Kingdom (TV Series) - Series Synopses

Series Synopses

The series follows Peter Kingdom, (Stephen Fry) a small-town solicitor whose work revolves around cases brought by the eclectic and eccentric populace of Market Shipborough. The series retains a largely episodic format, where self-contained plots play out before the hour concludes, though a continuing storyline concerns the mysterious disappearance of Simon Kingdom, Peter's half-brother. The first episode reveals that he vanished at sea nine months previously and that everybody who knew him (including Peter) assumed that he committed suicide. Each week there are further indications that he did not die, culminating in episode six when it is revealed that he had a relationship with a woman, and that she had become pregnant with his child after he had supposedly died. In the first series we are also introduced to Peter's half-sister, Beatrice, who slowly becomes an integral character in the series.

Simon returns in the second series and is charged with faking his own death. He is released from custody after Lyle uses Simon's own money to bail him, and when Simon reveals he was actually attempting suicide. Beatrice learns that she is pregnant, so she leaves Market Shipborough until the baby is born in the last episode of the series. Lyle threatens to leave Kingdom & Kingdom when his mentor Peter begins to neglect him, but he changes his mind when Peter makes him a partner. In the final episode, a torrential storm hits Market Shipborough, flooding much of the town. While searching for his brother, who drove off the previous night, Peter encounters something unseen by the audience, which is revealed to be Simon's dead body in Series 3.

Series 3 largely steps away from Simon as we are now aware that he has died. Instead, this series focuses more on Peter's life, Beatrice and her new baby (Petra), Lyle, and Gloria, the receptionist. Toward the end of the series Peter begins to suffer from small blackouts. He has some minor tests done to find out the cause of the problem. It is revealed in the last episode that Peter has Type 2 diabetes. When Peter asks the doctor whether he should tell Beatrice and Petra to get checked out, the doctor revealed that diabetes isn't the only thing they discovered. In the final scenes Peter reveals that he has found out that he has no blood relation to Beatrice or Simon, and that therefore "their" father was not in fact his father.