List of The Musketeers episodes
The Musketeers is a BBC television historical action drama that is based on the characters of Alexandre Dumas's novel The Three Musketeers.
The series stars Tom Burke as Athos, Santiago Cabrera as Aramis, Howard Charles as Porthos and Luke Pasqualino as d'Artagnan. Commissioned on 3 May 2012,[1] The Musketeers began airing in January 2014. A second series was commissioned in February 2014, but it was confirmed that Peter Capaldi would not return as Cardinal Richelieu, due to his commitments filming Doctor Who.[2] It was also stated that Pasqualino, Burke, and Cabrera would return for the second series.[2] On 2 February 2015, it was announced that the show had been renewed for a third series.[3] As of 27 March 2015,[update] 20 episodes of The Musketeers have aired, concluding the second series.
Series overview
Series | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
First aired | Last aired | |||
1 | 10 | 19 January 2014 | 30 March 2014 | |
2 | 10 | 2 January 2015 | 27 March 2015 |
Episodes
Series 1 (2014)
Series No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) [4] | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Friends and Enemies" | Toby Haynes | Adrian Hodges | 19 January 2014 | 9.28 | |
Young swordsman d'Artagnan and his father Alexandre are on their way to Paris to petition the king when they are attacked at an inn; Alexandre is killed by a man claiming to be "Athos of the Musketeers". Seeking revenge, d'Artagnan heads to Paris to confront and kill Athos. Meanwhile, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis are ordered by Treville to track down a missing contingent of Musketeers. Upon their return, Athos is confronted by d'Artagnan, before being arrested for murder. The king orders Athos' execution. To prove Athos' innocence Porthos and Aramis enlist the aid of d'Artagnan in recovering letters stolen from the King's messengers by the Red Guard claiming to be Athos. d'Artagnan accompanies them to discover the truth. | |||||||
2 | 2 | "Sleight of Hand" | Toby Haynes | Adrian Hodges | 26 January 2014 | 7.58 | |
The Musketeers engineer d'Artagnan's imprisonment in a cell alongside Vadim (Jason Flemyng), a notorious criminal, who to escape uses the visiting Queen. Vadim has a plan to bring about a people's revolution by killing the King and Queen. But Vadim is the master of sleight of hand and his plans are more criminal than political. | |||||||
3 | 3 | "Commodities" | Saul Metzstein | Susie Conklin | 2 February 2014 | 6.77 | |
The three musketeers are sent to Le Havre to arrest the flamboyant merchant trader/explorer, Emile Bonnaire (James Callis), who is to appear before the King for breaking a trade treaty between France and Spain. The journey to Paris is fraught with danger from Bonnaire's friends and enemies. Porthos is badly wounded in an ambush. Taking refuge in Athos' derelict family chateau brings back memories to Athos of his brother and of Milady de Winter. Porthos is angry when he discovers the commodity, slaves, that Bonnaire trades in. | |||||||
4 | 4 | "The Good Soldier" | Richard Clark | Adrian Hodges | 9 February 2014 | 6.14 | |
Aramis’s old friend Marsac (JJ Feild), a former musketeer, returns to Paris to kill the Duke of Savoy (Vincent Regan) whom he holds responsible for the deaths of 20 musketeers. The Musketeers capture Marsac and he seeks their help to discover the truth that implicates Treville in the massacre. They are also charged with protecting the ruthless Duke who is in Paris to sign a treaty with the King. | |||||||
5 | 5 | "The Homecoming" | Saul Metzstein | James Dormer | 23 February 2014 | 5.91 | |
Porthos wakes from a drunken stupor beside the body of a dead man. Captured by the Red Guard he is judged and sentenced to death for murder. Before the sentence is carried out he is rescued by thieves and taken to the Court of Miracles, a slum of thieves, beggars, and whores run by Charon (Ashley Walters), where the orphan Porthos grew up. Athos, Aramis, and d'Artagnan, unable to enter the Court of Miracles to follow Porthos, investigate from the outside to discover the truth. | |||||||
6 | 6 | "The Exiles" | Andy Hay | Ben Harris | 2 March 2014 | 5.62 | |
King Louis's treacherous mother, the exiled Marie de' Medici (Tara Fitzgerald), returns to seek protection from an assassin. Aramis and d'Artagnan, sent to collect a young woman, Agnes (Amy Nuttall), and her baby son are stunned when armed men abduct the baby and the musketeers seek to find the baby and uncover who they were sent to escort. | |||||||
7 | 7 | "A Rebellious Woman" | Richard Clark | James Payne | 9 March 2014 | 5.69 | |
A young girl is killed trying to deliver a petition to the Queen as the royal coach passed. The petition was from wealthy noblewoman Comtesse Ninon De Larroque (Annabelle Wallis) pleading for women's education and rights. The Cardinal receives an offer from the Catholic Church if he can convict the Comtesse of witchcraft. Arrested and taken to a convent for trial, Milady's testimony guarantees conviction and when the Cardinal is mysteriously poisoned the musketeers must find the culprit before the Comtesse is burnt at the stake. | |||||||
8 | 8 | "The Challenge" | Farren Blackburn | Susie Conklin | 16 March 2014 | 5.45 | |
The prisoner Labarge (Vinnie Jones) the Musketeers were escorting kills the captain of the Cardinal's Red Guards and the animosity between the Musketeers and the Red Guard leads to the King ordering a challenge between the best fighter from the Musketeers and the Red Guards. Captain Treville arranges a contest between Musketeers and chooses himself when he learns the Cardinal has enlisted Labarge into the Red Guards. | |||||||
9 | 9 | "Knight Takes Queen" | Andy Hay | Peter McKenna | 23 March 2014 | 5.25 | |
The King is disillusioned with the Queen's inability to have children and covets Charlotte Mellendorf (Charlotte Hope) as a possible new Queen. Under Musketeer protection the Queen, at a forest pool known for its powers of fertility, escapes an assassination attempt and with Aramis and Athos they flee to a convent pursued by the attackers who lay siege to the convent. With the nuns' help they defend the convent while d'Artagnan and Porthos return to Paris for help and discover who is paying the attackers. | |||||||
10 | 10 | "Musketeers Don't Die Easily" | Farren Blackburn | Adrian Hodges | 30 March 2014 | 5.27 | |
A drunken Athos takes his estranged wife Milady hostage in the town square; the fact that d'Artagnan knows her then causes a rift to develop between the Musketeers. This gives the Cardinal and Milady the belief that they can wreak their revenge against the king's soldiers. Milady returns to the slums to employ Sarazin (Sean Pertwee) to kill the Musketeers, putting Constance's life in danger. The full extent of the Cardinal's treachery against the Queen is revealed but her response is a surprise. |
Series 2 (2015)
Series No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) [4] | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
11 | 1 | "Keep Your Friends Close" | John Strickland | Adrian Hodges | 2 January 2015 | 4.93 | |
The Musketeers rescue the Comte de Rochefort from hanging. The deceased Cardinal's man in Madrid who had seemingly escaped from a Spanish prison has news that General De Foix, France's chief military strategist, has been captured. The king orders his rescue by de Rochefort and the Musketeers, but the duplicitous de Rochefort has his own plans to rescue De Foix involving the death of the Musketeers. The Dauphin Louis is born. | |||||||
12 | 2 | "An Ordinary Man" | John Strickland | Adrian Hodges | 9 January 2015 | 4.78 | |
King Louis wants to experience the life of an ordinary Frenchman and insists the Musketeers take him onto the streets in disguise. In a tavern, the King and d'Artagnan are separated from the other Musketeers and they fall into the hands of slave traders intent on selling them as galley slaves on a Spanish ship. Their paths cross with Milady de Winter who works for the slavers. Rochefort sees a chance to manipulate the Queen in the interests of Spain. | |||||||
13 | 3 | "The Good Traitor" | Marc Jobst | Lucy Catherine and Adrian Hodges | 16 January 2015 | TBD | |
An ex-general, a traitor, of the Spanish army arrives in Paris to plead for help in rescuing his daughter, held by Spanish agents in Paris; in exchange for a coded formula and cypher machine of a deadly new gunpowder the Spanish also want. The Dauphin is seriously ill and Constance takes the baby from the palace in an attempt to save his life. The Queen informs the King of the prince's abduction, finding him under a table in a compromising position with Milady de Winter. | |||||||
14 | 4 | "Emilie" | Andy Hay | Ryan Craig and Adrian Hodges | 30 January 2015 | TBD | |
A prophet, Emilie of Duras, is raising an army from the peasantry of France to march on Spain. Aramis rides to her camp to resolve the situation and while there Queen Anne and Constance arrive and the reasons for Emilie's visions become apparent. Rochefort and the Spanish Ambassador's double dealings come to a head with the death of Rochefort's whore; and then of the ambassador at Milady's hand with Treville paying the price for failing to protect the ambassador. | |||||||
15 | 5 | "The Return" | Marc Jobst | Simon J Ashford | 13 February 2015 | TBD | |
Athos, who has renounced his title, is kidnapped by his tenants and discovers his neighbour, Baron Renard, is intent on taking his lands. Athos's indifference to his tenants, because his wife Milady had killed his brother at the family home, shocks the other musketeers; but a meeting with his dead brother's betrothed changes his mind and he agrees to give the tenants the land if they are prepared to fight for it; requiring the musketeers to train them. | |||||||
16 | 6 | "Through a Glass Darkly" | Andy Hay | Marnie Dickens & Adrian Hodges | 20 February 2015 | TBD | |
An astrologer invites the Royal party to observe a solar eclipse at his castle observatory and takes them all prisoner with their bodyguards d'Artagnan, Aramis, and Porthos; to take part in his deadly game of chance of life and death. Milady takes the toss of a coin to decide her fate and is allowed to live. The King has to make the same choice if his Queen and son are to survive while the musketeers seek a way to escape from a madman bent on revenge. | |||||||
17 | 7 | "A Marriage of Inconvenience" | Edward Bennett | Steve Bailie | 27 February 2015 | TBD | |
A marriage between Princess Louise, a cousin of King Louis, and a Swedish crown prince that would bring an alliance between France and Sweden to the detriment of Spain; allows Rochefort to plot his own advancement at court having the King's council members killed by unlikely assassins with a disastrous consequence for Constance's husband. Rochefort learns of the Queen's relationship with Aramis and Milady discovers whom Rochefort's loyalties lie with. | |||||||
18 | 8 | "The Prodigal Father" | Edward Bennett | Susie Conklin & Adrian Hodges | 6 March 2015 | 4.05 | |
Treville tells Porthos who his father is and Porthos travels to meet his father, half sister and her husband he never knew. Porthos's loyalties to his father and the musketeers are tested when the musketeers discover his sister and murderous brother-in-law are pimping young girls as entertainment to the highest bidder. Constance has to make a decision about her future with d'Artagnan after doctor Lemay proposes to her. Rochefort manipulates King Louis's paranoia to take control of the court and his lust for the Queen comes to a confrontation with Anne and ends with his accusation of her treason. | |||||||
19 | 9 | "The Accused" | Nicholas Renton | Simon J Ashford | 20 March 2015[a] | TBD | |
Rochefort produces a treasonable letter the Queen wrote to her brother, the King of Spain. The musketeers, with unexpected help from Milady, spirit the Queen away to safety at a convent leaving Athos and Milady to search for evidence that Rochefort is a spy for the Spanish. The King is poisoned and doctor Lemay is arrested and Constance is implicated. Constance is given a graphic ultimatum of her fate unless she testifies to the Queen's infidelity with Aramis. Porthos sets out to capture Vargas, the Spanish spymaster, while the Queen insists on returning to Paris and falls into Rochefort's trap that includes the arrest of Aramis for treason. | |||||||
20 | 10 | "Trial and Punishment" | Nicholas Renton | Simon Allen | 27 March 2015[b] | 4.18 | |
Athos and d'Artagnan rescue Constance from the executioner's sword and with Treville they help Porthos to capture the Spanish spymaster Vargas. Rochefort proves his case against the Queen and Aramis with testimony from Lady Marguerite. Milady rescues Aramis; Rochefort clears the court except for the red guard and the King signs the Queen's death warrant leading to a final confrontation between Rochefort and the musketeers. |
Notes
Series 3
On 2 February 2015, it was announced that the show had been renewed for a third series.[3]
References
- ^ "The Musketeers". Broadcast Greenlight. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
- ^ a b Lazarus, Susanna (9 February 2014). "The Musketeers to return for a second series". Radio Times. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
- ^ a b "Series 3". DigitalSpy. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
- ^ a b "Weekly Viewing Summary (see relevant week)". BARB.
- ^ a b "Season 2 - Episode Guide - The Musketeers". BBC America. Retrieved 22 March 2015.