Acorn adds three continents of crimesolving

The Acorn streamer – specializing in British-type mysteries – has a busy stretch of shows and news.
For now, it has three movie-length episodes of “The Chelsea Detective” (shown here in a previous season). After that are six episodes of the long-running “Brokenwood Mysteries.”
And further away? Acorn has signed Brooke Shields for a series that – in a break from Acorn tradition –will be set in the U.S.
Acorn began in1996 with DVD’s of British shows, then switched to streaming in 2011. It has a strong library (including “Doc Martin”), but faces competition from the Britbox streamer. Increasingly, it’s become co-producer of shows from England and beyond. The current news involves.
— “The Chelsea Detective,” a cranial series that has Adrian Scarborough as an earnest police detective – divorced, a bit solemn, living on a houseboat – who solves upscale murders.
That starts April 7 with Alex Kingston (“ER”) as a U.S. ambassador who finds that her staff is entangled in a mystery that involves gardening, death and diplomatic immunity.
The April 14 film ranges from young treasure-hunters to a slain antiques dealer. The April 21 one begins with youths making an unfortunate choice of which car to steal; it’s the one with a body in the trunk.
— “The Brokenwood Mysteries” arrives on the day (April 21) that “Chelsea Detective” ends. It’s the 11th season, with six episodes set in New Zealand.
— “Allie & Andi,” arriving next year, will be the streamer’s second series built around an actress familiar to Americans.
It already has Jane Seymour in “Harry Wild,” as an Irish classics professor turned detective. Now it adds a six-episode story, with Shields as a novelist who links with an influencer (not yet announced) to find a friend’s killer.