The new adaptation of Lynley has begun airing weekly on BBC One, with the full four episodes available now on BBC iPlayer – though binge-watching it is a bit of a challenge, with each episode clocking at around an hour and a half.
Fans of classic British detective dramas will have everything they want in the new Lynley - beautiful scenery, a mismatched policing pair, a boss with a chip on his shoulder and, of course, heinous crimes to solve. Based on the novels by Elizabeth George, the series follows posh, Oxford-educated DI Lynley and his working-class DS, Barbara Havers.
Though the pair butt heads often, they ultimately work together to solve crime in the ‘tricounty’ area of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire out of their East Anglian headquarters in Horsford, Norfolk.
Norfolk, the eastern bulbous bit of the UK, has a distinct reputation. Flat landscape, quick rising tides, and its own accent – don’t confuse them with the west country one – that, like so many British regional accents, are very unique to the area.
Which is where Lynley falls down. Where are all the Norfolk accents?
One wouldn’t expect Lynley, next in line to be the Earl of Asherton, to sport a Norfolk drawl. We can even forgive Havers for not having one, despite her proudly remarking being East Anglian born and bred. But there isn’t a single extra or cameo appearance that sounds remotely like they’re from, or even in, Norfolk.
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There’s a few reasons why this could be. Firstly, the production took place in Ireland, around Dublin, Wicklow and Cork, in late summer 2024 for BritBox. Though some establishing shots of the Norfolk broads were used, filming with cast took place entirely in Ireland.
The series already aired in the US on BritBox in 2025, where the absent regional accents would likely go unnoticed. Even a domestic UK audience might be hard pressed to differentiate between West Country and Norfolk, or Norfolk and Suffolk (which have slightly different nuances).
But for those with keener ears, or merely exposure to the Norfolk accent, it’s a jarring disconnect. There are plenty of ‘local’ characters with ‘local’ flavour that, by all rights, should be speaking in Norfolk accents.
From boat captains to shop owners, house keepers and teachers, even staff in the supermarket, coffee shops – not to mention the entire rest of the police force based in Horsford; nary a Norfolk twang to be heard.
We acquiesce that, of course, people in the UK move around – there are plenty of regional accents that are not matched to the places in which one finds them. However, to set a series in a real area of Norfolk and not have a single local police officer or townsperson chirp up in the Norfolk accent is a small, but potent, oversight.
The original novels weren’t set in Norfolk, instead the stories took Lynley and Havers around the UK from their homebase of the London Metropolitan Police. To opt to set the show out of Norfolk and not include a single regional accent feels a peculiar oversight, and begs the question – why set it out of Norfolk at all?
This lack is not so glaring that audiences would turn off, jarred so much that they’re unable to engage in the usual level of suspension of disbelief. As we wrote in our review, "While Lynley isn't going to go down as a groundbreaking or game-changing show, it's a solid case-of-the-week that will surely be as enjoyable for fans of the original story as it is for a broader cosy crime audience."
This all holds true, and the addition of Norfolk accents wouldn’t make it a game-changer. But it would have offered something slightly more unique and grounded for the series that broke from its source material to choose Norfolk as its setting.
Lynley airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK.
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Gabriella Geisinger is a freelance film critic and journalist, with a focus on J-drama & film, and the Japanese production industry. She was previously Locations Editor at Screen International and Deputy Movies Editor at Digital Spy. Her writing can also befound in Curzon, 1883, and more. A born and raised New Yorker, she loves coffee and the colour black, obviously.
