu haven’t had any new clients in over a week, although Sebastian’s inundated with complaints. Relieved to finally have a client, Frank and Lu visit Emelia Merchant about her missing husband, but she seems to think they’ve met before.
Episode 7 – Wednesday, 15 April 2026
(Nothing Will Come of Nothing)
Devastatingly handsome compulsive gambler Lorenzo Foyle’s luck may have run out – watching a spinning roulette wheel land on black, he manically laughs that he’s a dead man. 3 days later, Lorenzo’s pregnant wife, Ava, approaches Frank and Lu, desperate to find him. Frank wonders whether Lorenzo, who owes money all over town, has left her, but Ava’s adamant he was excited at the prospect of fatherhood.
Episode 8 – Monday, 20 April 2026
(In My Memory Lock’d)
Bored during a stake-out, Frank and Lu spot a befuddled-looking man with a head wound wandering the streets; when questioned, the man hasn’t a clue who he is. When DI Marlowe can’t offer much help, Frank and Lu set out to discover his identity. Sebastian suspects the man’s rich upon spotting an expensive watch, and Gloria lends a hand with a spot of hypnosis; the man’s flashbacks lead to the illustrious Duke Vincent Hotel, although Manager Claudia Farrel, Receptionist daughter Izzie and their staff have never seen him before. But when Frank and Lu discover a patch of blood on the concrete outside, all evidence indicates that this is where our mystery man fell and lost his memory… or was he pushed?
Episode 9 – Tuesday, 21 April 2026
(The Envious Court)
When Running brook Tennis Club’s owner Frederick Greenwood, new beau of Lu’s mother Genevieve, receives a death threat, he hires Frank and a reluctant Lu to find the culprit and go undercover as potential new members. Lu, preoccupied with revision for her impending PI exam, takes an immediate dislike to Frederick, and with staff security codes incriminating surly gardener Adam Oldknow, bitter ex-tennis pro Rose Lin, and ladies’ man club captain Orlan Rowlands, our detectives have their work cut out for them.
Episode 10 – Wednesday, 22 April 2026
(Too Cold for Hell)
Newlyweds Anthony and Bianca Percy’s new home dreams turn to nightmares on moving day when their removal men abscond with all their worldly goods. Frank and Lu are hired to track down the felons who’ve been giving Arden Constabulary the run around and operate under a variety of aliases; our PIs respond to a newspaper ad for ‘Florian Fortescue’ and pose as a warring separated couple to catch the perpetrators. Frank’s furious when Florian’s accomplice turns out to be none other than Billy ‘The Brick’ Porters.
Catch the Shakespear and Hathaway – Private Investigators series on S3 and SABC Plus.