Frankie Drake Mysteries is a Canadian drama that ran on CBC Television from November 6, 2017 to March 8, 2021. The series stars Lauren Lee Smith and Chantel Riley as Frankie Drake and her partner Trudy Clarke who run an all-female private detective service in Toronto in the 1920s.
Lauren Lee Smith portrays the fictional Frankie Drake, the first female private detective in 1920s Toronto, with Chantel Riley as her crime solving partner Trudy Clarke. Frankie and Trudy are often assisted on their cases by Mary Shaw (Rebecca Liddiard), a morality officer in Toronto's police force, and Flo Chakowitz (Sharron Matthews), a morgue attendant at the Toronto City Morgue.
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The series was created by Carol Hay and Michelle Ricci; both women also served as writers and producers on Murdoch Mysteries. It is produced by Shaftesbury Films.
On April 5, 2018, the show was renewed for a second season. On March 25, 2019, the show was renewed for a third season. The third-season premiere was filmed in England, with Honeysuckle Weeks playing the role of British author Agatha Christie. On May 27, 2020, Frankie Drake Mysteries was renewed by CBC for a fourth season. On February 28, 2021, CBC announced the show would not be renewed for a fifth season.
In May 2020, an animated spinoff for kids called Mary and Flo On the Go! was reported as being in production; the web series was released in March 2022.
Alibi in the United Kingdom aired the second season starting January 21, 2019, with the third season aired in 2020. Ovation in the United States aired seasons one and two back to back, beginning on June 15, 2019, and started airing season three on April 4, 2020. The fourth and final season premiered on October 2, 2021, following the broadcast of the new special titled Frankie Drake Mysteries: Music at Midnight, and the series concluded on December 4, 2021. Co-produced by Ovation in conjunction with the Toronto Sympathy Orchestra and Shaftesbury Films, this special features interviews and performances from series stars Chantel Riley, Sharron Matthews, and more. The special wasn't aired in Canada, instead released onto YouTube by Shaftsbury on their channel earlier in February 2021, and premiered on Ovation on September 25, 2021 at 7PMET/4PMPT. Additionally, PBS has started broadcasting the show and offering it on-demand through its membership program, Passport. The show was further picked up in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. In Greece the show airs in ERT3 under the title "Frankie Drake" (æÃÂìýúù ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂùú) on Saturdays and Sundays at 20:00pm. The show was not so successful like Murdoch Mysteries (ÃÂÃÂõÃÂÃÂúÃÂùò ÃÂÃÂÃÂýÃÂÿÃÂ) in the past.
The series has received generally positive reviews from critics since its release. John Doyle of The Globe and Mail remarked "it's a hoot and as silly as all get-out," and concluded that "thanks to its charm and the frocks, skirts, suits and, well, the gorgeous furniture, it's frightfully good entertainment." Johanna Schneller of the Toronto Star wrote that "the messaging in CBC series sometimes hits you over the head, but it's fun to watch women run their own show." Hanh Nguyen of IndieWire wrote "inclusive casting opens up the world in a way that hasnâÂÂt been seen previously in shows set in that era. Through this lens, 1920s Toronto feels fresh and modern, a setting where almost anything can happen. ... The series holds back from crossing into didactic moralizing, but instead approaches history from a different angle, enough to be stimulating and to inspire curiosity."