Britbox, British Mysteries and Tea!
By Mary Kennedy
I'm in love with Britbox!
What is Britbox? BritBox is a subscription video on-demand service owned by BBC Studios and ITV Pictures. It focuses primarily on British television series, featuring current and past series supplied from the BBC and ITV. I access it through Roku.
You can find all your fave series there, from Midsomer Murders to Agatha Christie to Agatha Raisin. By the way, if you love Ashley Jensen, who plays Agatha Raisin, you'll enjoy her in the series EXTRAS. She stars with Ricky Gervais in an entertaining look at the underbelly of show biz.
If you're a devoted mystery fan, you probably enjoy a good “cuppa” from time to time. And if you enjoy British cozies, the odds are spot on that you’ll recognize your favorite brew (everything from Ceylon to Darjeeling) in your reading and television viewing.I recently began watching a British mystery called Dazliel and Pascoe. When Detective Superintendent Andy Dazliel's car breaks down in the rain and he arrives (soaking wet) at a country house, he asks the lady of the manor for a cup of tea. (He also asks for a hot bath, and gets more than he asked for, but that's another story!)
The passion for tea and mysteries goes back to Agatha Christie. Remember how Hercule Poirot loved his “tisanes”? He would often try to unravel a crime while sipping from a steaming cup of herbal tea and urging Captain Hastings to “use his brain cells.” Dame Agatha loved her tea, and since she hailed from Devon, her characters have been known to indulge in a Devonshire Tea, complete with clotted cream. In the opening pages of Nemesis, Agatha sets the scene by picturing Miss Jane Marple drinking tea and reading the paper. In A Pocket Full of Rye, the author uses tea in the narrative. Rex Fortescue meets his end after drinking his morning tea. It’s not surprising that Ms. Christie would refer to tea again and again in her novels. She once admitted that she did her best thinking while “eating apples and drinking tea.”
Television detectives have continued the trend. In the Inspector Morse mysteries, Detective Inspector Robert Lewis says to his sergeant, “I need a drink.” Detective Sergeant James Hathaway reminds him, “You just had a cup of tea.” DI Lewis replies, “It was herbal.” DI Hathaway gets the message and says sympathetically, “Oh, you do need a drink!”. The next time you open a cozy mystery, be sure to pour yourself a nice cuppa to enjoy with it. And if you need some scones or pastries to go with it, be sure to check out our Tea Time with the Cozy Chicks. Happy tea time! Mary Kennedy
I'm in love with Britbox!
What is Britbox? BritBox is a subscription video on-demand service owned by BBC Studios and ITV Pictures. It focuses primarily on British television series, featuring current and past series supplied from the BBC and ITV. I access it through Roku.
You can find all your fave series there, from Midsomer Murders to Agatha Christie to Agatha Raisin. By the way, if you love Ashley Jensen, who plays Agatha Raisin, you'll enjoy her in the series EXTRAS. She stars with Ricky Gervais in an entertaining look at the underbelly of show biz.
If you're a devoted mystery fan, you probably enjoy a good “cuppa” from time to time. And if you enjoy British cozies, the odds are spot on that you’ll recognize your favorite brew (everything from Ceylon to Darjeeling) in your reading and television viewing.I recently began watching a British mystery called Dazliel and Pascoe. When Detective Superintendent Andy Dazliel's car breaks down in the rain and he arrives (soaking wet) at a country house, he asks the lady of the manor for a cup of tea. (He also asks for a hot bath, and gets more than he asked for, but that's another story!)
The passion for tea and mysteries goes back to Agatha Christie. Remember how Hercule Poirot loved his “tisanes”? He would often try to unravel a crime while sipping from a steaming cup of herbal tea and urging Captain Hastings to “use his brain cells.” Dame Agatha loved her tea, and since she hailed from Devon, her characters have been known to indulge in a Devonshire Tea, complete with clotted cream. In the opening pages of Nemesis, Agatha sets the scene by picturing Miss Jane Marple drinking tea and reading the paper. In A Pocket Full of Rye, the author uses tea in the narrative. Rex Fortescue meets his end after drinking his morning tea. It’s not surprising that Ms. Christie would refer to tea again and again in her novels. She once admitted that she did her best thinking while “eating apples and drinking tea.” Television detectives have continued the trend. In the Inspector Morse mysteries, Detective Inspector Robert Lewis says to his sergeant, “I need a drink.” Detective Sergeant James Hathaway reminds him, “You just had a cup of tea.” DI Lewis replies, “It was herbal.” DI Hathaway gets the message and says sympathetically, “Oh, you do need a drink!”. The next time you open a cozy mystery, be sure to pour yourself a nice cuppa to enjoy with it. And if you need some scones or pastries to go with it, be sure to check out our Tea Time with the Cozy Chicks. Happy tea time! Mary Kennedy 
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