MASTERPIECE Studio

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode One of the second season of All Creatures Great and Small. The soothing, gentle nature of All Creatures Great and Small renders the pain and struggles of ordinary life in warm, calming tones. Much of that comes from the series' original author, Alf Wight, but it also comes from executive producer and head writer Ben Vanstone. He explains how he plans each cycle of the show — and his genuine, real life love of animals.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode One of Around the World in 80 Days. The fabulously talented David Tennant is well known to MASTERPIECE viewers — he hosted MASTERPIECE Contemporary more than a decade ago, and has appeared on plenty of MASTERPIECE and MASTERPIECE Mystery! titles throughout the years — but his role in the sweeping new adaptation of Jules Vernes' Around the World in 80 Days is a thrilling return to form. Tennant previews the ongoing series, and looks ahead to the rest of the quest to come in a new conversation. 

There's romance afoot on the Sanditon shores, with five new male characters heading to the resort in the upcoming second season. Who are these new male characters, and where are they looking for love? And what does it mean to be a Man of Sanditon — an Austen romantic hero? We find out in the final Making Sanditon preview podcast.

While we’re all looking forward to the return to Sanditon, there’s no one more excited than than the talented young actor who plays Charlotte Heywood, Rose Williams. Williams returns to the MASTERPIECE Studio podcast to look ahead at the second and third seasons of the series and offer a hint of what’s still to come for the adventurous Charlotte.

You already know that Sanditon is coming back to PBS screens — but just what will happen in the seaside resort when the curtain finally raises after two years of waiting? A few members of the series’ creative team explore the stories still to come on the upcoming second and third seasons in the first of three special preview podcast episodes from MASTERPIECE Studio.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Eight of the Sixth Season of Grantchester. As Grantchester wraps its serialized sixth season, series creator Daisy Coulam is already hard at work on the seventh season. Among other new elements, the upcoming season features a new director at the helm — series star Tom Brittney. Coulam and Brittney preview the new season, and unpack the season that just closed, in a new podcast.

MASTERPIECE Studio and GBH bring you a preview episode of a new podcast and documentary film series: American Veteran. In war and in peace, what veterans have done in America’s name is woven into the fabric of the American story. The new PBS series, American Veteran, illuminates their experiences with a stunning range of veterans’ voices, presented in a nine-part podcast. Each episode of the podcast revolves around the direct testimony of a single veteran - from a Coast Guard gunner’s mate who manned a landing craft at Omaha Beach on D-Day, to an Army cook in Iraq who became the first Black American woman held as a POW; from an Army nurse in Vietnam who struggled to do her part to a satellite technician who served as a gay man during the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell era. This collection of riveting first-person stories provides a compelling portrait of the veteran experience across multiple generations. The series is hosted by Phil Klay, a Marine Corps veteran featured in the “American Veteran” television series and author of the National Book Award-winning collection of short stories, “Redeployment.” American Veteran: Unforgettable Stories drops on Tuesdays, October 19 – December 14.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Six of the Sixth Season of Grantchester. The police force in Grantchester is all men — with the notable exception of the sixth season's bright new regular, the sassy secretary, Miss Scott. Melissa Johns' snappy assistant can match wits with the best of them, and the actor and disability advocate reveals how she does it in a new conversation.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Three of the Second Season of Baptiste. The brilliant Fiona Shaw is already a regular guest on MASTERPIECE programs, but this is her first interview on MASTERPIECE Studio — a format that she takes to with ease, like so much else in her storied career. In the challenging second season of Baptiste, Shaw plays Emma Chambers, the no-nonsense British Ambassador to Hungary, who more than holds her own with inspector Julien Baptiste.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for the third episode of the sixth season of Grantchester. After six seasons in a single role, you might think Al Weaver has fully centered his performance as literary village curate, Leonard Finch. But in this serialized sixth season, there's still emotional and dramatic depth to uncover, which Weaver does with great skill. Weaver explains what he's learned about himself in playing Leonard, and what it felt like to film in the midst of a pandemic.