All posts tagged: Lynley

Is BBC’s Lynley remake worth watching?

Is BBC’s Lynley remake worth watching?

Published by Sam Flores

You’d be forgiven if you don’t remember The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, the BBC primetime hit that aired in the 2000s. But if you do, then the good news is that the crime series is back with an all-new reboot. Leo Suter and Sofia Barclay take over the roles of Inspector Tommy Lynley and DS Barbara Havers from Nathaniel Parker and Sharon Small, and star in four extended episodes. The series premiered in the US on Britbox in 2025, but has finally made its way to the UK. With something to compare it to, how has the BBC’s reboot fared with critics? Here is what you need to know. What is Lynley about? Lynley is a remake of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. (BBC) Lynley and Havers are polar opposites, hailing from different ends of the social class divide, so they have very little in common, yet are forced to work together. The mismatched pair must navigate their new working relationship while trying to solve an array of strange mysteries. Each episode is an extended standalone story, …

Lynley review – Wooden acting and clunky scripts stop this from being a great comeback for the detective show

Lynley review – Wooden acting and clunky scripts stop this from being a great comeback for the detective show

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Detective Inspector Lynley and his trusty lieutenant, DS Havers, are back. Seventeen years after The Inspector Lynley Mysteries slunk off our screens, following six series as a fixture on BBC One, the corporation has decided to reboot the franchise. But will this new drama – pithily titled Lynley – be a hard-hitting reimagining, or a more faithful resurrection of the Monday night staple? On a final warning for repeated insubordination, DS Barbara Havers (Sofia Barclay) is assigned to the new DI up from the big smoke. Tommy Lynley (Leo Suter), it turns out, isn’t quite like the rest of the team in this rural, East Anglian backwater: he’s an Oxford law graduate and the heir to an earldom, who drives a vintage Jensen Interceptor. “What is a bloke like you doing in a job like this?” Havers asks him on their …

Lynley | How to read the mystery novels by Elizabeth George in order

Lynley | How to read the mystery novels by Elizabeth George in order

Published by Daniella Wilson

New BBC crime drama Lynley is now available to stream in full on BBC iPlayer, and it stars Leo Suter and Sofia Barclay as mismatched detectives Tommy Lynley and Barbara Havers. Of course, this isn’t the first time we have seen Lynley and Havers on screen – another BBC series, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, brought the characters to life in the 2000s, with Nathaniel Parker and Sharon Small in the central roles. But is the series of murder mysteries based on a series of novels? And if so, how can you read them all in order, and will more of them be adapted? Read on for everything you need to know about how to read the Inspector Lynley novels in order. Is Lynley based on a series of books? Leo Suter as DI Tommy Lynley and Sofia Barclay as DS Barbara Havers in Lynley BBC Yes – the television series is based on the Inspector Lynley series, a long-running collection of books featuring the title character, who is played here by Leo Suter. The first book …

New Lynley stars on honouring the past – and making reboot their own

New Lynley stars on honouring the past – and making reboot their own

Published by Daniella Wilson

The latest small-screen iteration of Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley series stars Leo Suter (Vikings: Valhalla) as the eponymous detective Thomas Lynley, ably assisted by Sofia Barclay’s DS Barbara Havers. Previously, the BBC’s earlier version ran for six seasons between 2001 and 2008, with Nathaniel Parker and Sharon Small in the lead roles. Speaking to RadioTimes.com ahead of its premiere, Suter and Barclay (Ted Lasso) revealed that it was important for them to honour the literary roots and previous adaptations while also putting their own stamp on the Lynley universe. “When you’re doing a new version of something, it’s important to respect the previous version, but also to know that you’re doing your own thing and bringing your own stamp to it,” Suter said of this new take on the long-running series. “If you try to imitate what was so brilliant before, you’ll fail. Inevitably, you have to do your own thing and trust your instincts, so I actually felt quite calm early on about doing that.” For both actors, the previous adaptation and George’s source …