Phyllis Logan plays Cora Felton, a celebrity cruciverbalist hiding in Bakerbury with niece Charlotte Hope's Sherry Carter, when a teenager turns up dead with a crossword clue taped to her chest. The local force, led by Adam Best's pompous DCI Derek Hooper and Nick Danan's weary DS Sam Brody, swallow their pride and ask the Puzzle Lady to unpick the killer's word games. Each 120-minute instalment adapts a Parnell Hall novel, so the body count rises via poisoned pen, coded acrostic and a final cryptic that spells out the murderer's name.
Dominique Moloney's scripts keep the violence off-stage and the clues fair, letting viewers race Cora to the solution while Northern Irish locations double for an impossibly pretty Cotswolds. Paramount, ZDF and PBS co-funded the three-parter, which premiered on Channel 5 in June 2025 before PBS rebadged it The Puzzle Lady for American mystery slots. Logan's crisp comic timing turns Cora's crossword addiction into a believable investigative superpower, whether she's speed-solving the Times over breakfast or spotting that "olive" plus "n" equals "viole(n)t".
Production Details
5 / 1 Season / 3 Episodes / 2025 - Present
Writer(s): Dominique Moloney
Main Cast
Phyllis Logan as Cora Felton
Charlotte Hope as Sherry Carter
Alistair Brammer as Anton Grant
Nick Danan as DS Sam Brody
Adam Best as DCI Derek Hooper
Ashionye Michelle Raccah as Babs Dufresne
Ben Waddell as Gary Gibson
Tabitha Smyth as Stacey Gallivan
