Rosemary and Thyme

Mondays at 7pm

What could be more British than plucky women who plant crocuses and solve mysteries? Meet sporty plant pathologist Rosemary Boxer and former policewoman/avid gardener Laura Thyme, both of whom have their mid-life reasons for being a tad bitter (when they meet, Rosemary's just been sacked by her university, and Laura's been sacked by her husband.) When they graft their skills to start a gardening business — not the kind that weeds dandelions but the kind that plans exactly where the new lavender bed should go — they dig up mystery after mystery and even corpse after corpse. Why on earth is a woman and a racehorse buried in shallow graves in a pop star's garden? Why is the vicar found dead in the churchyard they're restoring? Why is that spooky housekeeper lurking around that poisonous plant?

While of course the characters are fun to watch, particularly when they're bickering, the fantastic gardens and estates that serve as sets for Rosemary and Thyme are not to be missed. Watch it and see how the other half lives on the other side of the pond.

What else have the stars done? Find out with the Internet Movie Database:

Felicity Kendal (nose-crinkling Rosemary Boxer) is slated to appear in the 2008 season of Doctor Who. She's well-known on the British stage and has starred in several the debut productions of Tom Stoppard plays. According to her her Wikipedia bio, she's quite popular with the men. She was named "Rear of the Year" in 1981 and was named one of FHM's 100 sexiest women in 1995. Also according to Wikipedia, in the 70s, she well known as a thinking man's crumpet, an honor apparently shared by Helen Mirren and Gillian Anderson.
Pam Ferris (Laura Thyme) is not known as a "thinking man's crumpet", but perhaps as "everyman's shepherd's pie." She's played Aunt Marge in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" as well as Miriam in "Children of Men", and made a name for herself in costume dramas as Grace Poole in a 2006 adaptation of "Jane Eyre", Mrs. Grose in "The Turn of the Screw" (1999) and Mrs. Dollop in "Middlemarch" (1994), Mrs. Squeers in "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" (2001) and Mrs. Boffin in "Our Mutual Friend" (1998).