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An episode of the new detective series “Harry Wild” shares some narrative similarities with the Netflix hit “Squid Game.“
But “Harry Wild” and series star Jane Seymour got there first.
“We have some crazy episodes, like people gambling for their lives. We’ve seen that in ‘Squid Game,’ but this was done before [that] and it’s different, obviously,” Seymour told The Post. “I’ve been asked not to give [any plotlines] away … but one of my favorites is Episode 4, where a young man is obsessed with Dostoyevsky. I’ve never seen that in film or TV.”
Seymour, 71, plays Harriet “Harry” Wild, a retired university literature professor who turns to amateur sleuthing in and around Dublin, much to the chagrin of her son, Charlie (Kevin Ryan), a senior detective with the Garda, Ireland’s national police service. Harry’s sidekick, Fergus (Rohan Nedd), is a goodhearted teenage student living with his alcoholic father and much-younger sister (he’s the prime caregiver for both).
The eight-episode series, created and written by David Logan, premieres April 4 on Acorn TV.
“David came up with the idea and I really related to it,” said Seymour, who’s also an executive producer. “We spent four hours together to see if we wanted to work together and we couldn’t stop coming up with ideas and building the project. [Author] Jo Spain came in and wrote some more episodes. I loved every minute of it … the two of them came up with some unbelievable crimes that really ramp up after the second episode.
“Every time I read a new script I said, ‘Wow, how did you top the last one?’”
Harry’s literature background often helps her solve weird cases; in the series premiere, she feels that a murder, and the disappearance of a young woman, — seemingly random — follows the arc of an obscure Elizabethan play called “Calabras.” (A correct assumption.)
“There’s so much we can do with Harry. She has a son, but who’s the father?” Seymour said. “That will be covered if we come back for a second season, and we’ve already discussed what would happen there and [Logan] has really mapped it out.
“I think a lot of women will really like her character — she’s sassy and doesn’t suffer fools gladly and she says it like it is … and sometimes wrongly and embarrassingly puts herself in complete danger. People say to her, ‘Are you crazy doing that?’ and she says, ‘Why not?’
“And she’s always right, of course,” she said. “I like to think I’m always right and of course I’m not but she is right a lot of the time because she uses her knowledge of literature and history, and her understanding of characters, and if she has someone obsessed with Dostoyevsky, for example, she can figure out why they’re doing what they’re doing and what their next move will be.
“And, when necessary, she acts the part,” she said. “[In one episode] she has to be a little old lady and stop someone from noticing there’s someone behind them and she just turns on the Scottish accent. I love that — an actress who gets to be an actress as a professor and an action hero, of course.
“I’ve never seen or heard of a characters like this, ever.”
Harry isn’t shy about correcting people’s grammar — which, Seymour said, is a trait she shares with her onscreen alter-ego.
“It just slides in there and I love that,” she said. “Unfortunately, that came from me. I do that all the time to my poor, unfortunate children. They grew up in England and mostly in America and when they say things like ‘I did good’ I say, ‘No, you did well.’”
The Emmy-winning Seymour, of course, is no stranger to television; she starred in the CBS Western series “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” for six seasons (1993-98) and, more recently, played Madelyn on Chuck Lorre’s Netflix comedy “The Kominsky Method” — which led to her recurring role as randy retirement-home resident Bette on Lorre’s CBS sitcom “B Positive.”
“I was supposed to do two feature films back-to-back but because of COVID they got postponed and Chuck called me,” she said. “He said, ‘Hey, I don’t know what I’m doing with this character but I’d like you to come in and play Bette. She’s American and she’s 85 and I want to age you up.’
“She thinks she’s a 20-year-old rock chick,” she said. “The beauty of working with Chuck is he writes to you — the more you talk to him the more bits of you come into play. I said to him, ‘Look, I think she changes wigs all the time, she definitely wears too much makeup and likes to wear ridiculous clothes she shouldn’t be wearing.’ He said, ‘And she’s obviously sexually active,’ and I checked with my friends who run retirement homes and apparently there are more problems with STDs there than in the general population.
“So granny is not sitting down with a cat and knitting — granny’s busy.”
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