Video in the player above shows Rick Bentley's top 2024 movie picks. BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) -- The character of Eliza Scarlet as played by Kate Phillips in the PBS series “Miss Scarlet and the Duke” has always been the smartest person in the Victorian room when it comes to solving crimes. That’s changing with the fifth season of the series – now known only as “Miss Scarlet” – with the introduction of Detective Inspector Alexander Blake played by Tom Durant-Pritchard. Getting to play a crime-solving equal to Miss Scarlet is an exciting opportunity for Dureant-Pritchard. “She’s always the one who solves everything when she gets the cases and now, she has finally met her match in Blake,” Durant-Pritchard says. “It is quite exciting to see where things go from there because there is a real tension between the two of them as they are very competitive people. “They want to win and that is really fun to play.” The new acting playground for Durant-Pritchard will be familiar to fans of the series set in 1882. Scarlet decided to continue her father’s detective agency after his death and the business is thriving. Her personal life is not going as well as Duke has gone to New York. This opens the door for a new Detective Inspector to be either a friend or foe. The new season of “Miss Scarlet” is available now on the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel and will begin airing on Valley PBS starting 8 p.m. Jan. 12. Durant-Pritchard comes to the PBS series having worked on such projects as “The Crown” and “The Windsors.” He jokes that he has done so many projects dealing with British royalty that he is now “20th in like to the throne.” The fact he is now part of a British detective series is full circle for Durant-Pritchard who grew up in the United Kingdom county of Oxfordshire where the British mystery series “Midsomer Murders” was shot. The filming was all around him when he was young. “Those kinds of stories are the world I grew up in and they have always fascinated me,” Durant-Pritchard says. “I love clues and that kind of genre.” Durant-Pritchard believes that his interest in mysteries, being exposed to the filming process at an early age and the fact his father was involved with theater set him on a path to his acting and directing career. Becoming a part of a detective series that was starting its fifth season meant Durant-Pritchard had to find a way to fit into a team that has been working together for several years. Joining an established cast is a two-edged sword for Durant-Pritchard. He credits series creator Rachael New and star Kate Phillips with making his addition to the cast such an easy process. “There are the nerves of joining something but for everything that is nerve-racking, there is the confidence boost,” Durant-Pritchard says. “This is a successful show that has run for years, and they picked me which means I got to go in and do what I wanted. “I trusted the team enough to know they trusted me which meant I could go in and not have to feel like I had to fit into the pre-existing order. I could go in and stamp my own authority on things.” As soon as Durant-Pritchard read the script, he knew that he wanted to be a part of the series. There is a bit of mystery to the character that gets revealed in the early episodes but what is known is that he has traveled the world, speaks multiple languages and was in the military. Those elements gave Durant-Pritchard an insight into the character. “It told me the kind of person that he was and from there I could really build the character,” Durant-Pritchard says. “There are times when you get to audition for a role that you just know who they are and I knew as soon as I read the scripts, I felt like I understood him. “One of the joys of doing a period drama is you don’t actually have to give a lot away. There is stuff there, but you don’t always have to reveal it. A lot of the stuff stays hidden and that is where the tension and excitement in the show comes from.” One of the best parts of being part of the series for the British actor is that while each case is played out with very specific details the personal lives of the players is less defined. That gives the viewer the chance to try to solve the mystery of the week while following the slowly revealing personal elements of each character. Helping Durant-Pritchard deal with the mysteries and secrets is a cast that includes Cathy Belton as Ivy, housekeeper and mother figure to Eliza, and Felix Scott as Patrick Nash, another private eye whom Eliza crosses paths with, among others.