Rosemary and Thyme

Rosemary & Thyme
Rosemary and Thyme
Genre	Crime fiction
Created by	Brian Eastman Clive Exton
Starring	Felicity Kendal Pam Ferris
Opening theme	Variation on "Scarborough Fair"
Ending theme	idem
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	22
Production
Producer(s)	Carnival Films / Yorkshire Television
Running time	20x60 minutes 1x90 minutes 1x120 minutes (including adverts)
Release
Original network	ITV, STV, UTV
Original release	31 August 2003 – 6 August 2007

Rosemary & Thyme is a British television cosy mystery series starring Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris as gardening detectives Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme. The show began on ITV in 2003. The third series ended in August 2007. The theme is murder mysteries in the setting of professional gardening jobs. It was created by Brian Eastman to entertain his wife, Christabel Albery, who is an avid gardener. The show was directed by Brian Farnham (10 episodes, 2003–2006), Simon Langton (8 episodes, 2004–2006), and Tom Clegg (3 episodes, 2003). Clive Exton, who helped create the show, contributed 10 of the 22 scripts.

A cosy mystery series set in beautiful English and European gardens, Rosemary & Thyme features two women brought together by a sudden death who discover their shared love of the soil. Being gardeners means that they overhear secrets and dig up clues which lead them to handle floral problems, solve crimes and capture criminals.

Laura Thyme (Pam Ferris): The daughter of a farmer and a home gardener; she was a Woman Police Constable (WPC) in North Kensington and a member of "The CADS" (The Coppers' Amateur Dramatic Society) until she had children (Matthew, a policeman and Helena, a sculptor). After twenty-seven years marriage, her policeman husband abandoned her for a younger woman he met at work.

Rosemary Boxer (Felicity Kendal): Has a doctorate in plant pathology and was a University of Malmesbury lecturer in applied horticulture for eighteen years, before her academic position was suddenly and sneakily removed (which pushes her to punch her ex-boss, a former beau, who fired her underhandedly). Rosemary owns a 1980 Land Rover Series III.