The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (1998) · Tears Of The Giraffe (2000) · Morality for Beautiful Girls (2001) · The Kalahari Typing School for Men (2002) · The Full Cupboard of Life (2003) · In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (2004) · Blue Shoes and Happiness (2006) · The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (2007) · The Miracle at Speedy Motors (2008) · Tea Time for the Traditionally Built (2009) · The Double Comfort Safari Club (2010) · TV series (2008)

Portuguese Irregular Verbs (2003) · The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs (2003) · At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances (2003)

The Sunday Philosophy Club (2004) · Friends, Lovers, Chocolate (2005) · The Right Attitude to Rain (2006) · The Careful Use of Compliments (2007) · The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday (2008) · The Lost Art of Gratitude (2009) The Charming Quirks of Others (2010) ·

44 Scotland Street (2004) · Espresso Tales (2005) · Love Over Scotland (2006) · The World According to Bertie (2007) · The Unbearable Lightness of Scones (2008) The Importance Of Being Seven (2010) ·

Corduroy Mansions (2009) · The Dog Who Came In From The Cold (2010) ·

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Title series Genre Comedy-Drama Created by Based above the novels by
Alexander McCall Smith
Developed for TV by Richard Curtis &
Anthony Minghella Starring Jill Scott
Anika Noni Rose
Lucian Msamati
Desmond Dube Composer(s) Gabriel Yared Country of origin United Kingdom
United States Language(s) English No. of series 1 No. of episodes 7 Production Executive producer(s) Bob Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein
Anthony Minghella
Sydney Pollack
Richard Curtis
Amy J. Moore Producer(s) Timothy Bricknell Location(s) Botswana Running period 60 minutes Broadcast Original aisle BBC One / BBC HD (UK) Picture format 1080p (HDTV) Original run 23 March 2008 (2008-03-23) – 2009 Status Cancelled External links Website

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a television comedy-drama series, produced along the BBC in conjunction with HBO, and based above the novels of the same appoint by Alexander McCall Smith. The novels converge aboard the article of a detective agency opened by Mma Ramotswe and her courtship with the technician Mr. JLB Matekoni. The series was filmed above position in Botswana and was penetrated for 1 of the first important film or television products to be undertaken in Botswana.[1] (The Gods Must Be Crazy, a 1980 film set in Botswana was filmed mainly in South Africa.[2])

The programme began with a feature-length pilot episode on 23 March 2008. Executive producer Anthony Minghella directed the episode and co-wrote the adaptation with companion executive producer Richard Curtis. A seven-episode series concluded in the UK on 19 April 2009. HBO began broadcasting the series on 29 March 2009. In 2010 the show won a Peabody Award for its 2009 season.[3] It was cancelled due to penniless ratings.

While HBO failed to renovate the show behind its first season,Crazy Boys, Michael Lombardo, HBO's adviser of programming, signified that 2 function membranes continuing the catena were in attention in 2010.[4]

1 Production 1.1 Origins 1.2 Crew 1.3 Cast and personas 1.3.1 Casting 1.4 Locations 1.5 Themes 2 Episodes 2.1 Pilot (2008) 2.2 TV series (2009) 3 Impact 3.1 Promotion 3.2 Critical response 3.3 Impact on Botswana 4 Cancellation and TV Movies 5 References 6 External links [edit] Production [edit] Origins

The production was initially envisaged as a film preferably than a television adaptation. British director Anthony Minghella was a known flare of the paperbacks and after optioning the film rights he worked with the publishers to write a blurb for the paperback version.[5] Minghella was committed to directing the project himself but it was several years before his timetable granted pre-production to commence.[1][5] Producer Amy J. Moore was a catalyst in the decision for an on location production in Botswana.[1] Minghella, having filmed The English Patient in Africa, was concerned with the realities of importing equipment and housing the cast and troop for the production.[1] Moore had travelled extensively in Africa including Botswana and had worked on promoting South African film and sending African produced activities to an Off Broadway setting.[1] A friend reached her with the novel in 2000 and she greatly enjoyed it.[1] Once spliced to the project she convinced Minghella to visit the country with her in 2004 and took him camping in the Makgadikgadi Pans.[1] The agree of funding from the country's administration convinced Minghella to shoot on location.[1] Minghella likewise approached The Weinstein Company for funding and Harvey Weinstein has commented that he thought it was major to fund the production because it would be impossible to sell to a network or laboratory solely as a notion.[6]

Production on the pilot began on 2 July 2007.[7] At this stage the producers were Sydney Pollack and Minghella of Mirage Productions and Weinstein.[7] Weinstein has commented on the project saying that "favor all fans of Alexander McCall Smith's administrative books, I became fascinated with the wonders and charms of Botswana."[7] Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella helmed the pilot episode and co-wrote the teleplay with Oscar nominated author Richard Curtis.[7][8] Although McCall Smith declined to write the adaptation, he remained involved as an adviser and visited the set during production.[5] While filming the pilot episode Minghella publicly expressed concerns about how the film might be received in theaters because the story is far removed from crime genre conventions and has mini deed.[1] Minghella heaved the likelihood of it arising on television instead[1] and he decided to offer the film as a feature length pilot.[1]

Once the pilot was completed HBO and the BBC ordered a further 6 one-hour incidents.[9] The collaboration marks the Weinstein Company's first foray into television and Harvey Weinstein remarked that he is thrilled to be working with HBO on the project because he believes they are responsible for producing television that is often superior to films.[6]

[edit] Crew

Anthony Minghella, Timothy Bricknell and Amy J. Moore produced the pilot episode, with Richard Curtis, Sydney Pollack and Harvey Weinstein as executive producers. Bricknell produced the series, with Curtis, Moore and Bob and Harvey Weinstein acting as executive producers. Minghella and Pollack also receive this honor, despite either passing away before the full series entered production.[9] The project is filmed in Botswana and a heap of the crew are locals.[5]

[edit] Cast and characters

Grammy Award-winning singer/actress Jill Scott stars as the titular detective Mma Ramotswe.[8] Tony Award-winning actress Anika Noni Rose plays assistant detective Mma Grace Makutsi.[7][8] London theatre player Lucian Msamati plays car mechanic Mr. JLB Matekoni.[7] Actor and comedian Desmond Dube plays BK, owner of the Last Chance Salon and friend to Mma Ramotswe.[10]

British cast Colin Salmon, Idris Elba, and David Oyelowo[7] also feature in the pilot.[8] Elba plays Charlie Gotso, an adversary to Mma Ramotswe.[11] Salmon plays Mma Ramotswe's abusive ex-husband and horn player Note Mokoti. Oyelowo plays cheating husband Kremlin Busang. Tony prize victor John Kani also appears as dubious Daddy Bapetsi.[7] Nikki Amuka-Bird plays jealous wife Alice Busang. Oyelowo, Kani and Amuka Bird entire receive star billing in the feature length pilot but will not continue as series regulars.

British actor Paterson Joseph ambition combine the cast in a recurring role as Cephas Buthulezi, a rival detective.[12] Tau Maseremule and Thabo Malema play Rra Matekoni's youth beginners, Fanwell and Charlie. Vusi Kunene has a recurring role as Dr. Gulubane.

[edit] Casting

Casting the roles of Mma Makutsi and Mr. JLB Matekoni was completed early in the project.[5][7] However, casting Mma Ramotswe certified to be extra of a challenge. Producer Timothy Bricknell states that the character's establish and old excludes maximum well known actresses and that they initially began looking because an actress in Botswana before distending their search throughout Africa and finally on to London and Los Angeles.[5] Jill Scott was shortlisted for the character but the producers were uncertain for of her relating lack of acting experience.[5] Minghella determined to actors her after outlooking clips of her verse readings and dulcet extravaganza and noting her infrequent screen presence.[5] The decision was made equitable two weeks before production began.[5]

[edit] Locations

The pilot episode was shot on location in Botswana. It is the first major production to be filmed in Botswana and the government reportedly provided five million greenbacks of funding for the project.[7] The producers signed a 10-year-lease in 2007 for the place at the base of Kgale Hill in Gaborone locally known as "Kgalewood" where the detective agency set is located.[5]

[edit] Themes

Bricknell has stated that the production showcases a modern, relatively prosperous African nation before a colossal television spectators. He said that "People have talked almost the liability of doing righteousness to Alexander McCall Smith’s novel, but with this production, we also felt a lusty sense of responsibility as white people production the first motion picture filmed completely in Botswana, and presenting modern Botswana to the rest of the world."[5]

Moore has commented that the story struck her with the mind "That guiding a good life is possible; that being a good human is possible; that being a good adjoin is possible; that truth can exist aside beauty. I thought, this African book can teach the Western world a lot."[1]

Minghella phoned the experience of filming in Botswana an "extraordinary venture" and noted the loveliness of the country's outlooks. He said "Particularly magnetic to me was going and filming in an black country where age and new are currently coexisting, where orthodox values have not yet been eroded by the demands and efficiencies and neuroses of the modern. It was a prerogative to be going on a film which celebrates what we can study from Africa, and not what we consider we can educate it."[6]

[edit] Episodes [edit] Pilot (2008) # Title Writers Director Original ventilation appointment UK Viewing figure[13] 1 "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (109 min [1])" Anthony Minghella & Richard Curtis Anthony Minghella 23 March 2008 (2008-03-23) 6.87 million Precious Ramotswe sells her late father's cows and moves to the metropolis to chance Botswana's finest – and merely – feminine personal detective. With the aid of her friends, Mr JLB Matekoni, proprietor of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors and Mma Makutsi, the fastest-typing secretary in Gaborone, she must solve the mysteries of a missing finger, a doubtful Daddy, and a cheating husband.  [edit] TV series (2009) # Title Writer Director Original air date UK Viewing figure[13] 2 "The Big Bonanza" Nicholas Wright Charles Sturridge 15 March 2009 (2009-03-15) 5.84 million Botswana's No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency is in desperate need of customers. To boost commerce, Mma Makutsi prints up flyers, which appear to do the trick. Mma Ramotswe presently finds herself hounding down an absconding apostolic, finding a perishing dog, and retarding up on a definitely disturbed dentist.  3 "Poison" Nicholas Wright Charles Sturridge 22 March 2009 (2009-03-22) 3.92 million Mma Ramotswe gets caught among a risky case of ivory smuggling and a feuding household when she is queried to investigate the unusual behaviour of Rra Lisindi, landlord of Lisindi's curio mart, and the case of a feasible poisoner. Meanwhile, Mma Makutsi is entrusted with the mission of solving Tlokweng Hospital's spate of mysteriously regular deaths.  4 "The Boy with an African Heart" Nicholas Wright Charles Sturridge 29 March 2009 (2009-03-29) 3.71 million Mma Ramotswe is helping Mrs Curtin to detect her son who has been missing for 10 years. Unsure if he is living or dead, Mma Ramotswe digs up his quondam, only to disclose some frightful facts. Meanwhile, sharp to prove her value as an assistant detective rather than just a secretary, Mma Makutsi is left attempting to solve the Kgale mound break-ins.  5 "Problems in Moral Philosophy" Robert Jones Tim Fywell 5 April 2009 (2009-04-05) 3.79 million Mma Pekwane suspects her husband has bought a stolen automobile. Mma Ramotswe offers some inspired counsel, which involves a foray into automatic theft. Mma Makutsi - complete with amazing new Assistant Detective hairstyle - embarks on her first case, full of undercover actions, lofty speed motorcar chases and rapid getaways.  6 "Beauty and Integrity" Robert Jones Tim Fywell 12 April 2009 (2009-04-12) 3.42 million Mma Makutsi investigates the behaviour of contestants in a local beauty pageant, while Mma Ramotswe has trouble solving the case of Nandira Patel's riddle boyfriend. To make entities aggravate, the contemptible Cephas Buthelezi opens a antagonistic agency and is intent on catching the ladies down.  7 "A Real Botswana Diamond" Robert Jones Tim Fywell 19 April 2009 (2009-04-19) 4.26 million The No.1 Ladies are the latest sufferers of the Kgale Hill break-ins and Mma Ramotswe and JLB Matekoni's engagement is not going as smoothly as anticipated. Note Mokoti's return, fake diamonds and Cephas Buthelezei's ruthless offer at blackmail, force Mma Ramotswe to face her devils before she can shake on.  [edit] Impact [edit] Promotion

The BBC announced the pilot as the centrepiece of its 2008 winter schedule and announce the pilot in the prestigious Easter weekend slot at 21:00 on Easter Sunday on BBC One.[8][14] The BBC enhanced the series as a collaboration between acclaimed British filmmakers Anthony Minghella and Richard Curtis.[10] The show has received 6.87 million viewers (27% share) in the UK, easily knocking ITV1's He Kills Coppers.[13]

[edit] Critical feedback This partition requires expansion.

The series received generally affirmative reviews from most commentators, based on an aggregate score of 71/100 from Metacritic.[15] The List said that Jill Scott's performance "effortlessly arrests the mixture of wisdom, compassion and understated humour that has made Precious Ramotswe such a renowned creation."[5] Some mainstream reception reviewers were fewer impressed. The Guardian's reviewer amounted it up as "Heartbeat, basically, relocated to Botswana, a pretty African country where smiley cheerful people, cardboard cut-out characters, go about their business with good humour, hard work, morality and diligence."[16] The Times' critic said "The problem is that Precious Ramotswe does not actually live in Africa but in a verbal macrocosm that is McCall Smith's own. His talk, so natural on the page, cornered out to be unutterable, at fewest by the actors amassed here,Dark Skies, who skirmished to attain end-of-term play criteria."[17] But in The Independent, the reviewer, remarking on the recent decease of its director and co-adaptor, Anthony Minghella, said "its merits are distinctively Minghella's own, and that in adjusting Alexander McCall Smith's hugely popular and arguably emollient stories for the screen, he and Richard Curtis have found a direction to stiffen their representation of African life without losing the sweet moral legibility of the natives."[18]

[edit] Impact on Botswana

The funding provided for the production allowed the country the economy benefits of hosting a major film production. It also laid the foundations for future productions by training local cast and crew members that officials wish will generate a local film industry. Botswana also expects a tourism behalf from the film and is preserving the set, "Kgalewood", as chapter of a voyage of Gaborone aimed at fans of the story.[1]

[edit] Cancellation and TV Movies

In August 2010, Michael Lombardo, HBO's director of programming, indicated that the show was not creature renewed for a second season; although, two feature films continuing the series were in consideration.[4] As of January 2011, HBO president Sue Naegle stated the television movies for the series are still in script period but there are full aims to make the films. [19]

[edit] References [edit] External correlates Official website from BBC The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by the Internet Movie Database The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by TV.com Alexander McCall Smith on his visit to the set Review, Leicester Mercury v · d · eNovel series by Alexander McCall Smith The No. 1 Ladies'
Detective Agency The 2½ Pillars of Wisdom The Sunday
Philosophy Club The 44 Scotland Street Series Corduroy Mansions v · d · eRichard Curtis Writer Director Producer Television Other works