'The Frankie Drake Mysteries' Season 4 Will Debut on PBS Passport In September

The Murdoch Mysteries sidecar spinoff, The Frankie Drake Mysteries, is coming to an end here in the U.S. The Canadian-produced period piece featuring a fictionalized take on the first female-run detective agency in Toronto in the 1920s was a cult favorite among the Murdoch fandom. But after four successful seasons, the CBC decided it was time to wrap up the series, announcing back in February 2021 that the network would not renew it for a fifth round. However, Americans can still enjoy new episodes as the fourth season, which aired in Canada back in January, will finally make its way south in September.

Though the show is Canadian and not British, The Frankie Drake Mysteries was a fan-favorite among the U.K. detective show crowd. The series starred Lauren Lee Smith as the titular Frankie Drake and Chantel Riley as her business partner and BFF Trudy Clarke. Rebecca Liddiard and Sharron Matthews rounded out the main roster as morality officer Mary Shaw and morgue attendant Flo Chakowitz, who would regularly assist on cases due to their inside connections in the Toronto police force and access to bodies.

Frankie Drake was something of a real groundbreaker among the police procedural set. It was one of the few shows with an all-female lead cast and a diverse one at that. Riley was one of the few Black female stars in detective period pieces as Trudy on PBS and Matthews as the openly Jewish Flo. Series creators Carol Hay and Michelle Ricci were former writers on Murdoch Mysteries. They continued as producers on both shows, leading fans to assume the two existed in the same universe. (The series later confirmed this via a few inside references.)