''Anna Lee'' is a British

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

series, first broadcast on 10 January 1993, that ran for a total of six episodes on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

. The series, loosely based on the detective novels of

Liza Cody Liza Cody (born 11 April 1944, in London) is an English crime fiction writer. She is the author of 13 novels and many short stories. Her Anna Lee series introduced the professional female private detective to British mystery fiction. The entir ...

, starred

Imogen Stubbs Imogen Stubbs (born 20 February 1961) is an English actress and writer. Her first leading part was in '' Privileged'' (1982), followed by ''A Summer Story'' (1988). Her first play, ''We Happy Few'', was produced in 2004. In 2008 she joined '' ...

as the title character, alongside

Brian Glover Brian Glover (2 April 1934 – 24 July 1997) was an English actor and writer. He worked as a teacher and professional wrestler before commencing an acting career which included films, many roles on British television and work on the stage. His ...

, John Rowe, Peter Wight and

Wil Johnson Wilbert Charles Johnson (born 18 April 1965) is an English actor, who has had notable television roles in '' Waking the Dead'' and '' Babyfather'', and on stage in '' Othello''. He played Dom Andrews in ''Emmerdale'' from 2012 to 2014. Early ...

. The series was produced by Brian Eastman, in conjunction with

Carnival Films Carnival Films is a British production company based in London, UK, founded in 1978. It has produced television series for all the major UK networks including the BBC, ITV (TV network), ITV, Channel 4, and Sky (United Kingdom), Sky, as well as ...

for

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 unt ...

. Following a single pilot episode, broadcast in 1993, London Weekend Television commissioned a full-length five-episode series, to be filmed later that year for broadcast in 1994. The pilot had a mostly different cast, apart from Stubbs and Glover. All six episodes were later broadcast in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

on the A&E cable network. Music for the series was provided by

Anne Dudley Anne Jennifer Dudley (née Beckingham; born 7 May 1956) is an English composer, keyboardist, conductor and pop musician. She was the first BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Association in 2001. She has worked in the classical and pop genre ...

, while the theme tune, "Sister, Sister", was performed by Luciana, who also appeared in the final episode. Notably, despite all six episodes being adapted from their parent books, considerable alterations were made for television, much to the dismay of writer Liza Cody. Reportedly, this prompted Cody to abandon writing any further ''Anna Lee'' books; as she had previously signed a contract with LWT to allow for any further books to be adapted for television. However, despite much detail being removed for the television adaptations, LWT's most notable contribution to series was the casting of Brian Glover; like his character Selwyn Price, Glover was an ex-professional wrestler, and his room full of wrestling posters seen in the series were in fact real posters featuring Leon Arras, the name Glover used when wrestling.

Cast

as Anna Lee; a former policewoman now working as a private detective *

as Selwyn Price; an ex-wrestler who lives in Anna's apartment building * Michael Bryant/ John Rowe as Commander Martin Brierly; Anna's boss *

Ken Stott Kenneth Campbell Stott (born 19 October 1954) is a Scottish stage, television and film actor who won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1995 in the play '' Broken Glass'' at Royal National Theatre. He portrayed th ...

/ Peter Wight as Bernie Schiller; a fellow detective *

as Stevie Johnson; another fellow detective *

Barbara Leigh-Hunt Barbara Leigh-Hunt (born 14 December 1935) is a British actress. Her numerous theatre credits include Broadway productions of '' Hamlet'' (1958) and '' Sherlock Holmes'' Justice (1973) (1974), and she won the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Suppor ...

/Sonia Graham as Beryl Doyle; Commander Brierly's secretary * Ceri Jackson as Ros Russell; a former police colleague, who is still on the force

Episodes

Pilot (1993)

Series (1994)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Anna Lee (Tv Series) 1993 British television series debuts 1994 British television series endings 1990s British crime television series 1990s British drama television series ITV television dramas Television series by ITV Studios London Weekend Television shows English-language television shows Television shows set in London Television shows set in Sussex