Everything to Remember Ahead of 'Miss Scarlet' Season 6

Popular mystery series Miss Scarlet is set to return for its sixth season this month, but if you want to get super technical about it, it's only the second outing for the drama's new revamped format.

Following the exit of original lead Stuart Martin in 2024, the show underwent a drastic overhaul. It changed its name, dropped the "and the Duke" from the title, and introduced a new leading man in the form of Tom Durant Pritchard's Detective Alexander Blake. For new viewers, it's a great time to jump on board. You don't really have to remember much of the show that's come before. For the old-timers who are still here, you'll probably need to try to forget most of it if you want to enjoy the show's new era in the right spirit.

Eliza Scarlet (Kate Phillips) is still a female private investigator in Victorian-era London. Her previous investigative partner — and long-standing situationship — William Wellington (the aforementioned Duke) decided to stay in America after he nabbed a big promotion. He asked Eliza to move to the States and marry him. She said no, fearing that his professional success would require her to give up on chasing her own.

With Eliza unexpectedly on her own again, the show undergoes something of a reset, as she must once again justify her existence in a world that caters to men. The Duke's replacement, DI Blake, doesn't like to work with outside investigators. But over the course of Miss Scarlet Season 5, Eliza convinces him otherwise, not with any particularly exceptional sleuthing (many of the season's mysteries are barely even technically related to crimes) but because the premise of the show ultimately requires them to work together after a brief period of lip service to the idea that they somehow might not.

Blake is easy on the eyes, generally charming, and remarkably open-minded and progressive for a man in a leadership role during this era. He's a single dad with a precocious daughter whose backstory mirrors Eliza's, and he doesn't seem to have any visible flaws, which is a big reason he spends most of his introductory season feeling like a concept rather than a fully fleshed-out character. But hey, Eliza likes him.

Eliza also seems to be feeling more than a bit lonely and directionless, having recently been forced to confront the emptiness of her personal life. Season 5 concludes with her popping to Blake's place with extra cake from Ivy (Cathy Belton) and Potts's (Simon Ludders) wedding, and the show hints pretty strongly that maybe now she's finally ready to open her heart to a potential romance with a colleague.

Where Miss Scarlet goes in Season 6 is anyone's guess. Now that Eliza and Blake have both acknowledged their mutual interest in one another, how does their story move forward? Will they date? If so, can Eliza truly find a happy medium between her personal life and her professional ambitions? (She's already chosen her career over the possibility of love once, after all, and that's not even touching on the single dad aspect of it all.)

Elsewhere, fan favorite Ansu Kabia is returning as Moses after a multi-season absence; however, several other former regulars, including Felix Scott's Patrick Nash and Evan McCabe's Oliver Fitzroy, appear to be absent. Blake's getting a new right-hand man in Sam Buchanan's Detective George Willows, and Eliza's getting a new housemate with Potts set to move in now that he and Ivy are married. Awkward roommate shenanigans are sure to ensue. As for everything else? We'll just have to wait and see.

Miss Scarlet Season 6 premieres on local PBS stations on Sunday, January 11, 2026, at 8 p.m. ET. All six episodes are already available to stream on the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel and on PBS Passport for members.