This script has been lightly edited for clarity.

Jace Lacob: I’m Jace Lacob, and you’re listening to MASTERPIECE Studio.

Ten years ago, I received a text message from a friend and colleague at MASTERPIECE, asking me if I was free to discuss a mysterious MASTERPIECE gig in which I might be interested.

At that point, I had left behind a career as a television critic, editor, and reporter that spanned more than a decade, writing for such outlets as The Daily Beast and Newsweek, BBC, the Los Angeles Times, and others. I’d covered MASTERPIECE programming a lot over the years, interviewed many of the stars and writers of their shows, and moderated a Downton Abbey panel in Los Angeles, where I met future MASTERPIECE executive producer Susanne Simpson. At the time, however, I was working as a creative consultant for a premium cable network and I was intrigued by what this mysterious MASTERPIECE opportunity might be.

It turns out that MASTERPIECE, the venerable drama anthology that imports the best of British programming, was looking to launch a companion podcast, timed to the final season of Downton Abbey. Would I be interested in hosting a pilot?

Listener, I didn’t hesitate. 

Preparations were made, flights and hotel rooms booked. And within a few days or so, I was in New York to record a pilot episode, featuring an interview with Downton Abbey star Allen Leech. My brief for the assignment, per Susanne Simpson: “We’re looking for something conversational in style, and for you to be yourself. We all love your writing and you definitely know your Downton stuff. What interests you will interest our audience.”

Effortlessly charming, Allen was, in many ways, the best choice for a pilot interview. He was wryly funny and also surprisingly vulnerable, allowing himself to get emotional about — SPOILER ALERT! — Sibyl’s death in Season 3. We played a free association game that never saw the light of day but which amused me to no end. I flew back to Los Angeles to record narration, curious whether this nascent project would leave the nest…

Within a few weeks, the podcast had gotten the greenlight. Allen’s episode would come out later with our run of Downton installments, for which we ended up recording more than 20 interviews for Downton’s final season. With Allen’s episode slated for early 2016, Sherlock’s Mark Gatiss ended up being our first “official” guest.

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Jace: What have you and Steven learned from the experience of making the show so far?

Mark: I suppose we’ve learnt… not that we needed to relearn it, but the importance of following your passion project. You know, the reason I think that people love our show is because you can tell that we love Sherlock Holmes.

That was 10 years ago, and since then, we’ve produced over 250 episodes for countless MASTERPIECE shows. There have been many laughs, a few tears, exciting introductions, and bittersweet goodbyes. We’ve also experimented with formats: everything from games and roundtable discussions, to recaps and historical fact vs. fiction segments.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank the MASTERPIECE fans who have sent me and the team at MASTERPIECE Studio so many lovely messages over the years, including this gem of an email from a listener named Peg, who writes, “Watching MASTERPIECE is entertaining. Listening to your podcast is like being invited to the wrap party.” 

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for listening and for writing in, Peg: that sense of going “behind the curtain” to the wrap party is exactly the feeling we’ve strived to create here at MASTERPIECE Studio for the past 10 years and going forward. 

Today, in our special 10-year anniversary episode, we’re joined by MASTERPIECE’s executive producer Susanne Simpson. We talk about everything from the inception and early days of the podcast, up to the present day, and peek into the future as we discuss some of the exciting MASTERPIECE titles in 2025 and beyond.

Jace Lacob: And this week we are joined by MASTERPIECE Executive Producer Susanne Simpson. Welcome.

Susanne Simpson: Thank you for inviting me.

Jace Lacob: So we are looking ahead to MASTERPIECE in 2025. But first, I do want to take a look back. The MASTERPIECE Studio podcast celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. You were the architect in charge of MASTERPIECE launching a podcast. This was your brainchild. How did the idea come about for MASTERPIECE to launch a podcast back in 2015?

Susanne Simpson: At that time, everybody was beginning to talk about podcasts as a way to reach younger viewers. It was a time before the pandemic where a lot of people were spending time on their commutes and they were listening to radio and podcasts. And we were coming up on what was going to be our final season of Downton Abbey. And I felt that if we were ever to launch a podcast, we should do it while we had the chance to interview all of the people associated with Downton, because they’re such an amazing creative team. And also the cast members were so well known by our viewers that we thought doing interviews with them would be something our audience would just love. So we very quickly put together a plan to be able to launch right before that final season.

Jace Lacob: When we started, I remember the podcast felt like this fledgling, fragile thing, and I was coming off an entirely different job as an editor and television critic. You were in a different role at MASTERPIECE. Did you ever think we’d be sitting here talking about it a decade and nearly 300 episodes later?

Susanne Simpson: Absolutely not! Who knew that there was such an appetite for that kind of insider information? And I think, you know, Jace, we had known each other before we started the podcast because you had yourself been a fan of MASTERPIECE. And I know that you had hosted some of our screenings that we did out in Los Angeles. And so what was wonderful was because you were so interested in our shows and so willing to do the research for these interviews, I think right from the beginning, even the people being interviewed understood they were special, that we were really interested in knowing them.

You had shown through your research that you were interested not only in what they were doing for MASTERPIECE, but for other shows. And I can remember people commenting after they did the interviews, how much they loved doing it with you. And I think that just kept growing as we went through our season of shows.

Jace Lacob: So we’re coming on 10 years and almost 300 episodes, and I have a bunch of personal highlights from the run. Interviewing Angela Lansbury in studio,

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Jace: You mentioned the outbreak of World War II in 1939. You’ve described it as sort of exciting, where anything could happen. What do you remember of that first wartime day?

Angela: I remember the balloons. That’s what I remember oddly enough, were these balloons that they put up to keep the German planes from flying down low over the city of London, where I lived, they couldn’t come down. So they had to stay up high, but we could hear them.

Jace Lacob: I also remember saying goodbye to Tom Brittney last year when he left Grantchester. This one was particularly emotional for me because of the rapport Tom and I built over the years through countless interviews.

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Jace: In our very first interview back in 2019, you said of Will, “I instantly just connected to his drive for good, and his passion, and his strong opinions. I loved that, but also with the darkness in him, the darkness that drives him. There was something that I connected to in that, and I just really, really wanted to play the character more than anything else in my life.” While time has passed since you wrapped, how does it feel to say goodbye to Will Davenport?

Tom: ​​You quoting that back to me, it makes me feel emotional because yeah, it’s saying goodbye to a part of your life. And I think it’s something I will always look back on fondly.

Jace Lacob: And I’ll never forget interviewing Helena Bonham Carter for her role in Nolly, particularly when she asked me for my thoughts about a particular turning point in the show.

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Jace: And I think it bookends our beginning with her looking into the camera as the first woman on color TV.

Helena: To appear on color television.

Jace: And I think she looks at us, and we see her, and she’s seen.

Helena: Yes, she’s seen. I think that’s absolutely key, thank you for that. She is seen and that’s what Russell wanted.

Jace Lacob: But I am curious, what have been your favorite moments or interviews from the past 10 years? What has stood out to you?

Susanne Simpson: Ooh, so much. You have named some, because I do feel like Angela Lansbury, just her career has spanned such a long period of time, it was very nostalgic to walk through her career and then come to the work that she was doing for MASTERPIECE at the time. I remember an interview with Nicola Walker from Unforgotten that, it was the surprise of how funny she was in her interview, and in some ways how willing she was to share some personal stories with you.

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Nicola: We spend a lot of time crying, me and Peter. We have similar personalities in that we’ll start talking about something and then he’ll say something just wonderful and wise and I’ll start crying and then he’ll go, “Don’t you start, you’ll set me off.” We spend a lot of time laughing, but we do spend quite a lot of time weeping.

Susanne Simpson: And so I think some of the surprise is just how genuine people are in the interviews and their vulnerability to talk about things that are personal to them, the things that mean something to them.

Jace Lacob: MASTERPIECE Studio has a big year ahead of it with its 10th anniversary, and on air, MASTERPIECE has quite a year ahead of itself as well. We kick off 2025 with the return of both Miss Scarlet and All Creatures Great and Small. We know that Callum Woodhouse’s Tristan Farnon is back for Season Five now with a mustache. What else can you tell us about this upcoming season?

Susanne Simpson: Well, that is the biggest news, is Tristan is back. And our audience loved, loved him. I mean, he does bring a lot of humor to the show. He gets under Siegfried’s skin better than anybody. And of course, it’s always wonderful to see Siegfried and his reactions.

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Siegfried: And then I thought I’d end on a flourish with a particularly personal quote from Aristotle.

Tristan: Why do you always have to go back to the Greeks?

Siegfried: Well, I’m sorry if my terms of reference are too high brow for you.

Tristan: I just think it would be nice if you chose a book that we’d all read.

Siegfried: Like what, Tristan, The Dandy?

Susanne Simpson: I think having him back enlivens things. I think also a big storyline for this upcoming season is with the new vet, Carmody, who’s been invited to come into the house during the time that Tristan was away. So, how do they both adjust when Tristan is now back? How are they all adjusting to the fact that Helen and James are new parents, and what does that mean for the household?

Jace Lacob: Speaking of cast, Miss Scarlet and The Duke has undergone a transformation to Miss Scarlet after the departure of Stuart Martin’s William Wellington. We have a new love interest for Eliza Scarlet in the form of Tom Durant-Pritchard’s soldier-turned-detective Alexander Blake. What can you tell audiences about Tom and Alexander?

Susanne Simpson: In some ways, I don’t want to say anything because I want people to have their own reactions to it. And I will say that when Stuart left, of course, we were all very sad about that. He had been a great Duke. And as a writing team and part of the producing of the show, we were challenged by, do we recast the Duke? Do we bring in some new character? Do we go without a male counterpart for Scarlet for a year or whatever?

And I think ultimately what we decided was that there’s still a lot of story to tell about Scarlet because she is still finding her way and certainly comes up against a lot of obstacles. And some of them are personal, some of them have to do with other characters and certainly what path will she take in terms of her love life and work life is at the core of the show.

So I think we decided she needs that kind of counterpart in a character who may sometimes work with her and may work against her. And so we felt that we needed to bring in another inspector who she could spar with.

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Blake: We’ve known each other for less than two weeks and in that brief period of time I have made it abundantly clear that I do not need your help.

Miss Scarlet: Really? So you noticed that the victim’s body is in the second stage of rigor mortis suggesting—

Blake: A time of death between 2 o’clock and 6 ‘clock this morning. Yes, I noticed.

Miss Scarlet: And the lack of defense wounds on his arms?

Blake: Suggest a sudden attack rather than a prolonged struggle. This I already know. What I don’t know is how you ended up in a locked room with a dead man.

Susanne Simpson: I think Tom is terrific in the role. And I just hope that our audience feels the same way because many of them were really engaged with Stuart, and I know it was a big loss, but I hope they’re open to Scarlet moving on to other kinds of relationships.

Jace Lacob: And it is a different relationship, which I love. It’s not the same dynamic. It’s a totally different dynamic between the two of them, which is great.

Susanne Simpson: It is. And that’s all Rachael New and Ben, the writers, they are just very clever in how they create the characters for the show and the storylines and the obstacles to Scarlet. I love working with them. They’re a terrific team.

Jace Lacob: The elimination of the Duke from the title puts the emphasis squarely on Eliza Scarlet. It’s now just Miss Scarlet after all. Does that feel in keeping with the feminist underpinnings of the show? Does it make even more sense thematically that it would just be Miss Scarlet?

Susanne Simpson: I think she’s earned her own name for the show. I think Kate Phillips is just fabulous in the role. From the very moment I knew they had cast her, I thought it was brilliant casting for this role. And Kate just stuns me every year. She’s terrific.

MIDROLL

Jace Lacob: Looking ahead, Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis return as Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII in Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, based on the final book in Hilary Mantel’s trilogy. What can viewers expect from this sequel to Wolf Hall, which is also coincidentally celebrating its 10th anniversary?

Susanne Simpson: Wow, I have just finished watching all the edits for all the episodes, and if there’s one word to describe it, it’s “brilliant.” It’s just brilliant. For those of you who’ve tried to read the book, which is challenging, I find the screenplay that Peter Straughan did to have brilliantly focused the story in a way that it’s very easy to follow. And I think Peter Kosminski, who directs it, is just a genius at working with these two major actors, Mark and Damian, because the performances in this are riveting.

It’s a different kind of story than Wolf Hall, the first one, in that that story is about the rise of Cromwell. And this story, The Mirror and the Light, is about him at the peak of his power, and how that begins to unravel. And Mark’s performance is very emotional, which was unexpected because, of course, in the first season of Wolf Hall, as a character, he was very reserved. He was a watcher. He was someone who observed what was going on. And now in this next season, he is really an actor in what’s taking place. And so, it’s a stunning performance.

And Damian Lewis, oh my goodness. He is so chilling, and so powerful in this role as Henry VIII. It’s just a tour de force, as people say, and I can’t wait for our audience to see it. It’s one of the best pieces of television I think we could offer to our audience.

Jace Lacob: I can’t wait for that. In Miss Austen, an adaptation of Gill Hornby’s beloved novel, there’s an all star cast that includes Keeley Hawes, Rose Leslie, Jessica Hines, Phyllis Logan, Max Irons, and Alfred Enoch, among others. Keeley plays Cassandra Austen, who burned her sister Jane’s controversial letters after her death. How would you describe this miniseries? Is it a romance, a mystery, a combination of the two?

Susanne Simpson: I think it’s got it all. I think that’s what’s surprising about this story. Gill Hornby is Nick Hornby’s sister, and she has been researching Jane Austen and her literature and her life for many, many years. And this book is meant to answer that question; why did Cassandra burn those letters? And I think she’s come up with a very interesting answer to it. And this is a time period after Jane has passed away, and Cassandra’s living in Chawton House by herself, but she is called to the bedside of a dying relative.

And so she becomes immersed in that household and the issues there, including whether the daughter of the dying man can marry the person she loves or not. So we do have a love story in this, I guess I’ll call it the present day Cassandra storyline. But what’s so much fun is that in seeking out these letters that Jane wrote, and actually her cousin had written to her, so a lot of people were writing back and forth with Jane, but as Cassandra tries to find these letters and does, she reads them.

And then we flash back to the time when she and Jane were very young, living with their parents, Cassandra’s first engagement, Jane’s semi love life, how the two sisters supported each other through these different loves and disappointments and challenges, and you just see the building deep, deep friendship that Jane and Cassandra had with each other.

It’s a very emotional piece and I think people will find by the end of it that they have engaged wholeheartedly in the characters in the story. And it’s not just Cassandra and Jane, but it’s about all the women at this time period and what they were allowed to do, what they thought they were allowed to do, why they did or didn’t make choices. And so I find it’s really a wonderful piece.

Jace Lacob: Looking further ahead, we have The Forsytes, a new adaptation of Nobel Prize winning author John Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga, this time written by Poldark‘s Debbie Horsfield. This isn’t a retelling of the 2002 MASTERPIECE miniseries, but instead follows the Forsyte clan in the 1880s acting as a sort of prequel to Galsworthy’s first book. What can you share about what viewers can expect from The Forsytes?

Susanne Simpson: When Damien Timmer from Mammoth and Debbie came to me and said, well, we have a slightly different take on Forsyte, and it could potentially be a long running series. Are you interested in hearing it? And I said I was.

And what Debbie had come up with was the idea that she thought we could start pre-books where we can begin to understand where some of these characters came from before we see certain events had taken place in their lives. And so I thought her idea to explore these characters and where they came from, what decisions had made them who they were, was really interesting.

The second thing I thought she had touched on that was just a really great idea was that if you read the books, you’ll see that the female characters in the books don’t really have very large roles. They’re kind of disappeared as people, but she said she wanted to bring forward four or five women characters and truly explore what their roles were at the time, what choices, what decisions they made, what kind of impact they had on the male characters to bring that more to life. And I think she’s done that beautifully. It just makes it all that much more interesting. It’s not only the men taking action, it’s what the women are doing, too.

The other show that I haven’t talked about yet, because we only announced it recently, is that we’re doing a version of Maigret. And we’re taking a different perspective on Maigret as well, which is that we’re looking at him as a younger Maigret and how he became who he was as the detective that everybody loves in those books. And so, again, it’s just a different look at some of these stories. And what’s exciting about Maigret, this is a show being made by Playground, they have found, I think, one of the most interesting actors, a young actor, Ben Wainwright, who has not been in much to date, but I think he’s just riveting on screen. And so I hope that our audience will find that.

In some ways, I feel like, our version of Maigret is almost like what Endeavour did, which is to look at the making of those characters in their early years, what influenced them, how they became who they were, their attitude towards the world, and all of that. And so, Maigret is a little bit like Endeavour, I think, in that way. Which I think is to say a good thing because Endeavour certainly has been one of my longtime favorite shows that MASTERPIECE does.

Jace Lacob: Between these two shows, I feel like we have so many familiar MASTERPIECE faces popping up, Eleanor Tomlinson in The Forsytes along with Tom Durant-Pritchard from Miss Scarlet. These are huge, huge projects with lots of moving pieces. Do you see The Forsytes and or Maigret providing a new narrative spine for MASTERPIECE, these sort of returnable, high wattage dramas?

Susanne Simpson: Oh, yes. We are incredibly fortunate that we have such good relationships with our partners like Mammoth Screen and Playground because I feel that they make some of the best dramas on television. I think we share the same vision in terms of the quality of the writing and the quality of the acting and introducing new actors to our audience who’ll later become well-known names to many more people. So I am always trying to find the best shows I can. And there is an awful lot of competition for those same shows. And it’s true, a lot of people can watch UK produced programs on other platforms than just MASTERPIECE, but we’re still trying very hard to find the special ones that we think our audience will love.

Jace Lacob: While still being that Hollywood incubator for British actors.

Susanne Simpson: Yes. And that’s where I think MASTERPIECE’s 50 year history of being involved in British drama and working with these producers who are so terrific at finding great talent and a UK system that encourages and grows new talent. So, many of the writers of our programs have been playwrights before they come into television. Many of the actors have been in theater for a number of years before they come to television. So the UK has a system that encourages that kind of artistic development, that kind of development of craft that we really appreciate because it shows up in our television programs, and they’re of a very high quality because of that craft system that they have in the UK.

Jace Lacob: Susanne Simpson, thank you so very much.

Susanne Simpson: Thank you, Jace.

Next time, with her beloved Duke, and connection to Scotland Yard gone, Miss Eliza Scarlet is out of work and back to square one. 

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Inspector Blake: Miss Scarlet.

Miss Scarlet: Inspector Blake. I can explain.

Next Sunday, creator Rachael New joins us to kick off a brand new season of Miss Scarlet.