One of the many perks of ‘Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries,’ a Sixties spin-off of the long-running 1920s era original, is how lightly the screwball-style rom com can breezily reference political and identity issues while offering glam clothes and cars alongside the occasional corpse. Peregrine Fisher has inherited her aunt’s fortune – Phyrne Fisher has gone missing in New Guinea. Now she wants to be a first-class detective like her legendary aunt and she falls first in like and then in love with Police Detective James Steed (Joel Johnson) who can’t stop her from collaborating on his cases. Geraldine Hakewill who IS Peregrine Fisher recently did a Zoom interview from Melbourne as the second season launches on AcornTV.

Q: I can’t imagine anyone matching what you bring to Peregrine Fisher. Did you come in and hear, ‘You are Peregrine! We knew the minute you walked thru that door’?

GERALDINE HAKEWILL: I wish it was that easy. Sometimes it’s nice to have to work for something as well. But I auditioned for this several times. It was a very sought-after part. You know, there’s so many actresses of a certain age, [she’s 33] that would be right for this role in Australia — and even Australian actors working overseas. So they saw quite a lot of people. Then they do a lot of chemistry testing as well. Between my going to auditions, they were auditioning the actor who is going to be James Steed so it was quite a process. But Joel and I were actually friends beforehand. We’ve been playing music together [Hakewill sings!] and we’d been meeting to rehearse, because we were going to play and get together. I’m just really grateful that we got to do a lot of the audition process together. Luckily, it clicked so well because it really is a fun relationship.