Agatha Raisin

After publication of The Quiche of Death in 1992, Agatha Raisin quickly rose to be the fans' favourite M.C. Beaton character. Readers immediately took to her irascible nature and political incorrectness, and the novels seemed a perect fit for television. In 2007, television production company Free@Last TV bought the option to the series. After pitching the show to ITV and the BBC, Sky television in the UK finally decided to produce the series.

Ashley Jensen, who had recently found success in the US with her role in Ugly Betty, was chosen to play the lead role. The rest of the cast included Matthew Horne (of Gavin and Stacy fame) as Roy Silver, Lucy Liemann as Mrs Bloxby, Jason Merrells as Sir Charles Fraith, and Jamie Glover as James Lacey.

The 2-hour pilot episode The Quiche of Death aired in 2014, and Sky immediately commissioned a series of 8, 40-minute episodes. Acorn, an international streaming service, then took over production and produced a further 3-episode series, with each episode being a 90-minute adaptation of a single book. A third, 4-episode season followed, and a fourth, 4-episode season aired in 2022 after having been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ashley Jensen's performance was praised by critics and fans alike for her ability to portray Agatha's fish-out-of-water incompetence while still convincing us that the character could be a ruthlessly talented PR mind. Although the adaptation leaned more heavily into the comedy side of the novels, M.C. Beaton thought that they were excellent, retaining enough of the plot and the character of the novels to bring the characters to life.

A fifth season of the series is in pre-production, and it is hoped that this will come to our screens soon.