Jane Seymour Talks Harry Wild

Blue-sky crime dramas are having a moment as audiences trade in moody, heavily serialized epics for light procedurals high on whodunit drama but low on anxiety-inducing gore. Acorn TV released the fourth season of its popular original Harry Wild this week. The Dynamic Television-produced Irish series stars Jane Seymour as the titular protagonist, a retired literature professor turned private detective.

Acorn TV has also expanded its relationship with Seymour to non-scripted, enlisting the acclaimed actress to host its first factual series, Relative Secrets. The series from Cream Productions is a true-crime meets genealogy show that premieres on BBC America and Acorn TV in June.

Seymour talks to TV Drama Weekly about what’s in store for her character and the returning cast—including Rohan Nedd as Fergus, who assists Harry in her investigations; Kevin Ryan as her son, Charlie; and Rose O’Neill as her daughter, Lola—in the new episodes.

TV DRAMA: Tell us where Harry Wild finds herself in season four.
SEYMOUR: Harry now has a very successful detective agency with Fergus. Even her son, who is a detective, realizes that his mother is always right. It’s very irritating to him. He realizes that he needs to come and ask for her help, which is like a nightmare for him. Lola has to make decisions about going to college. Fergus is getting an education while working at the agency with Harry, which is quite miraculous. And Marcello, the father of Charlie, suddenly shows up. First, we think he’s dead, but then we find out he’s not quite so dead, and he is trouble. So, that’s fun! We have amazing plots. We have a guy who’s obsessed with tossing a coin to decide whether he kills somebody or lets them live. We have the whole world of horse racing. We have a great one with ballroom dancers. I have a dance background, so I thoroughly enjoyed that one. We have an amazing one at a fan convention where someone dressed up as me dies right in front of me, so I have to solve that murder—who murdered the fake Harry Wild? It’s such a rich season.

TV DRAMA: What have you most enjoyed about your time portraying Harry Wild?
SEYMOUR: Rohan Nedd, who plays Fergus, from day one, we clicked. We help build each other up together. Whenever we have scenes together, it’s just wonderful. The writing is so good, it just gets better and better. We’re in Dublin, so many brilliant theater actors are here. Many make films in Dublin pretending to be in England, America or elsewhere. And we’re like a big family. There are no egos on our set. Everyone does it together. We choose to spend time with one another during time off or even during the months we’re not filming. They’ll come and visit me in America. So, when we’re acting, there’s an amazing trust and an understanding of how we work.

TV DRAMA: As a procedural, it must be so much fun to work with different actors each week.
SEYMOUR: Having a completely different world and different people every week, there is always a throughline of what our character is going through, but if you watch [episodes] out of order, you’re still going to enjoy them enormously and not get lost.

The other thing I love is that I still forget who did it, even after reading [the scripts]. At first, I was like, Well, wait a minute, how can I possibly forget who did it? And then I realized that I, the actress playing Harry, would not know who did it. So, actually, it’s better if I forget. And sometimes, because of location, we’ll block shoot, so in one day, I could be doing elements from four different shows at the same time!