Reel Talk: Paul Powell Talks Creating Acorn TV’s Art Detectives
Acorn TV is the holy grail of content for mystery fans, and their newest show Art Detectives will steal all your attention—pun intended. Showrunner Paul Powell sat down with Reel Talk’s Ally Bonsall to talk about his upcoming show and the compelling true stories that inspired it all.
Art Detectives stars Stephen Moyer and Nina Singh as Mick Palmer and Shazia Malik, two detectives who are thrown into the peculiar world where crime and art overlap. With heists and murders, this show will for sure become a fan favorite for Acorn TV’s viewers. Powell shared that the idea for the series stemmed from a real group of investigators he came across called The Arts and Antiques Unit. “There’s so much art crime going on. At one end, you get people who break into the Louvre and walk out with a priceless painting, and on the other end there’s a true story about a curator at the British Museum who was taking items from the archives and putting them on Ebay!” He continued, “So this is all happening all the time, and we thought this is a really rich area for a crime show.”
Each episode will follow a murder mystery and its connection to the art world leaving endless possibilities for interesting stories to be told. Much of the episode storylines are based on real people and stories Powell and his team learned while researching the show. “We got so many great stories. I think it makes the show much more authentic, and it really benefits from the fact that we have done our research.”
Since the show follows two detectives in such a specific realm of the crime world, it was important to find the right people to play Mick and Shazia. Powell had nothing but great things to say for his two leads, and his excitement to get a star like Moyer attached. “We were very lucky to get Stephen.” He continued, “Nina and Stephen just sparked. Straight away we said ‘That’s it!’ What was fantastic to see over the course of the twelve week shoot was how close they got. They have great chemistry and it really comes across on the screen.”
Art Detectives will for sure steal the hearts of mystery lovers worldwide. Make sure to catch its premiere on Acorn TV June 9.
