‘Orphan Black’ co-star’s new series ‘a landscape full of oddballs’

nypost.com:

“Recipes for Love and Murder” — both for its overarching storyline and for series protagonist Tannie Maria, played by Maria Doyle Kennedy.“Food is a language for her.

It’s the way that she is most herself … how she likes to communicate with people [and] how she processes thoughts and problems and emotions,” said Doyle, 57, the Irish-born actress (Siobhan Sadler in “Orphan Black”) and renowned singer.The 10-episode series premieres Sept.

5 on Acorn TV and is based on Sally Andrews’ bestselling book series “A Tannie Maria Mystery.” It blends whimsy, murder and a dash of slapstick humor into its tale of “Tannie Maria” Purvis (“Auntie Maria” in Afrikaans), who pivots from writing recipes for her community newspaper in Karoo, South Africa to dishing out column advice to locals — including a battered wife whose death, and Tannie Maria’s murky past in Scotland, propels the series.Co-stars include Kylie Fisher as beat reporter Jessie, Tannie Maria’s friend and co-worker at the Karoo Gazette; Tony Kgoroge as Chief Detective Khaya Meyer; Elton Landrew as Constable Piet; and Jennifer Steyn as the paper’s publisher, Hattie Wilson.“In the books, Tannie Maria is South African, but in the screenplay they decided to make her Scottish because they thought it would open [the story] up a bit and make it easier to bring it to the rest of the world,” said Doyle, who plowed through all 10 scripts during the height of the pandemic while at home in Dublin.“I was reading a whole lot of [scripts] and to be honest with you, a lot of what I was reading was about serial killers and the many ways they choose to dispose of women,” she said. “I was getting tired of it — and actually a bit angry — and then this came through and I wanted to know.