Masterpiece Studio

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode One of Atlantic Crossing. For American viewers, the story of Norway's Crown Princess Märtha is likely mostly unknown. But the Crown Princess' World War II influence was a surprise even for Atlantic Crossing co-writer and director Alexander Eik, who spent almost seven years researching his miniseries. Eik explains how he found the key to Märtha's story, and what viewers should anticipate in the next seven episodes, in a new interview.

Even if you haven't been watching MASTERPIECE every Sunday for the past 50 years, there's a very good chance you tuned in to watch Downton Abbey. The six-season epic brought renewed attention to the drama anthology series when it first aired more than a decade ago, and we look back at the interconnected lives of the Crawley clan and their servants with a few of the people who helped the title turn heads and claim awards. And in this final episode of our three-part docuseries, we explore how MASTERPIECE might continue to evolve for the next 50 years, tackling the challenges and opportunities still ahead. We speak with Julian Fellowes, Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Lily Collins and more. See our website, pbs.org/makingmasterpiece for a detailed transcript, complete with references and links.

Masterpiece Theatre enters its third decade and settles in under its third executive producer, Rebecca Eaton, as new challenges pop up to make the Boston-based anthology series' life a touch more difficult. Cable TV competition, shifting public taste and limited funding lead Eaton and her team to make dramatic changes at the dawn of the new century. Fortunately for public TV viewers, those changes come just in time to scoop up some unlikely new hits — from Middlemarch and The Buccaneers to Prime Suspect and beyond, including a certain family drama set in a fancy Yorkshire estate... In this second episode of Making MASTERPIECE, hear from Rufus Sewell, Laura Linney, Alan Cumming, Andrew Davies, Charles Dance and many more. See our website, pbs.org/makingmasterpiece, for a full transcript with links.

Five decades is a long time for any television series to air, but when a show hits 50, it's possible some people might start asking questions about where it all started. That's where this podcast comes in. Fifty years ago, a group of public television producers in Boston had the inspired idea to import British costume drama for American audiences. But they didn't come up with the idea on their own — there's a former FCC Chair, a popular soap opera, and a Polaroid exec with Julia Child's The French Chef on his mind involved, too. For three episodes, Making MASTERPIECE will show how the most unexpected and unlikely of series — Masterpiece Theatre — grew into one of the longest-running primetime television icons of all time. What are its origins? What actors, writers, and executives shaped its trajectory? How has it overcome numerous challenges? And what does it have in store for its future, 50 years on? In this first episode, that origin story, featuring interviews with the series’ original executive producer,

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Seven of the First Season of All Creatures Great and Small. Now that the first season of All Creatures Great and Small has come to a close, what should viewers expect in the already-confirmed second season? Series star Nicholas Ralph returns to the podcast for a quick look back on season one, and an exclusive preview of the season rapidly on the way!

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Seven of the First Season of All Creatures Great and Small. Helen Alderson takes care of almost everyone in the farming village of Darrowby — but actor Rachel Shenton thinks the confirmed second season of All Creatures Great and Small should give Helen some time for herself. Shenton defends her character's choices and praises her costumes in a new interview.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Three of The Long Song. The story of Miss July is ultimately a story of strength and perseverance following years of trauma and pain. Lead actor Tamara Lawrance brings strength to her portrayal of July, who goes from slave to memoirist in colonial British Jamaica. Lawrance reflects on the role, and the hope of The Long Song, in a new interview.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Five of the First Season of Miss Scarlet and the Duke. A female private detective in Victorian London seems anachronistic — but Eliza Scarlet more than holds her own on the grimy streets of the British capitol. Kate Phillips is a witty delight in the title role, and she brings that zest to the MASTERPIECE Studio podcast.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Five of the First Season of All Creatures Great and Small. Even casual viewers of All Creatures Great and Small can see the obvious head honcho in Skeldale House — the unshakeable Audrey Hall. Series star Anna Madeley relishes playing the role, and she joins the podcast to reveal a bit of the confident Mrs. Hall's inner grit and grace.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Four of the First Season of All Creatures Great and Small. Dame Diana Rigg has been a MASTERPIECE regular for decades. From her Emmy Award-winning role in the 1997 adaptation of Rebecca to her years-long host duty on Mystery!, Rigg brought her charm and considerable gravitas to PBS TV screens for years. Rigg passed away in September 2020, making her role as the elegant Mrs. Pumphrey one of her very last. The All Creatures Great and Small cast pays tribute to Rigg, along with some of her other MASTERPIECE friends and castmates.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Three of the First Season of All Creatures Great and Small. Siegfried Farnon is a difficult man to live with — and Donald Sinclair, the real life Yorkshire veterinarian he's based on, was just as unusual. Actor Samuel West used Alf Wight's memoir series and personal anecdotes from those who knew Sinclair to build his character, and he shares some of those stories in a new podcast interview.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Two of the First Season of All Creatures Great and Small. MASTERPIECE fans already know Callum Woodhouse for his role as the shotgun-happy middle Durrell sibling, Leslie Durrell. Now, he's back on our screens in a different bucolic locale of the 1930s — the gorgeous Yorkshire Dales, playing the dastardly Tristan Farnon. Woodhouse promises he didn't plan it this way, but we're glad to have him on air and here on the podcast.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode 1 of the First Season of All Creatures Great and Small. In MASTERPIECE's warmhearted new adaptation of the Alf Wight — aka James Herriot — All Creatures Great and Small memoir series, it's not just the series that's brand new. Lead actor Nicholas Ralph is making his screen debut as young veterinarian James Herriot, and he joins the MASTERPIECE Studio podcast to preview the season and animals antics still to come.

Making MASTERPIECE is the full story of how public media’s favorite place for the best of British drama went from crazy idea to a franchise 50 years strong. Hosted by MASTERPIECE Studio host Jace Lacob, the three-part documentary miniseries features the inside scoop on everything from Downton Abbey to Upstairs, Downstairs, and everything in between. Featuring exclusive interviews with MASTERPIECE favorites like Rufus Sewell, Lily Collins, Alan Cumming, Laura Linney, Charles Dance and many more, Making MASTERPIECE launches February 28, 2021. Making MASTERPIECE will appear in the MASTERPIECE Studio podcast feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Elizabeth is Missing. It's not many actors who can appear in the very first season of a television anthology series, win not one but two Emmy Awards for the role, and then take a 50 year break before coming back for more. Glenda Jackson is one such actor, and her appearance in Elizabeth is Missing is just as powerful as any other in her storied career. Jackson talks politics and passion in a new podcast interview.

With new series, old favorites and even a documentary podcast special on the way for MASTERPIECE's upcoming 50th Anniversary Golden Jubilee Season, our executive producer Susanne Simpson joins the conversation for a special preview of the drama, mystery and more to come in a few short weeks.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Four of the First Season of Roadkill. Well, who would have thought it would all end like that? Sir David Hare gives the inside scoop on the political realities of his Roadkill series, and talks through how his own Covid-19 diagnosis was inspiration for a gripping new play.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Two of the First Season of Roadkill. The role of a special adviser in British politics is complicated — but Roadkill star Iain de Caestecker does quick work of explaining the job, and his character, Duncan Knock, in a charming interview. As to whether or not viewers should trust Duncan? Well, that's still a secret.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode One of the First Season of Roadkill. Sir David Hare plays coy when asked who the slick MP Peter Laurence is meant to be in contemporary British politics. "I've drawn a politician who is charismatic, popular, forward-looking, and highly intelligent," he says, and Hare struggles to find such a figure in politics today. Hear more about the inspirations for Roadkill in a new interview.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Four of the First Season of Flesh and Blood. Sarah Williams is the kind of screenwriter who knows where she's going when she starts writing a script. But sometimes, a character insists on taking the story in a different angle, and Imelda Staunton's timid Mary was exactly that kind of character. Williams shows where Mary took her, and us, in a new podcast after the dramatic conclusion of Flesh and Blood.