Antiques dealer Jean White (Sally Lindsay) lives in the part of Southern France that sun lovers dream of: the beautiful (fictional) town of Sainte Victoire. While she’s busy finding memorable gems, the colorful locals have a treasure trove of other mysteries for her to assess as well. The beloved Acorn show is back for Season 5, and we had a chance to chat with creator, co-writer and star Sally Lindsay to discuss everything from her creative process to the ponytail that’s become Jean’s signature. 

With S5 almost upon us I wanted to take a moment and rewind. You’re not only the star of the series, but you’re also its sole creator, a co-writer along with your co-star Sue Vincent, in addition to being an executive producer and having your production company Saffron Cherry Productions serve as one of the joint producers of the show. This show really is your baby, so I would love to talk about how it really all started for you — how did Madame Blanc first start taking shape? 

It really is my baby! Well, I was filming something at the very famous Pinewood Studios near Slough in winter and we were basically done. It was a really successful drama for Channel 5 called Cold Call. It had been a huge hit, and we were very excited about it. Even though Cold Call was brilliant, it was filmed in the rain in Manchester in the winter. I remember thinking, "Wouldn't it be nice to film something in the sunshine? That'd be great!" [Laughs] So that was always a part of it. I originally came up with the idea of Madame Blanc after I met an antiques dealer years and years ago in Mallorca. We always used to go every year with the children. It’s really, really gorgeous. So, I met this antiques dealer there called Jan, and she was just really normal and lovely, but an absolute wizard at antiques. She knew everything about them. It was fascinating. She always sort of fussed about in my head. I always thought, "God, that's a really interesting character," because her superpower is the fact that she's so normal, but she's got this unbelievably observant brain. So, she was swimming about in my head. 

I also loved the idea of waking up one morning and everything you think is normal and right isn't. Everything in the life you've been living is not the life you've been living. That was the catalyst and the first step with Jean to send her over to Sainte Victoire. Jan had told me this amazing story about all the antique dealers in Europe who go to these lovely little towns in the South of France to swap all their wares. I thought, God, imagine one of these villages with all these beautiful people from all over Europe buying and selling these amazing things in these specialized towns. There's going to be lots of romance and fun, but there's also going to be murder, theft, and mystery! And I thought, right, okay, that's my imaginary town. So, I started writing Madame Blanc. I wanted Jean to have a very distinctive look with the ponytail, and the bag and her flowing clothing — because every detective has a very distinctive look. 

Since Cold Call had been this hit, Mike [Benson] our co-producer, was out with the Commissioner of Channel 5 and he said, "What does Sally want to do next?" And he said, "Oh, she just sent me this thing today that she just finished. It's a treatment about an antiques dealer in the South of France." So, he read it. I think they were in the pub! I mean, it was that ridiculous. That's so British, isn't it? [Laughs] And he said, "Yeah, I love it." Channel 5 always works with a world partner and that’s how Acorn/AMC Global Media came into the mix. I’m so very fortunate that this was something they felt would work for their audience! 

Friendship is such an integral part of the show and watching Jean and Glo chat is always so lovely. New viewers of the show may not know that Sue Vincent who plays Glo is not only your co-star but also your co-writer! It’s clear that you’re connected both on and off screen from the warmth and authenticity that radiates between the two of you — can you talk a bit about how you work on episodes together. Do you come to the table with your own ideas and then work together to plot things out, or do brainstorm together right from the start when working through storyline especially for a new season? 

I met Sue on the show Mount Pleasant years ago in 2011! When it comes to Madame Blanc, I'm the one with the, I suppose you'd say the mystery brain, the one who comes up with all the mysteries. But what we’ve done together is what we call “the recipe sheet” and it’s full of little interesting ideas, antiques that she's found, stories that she's found, and I do the same thing. So, we come in with these ideas and then we have a huge meeting that lasts about four hours when we're starting a series to really get everything down. Then I go away and it really starts cooking in my head. 

When I start writing I’ll put together a 10-to-11-page document with every scene very, very concisely written from all the research we've done. I’ll create a plot and the arc of the story as well. We'll have discussed it all before in that four-hour meeting. Essentially, I come up with the plot and the story and if certain dialogue has to be specific, I'll write that down. At that point I’ll get it over to Sue and she goes away and completely overwrites. She writes the bible, so she'll write 10 pages more than we need, but it's all really beautiful dialogue. Then we get together and we call it “Bonsai Time” and we cut it all down. A lot of writers write in the same room, and they do the dialogue together, and that's absolutely fine. We do rewrite the dialogue because obviously we're both actresses as well. 

Another really interesting point about Madame Blanc is we don't have read-throughs because the two writers are actresses, so we are the read-through. We assume that if we can do it, then other actors can do it. Sort of saves a bit of money to be fair. [Laughs] We’ve had the same director as well from day one, Dermot Boyd, who worked with us on Mount Pleasant. We secretly send it to Dermot before anybody else and he tells us, "I can't film that, but I can film that if you do that ..." So, we’re at a point now where we're such a well-old machine, the three of us, that when we send it to AMC and to the channels, it's not far from a shooting draft! We're very open to notes. We're women, we're very egoless like that. So, we’re very open to change, but usually the bones of it are all there.

There’s such a specific feeling and tone to the show. Of course, things get dark, but there’s also hopefulness and positivity throughout. Even in the darkest times we know Jean will pull through and have a smile on her face! After several seasons of portraying Jean, what do you love the most about getting back into her character after some time away from her? 

Oh, it's brilliant. Once I’m in our makeup room in Malta and Steve Edge is sitting next to me things already fall into place. Obviously, Steve Edge is another dear friend of mine, and we’ve known each other for almost 30 years. We're usually the first in makeup and once the ponytail goes on and his tan goes on that's it — we're back and we're Dom and Jean again! 

It's a really lovely feeling because you're in the world again and it's so easy to fall back into it because the world is so rich & strong now that it's almost real, the world we live in as Dom and Jean. So, it's lovely actually. It's a great feeling to be back in Jean. I know the kids call it gratitude nowadays, don't they? But I've done that from day one in my career, and I always spend the first day [on set] just in awe of it all happening again. We're here and everybody's here and we're in costume! We're on time and it's happening again. It's just glorious. We're ready to go. The bag's on, pony's on, we're ready to go! 

I know some of my colleagues asked you for some of your Top Acorn TV Picks and you so graciously provided us with 10 shows/episodes, but can you tease out a few for us here and I’ll make sure to hyperlink the full collection so fans can check out the whole thing! 

Well, I've got to say Murdoch Mysteries, haven't I? That's a show that really reinvents itself all the time, and it's all about the cleverness of one character and his team. I really, really love it. I loved my time there. It was wonderful. What else do I love? Obviously, I love Midsomer Murders. Slightly obsessed by Midsomer. I mean, it's such a phenomenal success story and it just carries on, doesn't it? I love Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. The costuming alone! Acorn is very much my channel anyway. They always have just the kind of thing I would watch. That’s probably why I'm so in love with Madame Blanc is because I'm writing and creating in a company that is making television that I personally want to watch! Stuff that I've been obsessed! So, I’m very much at home. I just love it.

Season 5 of The Madame Blanc Mysteries premieres Monday, November 9 on Acorn, with new episodes premiering weekly. You can watch episodes via Acorn.TV or through the Acorn app available on iPhone, iPad, Android, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Roku plus Samsung and Vizio smart TVs. Sign up for Acorn now.