Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

One of the main Christmas presents that I gave to my parents in 2025 was Series 5 of ‘Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators’ on DVD, starring Mark Benton and Jo Joyner. I’m very pleased me and my parents enjoyed checking out Series 5 on DVD recently!

Knowing my parents and I enjoyed ‘Shakespeare & Hathaway’ when I purchased Series 1 to 4 and the 2022 Christmas Special for 2024, I knew we’d get through Series 5 quickly. In fact, we saw the last three episodes of Series 5 over one evening, which is astounding.

We can’t get enough of ‘Shakespeare & Hathaway’! By the time you’re reading this review, we’re likely to be rewatching the series again on DVD. I’m currently looking forward to Series 6 of ‘Shakespeare & Hathaway’! That’ll be my next Christmas gift for my parents! 😀

Series 5 of ‘Shakespeare & Hathaway’ reunites Mark Benton and Jo Joyner as Frank Hathaway and Luella Shakespeare respectively. They’re also joined by Patrick Walshe McBride as Sebastian and Tomos Eames as DS Joseph Keeler returning for the TV series.

It’s quite hard to believe that some time has passed since Series 4 and the 2022 Christmas Special. It’s been like at least two years since the previous season. Series 5 takes note of that when we find ourselves back in the world of ‘Shakespeare & Hathaway’.

Just to say, there’s a behind-the-scenes featurette on Series 5, which includes interviews with the cast and a summary of the season overall. That wasn’t something to be found in the Series 1 to 4 and 2022 Christmas Special DVDs, so I’m glad to find it on the Series 5 DVD.

In Series 5, we start off with Luella and Frank having split up due to a case that happened in-between Series 4 and 5. This is something that gets followed up on in the season’s final episode, but it was tense that Luella and Frank weren’t working together at the beginning. 😐

Thankfully, they get back together quickly and work on a variety of cases in Series 5 with their secretary Seb helping them. As with previous seasons, ‘Shakespeare & Hathaway’ is able to find a balance of comedy and drama throughout the duo’s cases that become murder mysteries.

It’s funny when Luella and Frank’s straightforward cases end up becoming murders and Keeler is always accusing them for being on his crime scene. 😀 Incidentally, I didn’t realise that both Keeler and Tomos Earnes are Welsh. I should’ve realised that fact, right? 😀

One of my favourite episodes in Series 5 is when Luella and Frank help Keeler out of a scrape where he’s blackmailed to prevent his wife from knowing that he might have slept with someone. It’s one of those rare occasions where we get to see Keeler’s vulnerable side. 🙂

I also like the episode where we meet the Swan, a white-suited vigilante fighting wrongs in Stratford-upon-Avon, as superheroes would. In fact, there’s a comic book store in the episode, and the episode does remind me of the comic book superheroes I’ve enjoyed. 🙂

There’s also a horror convention episode (I personally prefer a sci-fi convention 😀 ), and one of the guest stars happens to be Colin Baker, well-known for playing the Sixth Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’. Sarah Douglas, who played Ursa in the ‘Superman’ movies, is in it as well.

There’s a shopping channel episode in Series 5 and one of the guest stars happens to be Kacey Ainsworth, who usually plays Geordie’s wife Cathy in ‘Grantchester’. It was nice to see her in this episode, and it’s such a change from usually seeing her in ‘Grantchester’.

Other guest stars I recognise in Series 5 include Andrew Knott, who I heard recently in the ‘Doctor Who’ audio story ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’. There’s also Guy Henry, who portrayed Grand Moff Tarkin in the ‘Star Wars’ movie ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’.

A couple more guest stars include Fiona Button, who’s been in three episodes of ‘Grantchester’ and recently in ‘The Forsytes’. And there’s Matt Di Angelo, who I know for playing Fitz Krenier in the ‘Doctor Who’ audio story ‘The Company of Friends: Fitz’s Story’.

As ever, the mysteries featured in ‘Shakespeare & Hathaway’ are very compelling in working out ‘whodunit’. The episodes keep you guessing all the time and there’s nothing complicated when you get to the end and find out who committed the crime, which I find so satisfying.

It’s amusing when Frank and Luella actually get to go undercover in a variety of disguises, joining Seb who’s usually the one that tends to go undercover for them. In fact, for most of this 10-episode season, you’ll find Frank, Luella and Seb going undercover as a trio. 🙂

It’s not just about Frank and Luella solving the cases, it’s more about Frank, Luella and Seb solving cases. I’m surprised the series isn’t called ‘Shakespeare, Hathaway & Brudenell: Private Investigators’, since that’d be a far more fitting title for the series, right?

Series 5 of ‘Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators’ has been worth watching. I’m pleased my parents and I enjoyed this season recently and I’m glad I purchased it on DVD for Christmas last year. It has become a Christmas tradition we look forward to every year.

I’m looking forward to when Series 6 of ‘Shakespeare & Hathaway’ comes out later in the year and hopefully, I’ll get to purchase it on DVD for Christmas. Mark Benton and Jo Joyner are excellent as Frank and Luella, as they’re like good friends you keep coming back to. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂