Anglophiles will be in tall cotton tonight with the arrival of something old and something new on AETN.
First up is the new My Mother and Other Strangers on Masterpiece at 7 p.m. It's another one of those Brit dramas set during the plucky days of World War II.
Set in the fictional village of Moybeg in Northern Ireland in 1943, the miniseries follows the fortunes of the Coyne family and their neighbors as they struggle to maintain a normal life after a sprawling U.S. Army Air Force B-17 base, complete with 4,000 testosterone-fueled Yanks, is set up smack in the middle of their rustic parish.
The red-blooded American flyboys naturally hope to strike it lucky with the local lasses, and that leaves the local lads a bit touchy.
Weekly stories, many of them based on events of the time, unfold around parish school teacher and community pillar Rose Coyne (Hattie Morahan, Sense & Sensibility), and the love triangle that develops between Rose, her husband, farmer and pub owner Michael (Owen McDonnell, An Klondike), and the charming and handsome American liaison officer, Capt. Ronald Dreyfuss (Aaron Staton, Mad Men).
Meanwhile, the Coyne's three children have no idea what's going on with their parents, and that adds to the strain and drama. They are the comely 16-year-old Emma (Eileen O'Higgins), 10-year-old Francis (Michael Nevin) and 7-year-old Kate (Mia Carlin).
An adult Francis (Ciaran Hinds) narrates the tale from some time in the future. His mother grew up in England and still felt like an outsider -- a stranger -- to Moybeg and that explains the title.
In tonight's episode, Rose meets Dreyfuss and comes to an airman's defense after the locals are out for revenge when her daughter falls for a young lieutenant.
The miniseries has five episodes and will run each Sunday through July 16.
• Grantchester on Masterpiece returns for Season 3 at 8 p.m. today on AETN. It's a 90-minute episode.
For those unfamiliar with the series, the detective drama follows the adventures of the charming, jazz-loving, Anglican vicar Sidney Chambers (James Norton, Happy Valley) and his sleuthing ally, the gruff and methodical Detective Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green, Strike Back).
In tonight's episode, it's 1954 and the week before Christmas. Chambers is busy with his holiday duties, but is distracted by a new case. A would-be groom is found dead, with the wedding rings lodged in his mouth. Keating recognizes this as the hallmark of a notorious cold case.
The mystery series is based on The Grantchester Mysteries short stories by James Runcie. For the record, Grantchester is an English village on the River Cam about two miles south of the University of Cambridge.
• Paterno movie. Here's something to look forward to. HBO has announced the green light is back on for Al Pacino to star as the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno in a bio-pic to be directed by Barry Levinson (Rain Man, The Natural, Bugsy). The project had been on hold for a couple of years.
The film will focus on Paterno dealing with the fallout from the child sex abuse scandal involving his former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
In 2012, Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison, effectively a life sentence.
Paterno was the winningest coach in major college football history when he was fired days after Sandusky's November 2011 arrest. Paterno died two months later at the age of 85.
What has been called Paterno's "Shakespearean fall from grace" came when a report commissioned by Penn State and conducted by a team headed by former FBI Director Louis Freeh concluded that Paterno and three administrators hushed up the allegations against Sandusky.
On June 2, a judge sentenced the three former officials, including former university president Graham B. Spanier, to short jail terms followed by home confinement for their roles in the molestation scandal. Spanier plans to appeal.
• Drug wars. A new documentary series debuts at 8 p.m. today on History Channel. America's War on Drugs shows the origins of the drug war that has spanned five decades and its unexpected effects on American culture, institutions and politics.
In tonight's two-hour episode: "Gangsters, gurus, warlords, spies, street gangs and politicians vie for control of a black market for narcotics; stories of secret assassination attempts, LSD experiments and covert support of heroin traffickers."
• Better Call Saul. The 10-episode Season 3 concludes at 9 p.m. Monday on AMC.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 06/18/2017