Anna Lee (TV series)

Anna Lee
Title card from the episode 'Dupe', with Imogen Stubbs
GenreCrime drama
Written by
Directed by
  • Christopher King
  • Peter Barber-Fleming
Starring
Theme music composerLuciana Caporaso
Composers
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes6
Production
Executive producers
  • Nick Elliott
  • Sarah Wilson
Producers
Cinematography
  • Nic Morris
  • Giles Nuttgens
Editors
  • Derek Bain
  • Neil Thompson
Running time100 minutes
Production companies
Original release
NetworkITV
Release10 January 1993 (1993-01-10) 
27 March 1994 (1994-03-27)

Anna Lee is a British television crime drama series, first broadcast on 10 January 1993, that ran for a total of six episodes on ITV. The series, loosely based on the detective novels of Liza Cody, starred Imogen Stubbs as the title character, alongside Brian Glover, John Rowe, Peter Wight and Wil Johnson. The series was produced by Brian Eastman, in conjunction with Carnival Films for London Weekend Television.

Following a single pilot episode, broadcast in 1993, London Weekend Television commissioned a full-length five-episode series, to be filmed later that year for broadcast in 1994. All six episodes were later broadcast in the United States on the A&E cable network.

The series had a mostly different cast from the pilot, apart from Stubbs and Glover. Despite much detail being removed for the television adaptations, one of LWT's contributions to the series was the casting of Brian Glover; like his character Selwyn Price, Glover was an ex-professional wrestler, and his room full of wrestling posters seen in the series were in fact real posters featuring Leon Arras, the name Glover used when wrestling.

Music for the series was provided by Anne Dudley, while the theme tune, "Sister, Sister", was performed by Luciana, who also appeared in the final episode.

Despite all six episodes being adapted from their source books, considerable alterations were made for television, much to the dismay of writer Liza Cody. Reportedly, this prompted Cody to abandon writing any further Anna Lee books; as she had previously signed a contract with LWT to allow for any further books to be adapted for television.