There is that old saying, “May you live in interesting times.” I think people these days would prefer to be living in times that are not so interesting as the boring and humdrum of one’s usual existence is beginning to look pretty good right about now. Many of us have turned to television to momentarily transport us into another time and place and I have found the Acorn TV channel to be chocked-to-the-brim with incredibly interesting programs that will momentarily whisk you away from these troubled times.
Acorn streams from the United States but offers television programming from all over the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, Spain and Mexico. A great many of these productions are filmed in beautiful locations—locations where you dream of being—and you can quickly be carried off from your favorite chair and into another world. So make yourself a lovely pot of tea, grab a biscuit or two, and enjoy—Acorn Style.
These have become my favorites:
1. Mr. and Mrs. Murder: A very charming married couple in Australia “clean up” crime scenes for a living and insert their very nosy noses into every murder investigation.
2. Brokenwood Mysteries: A Detective Inspector and his crack team solve murders in a drop-dead gorgeous town in New Zealand.
3. 800 Words: Another incredibly beautiful New Zealand town is the backdrop for the adventures of a Journalist father of two who relocate here to start fresh following the sudden death of his wife.
4. Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries: A period whodunnit with fabulous costuming and detail, this wonderfully entertaining series is filmed in Melbourne, Australia.
5. Heart Guy: An egotistical, but quite likeable famous heart doctor is forced to practice “backwater” medicine in a tiny, Australian town.
6. Murdoch’s Mysteries: Another period whodunnit in Toronto in the late 1890’s early 1900’s.
7. Vera: Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope brilliantly solving complex murders in the breath-taking Northumberland district in England.
8. Doc Martin: Brilliant surgeon forced to leave his successful practice to be the GP of a tiny town in Cornwall, England.
9. Midsomer Murders: Detective Inspectors trying to keep up with all the murders that seem to happen in these small, country villages on the backroads of England.
10. Poirot and Miss Marple: Some good old -fashioned, Agatha Christie murder mysteries, filmed in the period, on location, and with some incredible actors.