Ahead of the fourth season of The Madame Blanc Mysteries, star, writer and exec producer Sally Lindsay considers the revival of cosy crime drama and the formula behind the show’s success.
Sally Lindsay on the set of The Madame Blanc Mysteries
Sally Lindsay has become one of UK television’s most recognisable stars thanks to a long-running role in Coronation Street and appearances in Scott & Bailey, Mount Pleasant and Still Open All Hours.
But through her partnership with Caroline Roberts-Cherry and their Manchester-based production outfit Saffron Cherry Productions, she is building a new career behind the scenes, not least as a mystery writer.
Lindsay created, and has co-written with Sue Vincent, the prodco’s Channel 5 and Acorn TV comedy-drama The Madame Blanc Mysteries, in which she also stars as Jean, an antiques dealer who discovers her husband has died on his way home from Sainte Victorie in the South of France, all their money has disappeared and their assets pawned off, leaving her penniless.
She then travels to the fictional town to solve the riddle behind his death, before settling in France herself and solving a host of other mysteries with the help of a colourful cast of locals, including taxi driver Dom (Steve Edge), mechanic Gloria (Vincent), Dom’s Uncle Patrick (Tony Robinson) and chateau owners Judith (Sue Holderness) and Jeremy (Robin Askwith).
Coproduced by Saffron Cherry and Clapperboard, Madame Blanc recently wrapped on its fourth season on the Mediterranean island of Gozo, where the sun-drenched series is filmed. And if cosy crime and case-of-the-week procedurals are having their own moment in the sun after a decade of serialised, darker crime stories, Madame Blanc is partly responsible.
In fact, Lindsay puts this renewed interest in the genre – even streamers are now getting in on this traditionally network-produced fare – down to a post-Covid desire among audiences for more escapism on TV. “But the thing about cosy crime is that it’s still got to be constructed very well,” she says. “However we dress it up, it’s still got to be a good story. That’s the secret, really.”
Madame Blanc emerged from Lindsay’s desire to escape cold and rainy shooting days in the UK, coupled with the popularity of home renovation series like Escape to the Chateau, antiques programmes like Flog It and Antiques Roadshow and the way ‘light crime’ hits like Death in Paradise can mix sunshine and glorious vistas with returning characters viewers want to spend time with.
Lindsay’s character was inspired by a real person who travels across Europe to pick up and trade antiques. “That’s where the idea came from,” the actor says. “It is an accumulation of all those things. We were commissioned before the pandemic, but the popularity of the show was aided by the pandemic. It was just right – people needed that hour of escapism.”
She also attributes the show’s success to finding the right formula on screen – one that includes series regulars such as Jeremy and Judith, a potential romance between Jean and Dom, the Gozo landscape and casting recognisable British actors like Robinson (Blackadder).
“I’m not stupid, I pick people like Tony because he’s a national treasure,” Lindsay says. “It’s these very recognisable faces in a very beautiful setting that means people just want to be a part of it for an hour, and they want a cracking yarn as well.
“But this is not easy. It’s not the first time I tried to do this. But once you get it right, it’s a formula, it’s a structure. You can bend it a bit, but people like that formula.”
Six years after setting up Saffron Cherry with Roberts-Cherry, Lindsay is now exploring new ideas while thankful the company has a returnable hit, as much of the industry in the UK and abroad continues to struggle against the global industry downturn.
“It is really tough out there. We’re so glad we’ve got Madame Blanc because some people have nothing. Indies are falling by the wayside, left, right and centre,” she says. “We’d like to grow the company a little more. We’ve had a lot of offers to grow it, but we want to keep our identity for a bit longer and hopefully get a few more things commissioned before we take that bigger step.
“We quite like the identity as it is – female-led, female stories – and that’s what we want to keep. Madame Blanc helps us do that. So many people have left the industry because they can’t survive, there’s just no work there. But we’re still in there in the ring, still fighting.”
