PBS Announces Sizzling Summer Season Lineup

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Top: Cast of LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX, Season 2 (Credit: Ben Blackall/ Anthony and Cleopatra Series Ltd.) Bottom: Freedom Summer volunteers registering locals (Credit: Johnson Publishing Company, LLC, all rights reserved

PBS Announces Sizzling Summer Season Lineup

Summer Highlights Include Star-Studded Dramas on Sundays,

Fascinating Independent Films and Documentaries,

Including AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Freedom Summer

ARLINGTON, VA; April 10, 2014 -- PBS announced today a summer schedule of programming spanning generations and genres. From examinations of our nation's history to our connections to the animal kingdom, and escapes to Britain's courtrooms and countryside, PBS offers diverse series and specials for all viewers. Returning favorites this summer include the second season of Endeavour on MASTERPIECE MYSTERY!, perennial Independence Day celebration A CAPITOL FOURTH and engrossing documentaries from POV, including the season premiere film When I Walk. New specials, including AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Freedom Summer and a documentary on the infamous AL CAPONE (w.t.) bring the past to life.

From acclaimed returning series to new thought-provoking specials, this summer offers a fresh slate of programs that will have audiences tuning in night after night to PBS, said Beth Hoppe, PBS Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, General Audience Programming. We have hit a strong programming stride year-round, and built a dedicated home on PBS member stations for a vast array of new, quality programming across our key genres of drama, science and natural history, history, arts and independent film.

British dramas and comedies continue to hold court Sunday nights on PBS. David Tennant opens the MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! season with The Escape Artist on June 15. A double-dose of Derek Jacobi with the Season 2 premiere of the dramedy LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX and the new comedy VICIOUS, also starring Ian McKellen joins the second season of MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! Endeavour to create a winning lineup beginning on Sunday, June 29.

PBS stays committed to presenting timely programming with films that look at history, both distant and up-to-the-minute. Fifty years later, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE's Freedom Summer, premiering on Tuesday, June 24, looks back at the violent summer of 1964 in Mississippi, when over 700 student volunteers joined civil rights organizers and local citizens to shatter the foundations of white supremacy in one of the nation's most segregated states. The Monday, June 16 premiere of the documentary AMERICAN PHAROAH follows the Egyptian National Football Team, its American coach Bob Bradley, and its quest to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. On Tuesday, June 17, Emmy-winning actress Patricia Clarkson narrates a behind-the-scenes program of Ken Burns's upcoming family epic, THE ROOSEVELTS: AN INTIMATE HISTORY.

SECRETS OF UNDERGROUND LONDON premieres Sunday, June 22, following its popular predecessors with a look into one of England's most storied landmarks. The long-running HISTORY DETECTIVES returns Tuesdays in July in a new format called HISTORY DETECTIVES SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS: hour-long episodes that look in-depth at major international cold cases. Also returning is SECRETS OF THE DEAD on Wednesdays, with enthralling new episodes including The Other Mona Lisa, a look at the analysis of a rumored secret Leonardo da Vinci painting that depicts a younger version of his iconic model. On Friday, August 8, for the first time on film, THE ROYAL PAINTBOX gives viewers an extremely rare glimpse at artwork produced by British royal family members over the centuries.

In addition, the PBS Online Film Festival returns for the third year beginning Monday, June 16 through Thursday, July 31. The Festival will feature more than 25 short films from INDEPENDENT LENS, POV, and will include works from, and collaborations with diverse public television producers including, Center for Asian American Media, Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), Vision Maker Media, National Black Programming Consortium (NPBC) and Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC).

Following is a look at PBS' summer primetime programming by day of the week, in chronological order:

Sunday:

Following the continued success of Sunday Night Dramas in the winter/spring season, PBS carries the trend this summer with a slate of dramatic programming.

MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! The Escape Artist

Sundays, June 15-22, 2014, 9:00-10:30 p.m. ET

David Tennant ( Doctor Who ) stars as a brilliant defense lawyer with a storybook family and a potent nickname, The Escape Artist, for his ability to spring the obviously guilty. Then he gets a trial that changes his life forever. This gripping legal thriller costars Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda) as the hero's rival, along with a courtroom full of ambitious attorneys and one very unnerving defendant.

SECRETS OF UNDERGROUND LONDON

Sunday, June 22, 2014, 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET

On the surface, London is a buzzing, modern metropolis but underneath lies a secret, hidden world, all but forgotten by the millions of people above. This program uncovers 2,000 years of subterranean history: a world of ancient caves and perfectly preserved Roman remains; mysterious rivers and gruesome plague pits; impenetrable vaults and top-secret bunkers.

LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX, Season 2

Sundays, June 29 to August 3, 2014, 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET

The BAFTA-winning comedy drama about romance and second chances returns as the reunited childhood sweethearts Celia (Anne Reid) and Alan (Derek Jacobi) plan a life together. As secrets from the past come tumbling out and family members adjust to changing relationships, can Alan and Celia find the long-awaited happiness they deserve?

MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! Endeavour, Season 2

Sundays, June 29 to July 20, 2014, 9:00-10:30 p.m.

LINK:	http://www.pbs.org/about/news/archive/2014/summer-season-2014/...
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