It takes a global village to make a “cozy crime” show

Growing up in a “very silly” and very mobile family, Emily Corcoran knew she liked comedy and liked Greece.
She also liked the idea of mismatched half-sisters. Now she’s combined that in “The Sunshine Murders” (shown here), debuting 8-10 p.m. ET Thursday (Sept. 4).
That’s on UpTV, a family-friendly cable channel that juggles reruns, movies and a few shows from other countries. “Heartland” and “Hudson & Rex” are Canadian; “Sunshine” is … well, from Greece, New Zealand, England, Cyprus and beyond.
It follows the recent trend of “cozy crime” shows, ones — from “Elsbeth” to “Grantchester” to “High Potential” — in which the crimes may be foul, but many of the people are warm and pleasant.
Corcoran (left) was trying a fresh variation. “I thought, ‘Well, there’s not really every been this kind of female farmer who comes and inadvertently starts helping solve crime,” she said by phone.
Shirley (Corcoran, also the writer and producer), a New Zealand farmer, has discovered that Helen, a Greek police detective, may be her half-sister. Helen is kind of busy solving a murder; Shirley is a persistent sort.
The idea required multi-national filming and financing. Interiors were shot in England, exteriors in Cyprus (passing for Greece), with some shots in Greece and in Corcoran’s native New Zealand.
“The interiors of the police station are shot in the UK and the exterior is shot in Cyrpus,” Corcoran. She would open the door in one country, (wearing sunny island clothes), then film the inside scenes in another.
“It was the middle of winter in the UK, so all of us had thermals on underneath. We worried about things like: ‘Could you see our breath?'”
That sounds complicated, but it sort of reflects Corcoran’s life.
Her mother, she said, “was very young when she had me. I don’t think she felt restricted (from going) to have an adventure.”
When Corcoran was 5, her mom married a similarly adventurous chap. Before and after that, “we went from New Zealand to Australia and then the UK and back to New Zealand. And at one point we lived in Rome ….
“I went to a lot of different schools and one of the ways I made friends was to be funny,” which was sort of her natural mode. “I had a very silly family.”
Going to drama school in England, Corcoran was surrounded by kindred souls. “A lot of us were foreign; we are still in touch.”
One, Dora Chrysikou, was a natural link. As a teen, Corcoran was a travel rep in Greece; now she had a Greek friend. “We would go and stay with her family on (an island) and also in Athens …. I get on very well with Greeks.”
Corcoran was soon making her own indie movies. She co-wrote and had a small role in “Moussaka & Chips” (2005), an action comedy on a Greek island. She wrote, produced and starred in “Sisterhood” (2008), about — this may sound familiar — a plain-spoken New Zealand woman named Shirley, who says she’s the half-sister of an upscale Englishwoman.
“It was made for like 70,00 pounds (about $98,000 at the time),” she said. “We crowdfunded before there was crowdfunding …. It did quite well, for what it was. We sold it to the US. and we sold it in Australia.”
Much later, she merged those early ideas: Again, a plain-spoken Kiwi named Shirley claims she’s a half-sister. But this time it’s in Greece … and this time, the other woman is a cop — played by Corcoran’s friend, Chrysikou (right).
“Dora’s career had just exploded …. She was in a huge TV series in Greece and she’s become very famous. So it was very bizarre, walking down the street with her in Athens and people … treating her like a superstar.”
Such links are helpful. Three other former classmates have supporting or guest roles. Stephanie Beacham (“Dynasty”), a friend, guests as Lady Gloria. Another friend provided the site for the New Zealand scenes.
For other roles, Corcoran cast people with Greek roots. Peter Andre (a music star in England and Australia) plays a cop; Marina Sirtis (the empath Deanna Troi in the “Star Trek” franchise) plays Helen’s mom. Both speak Greek, Corcoran said. “Marina can actually write Greek and the Greek alphabet.”
Now they’re linked together. The show opens with a two-part story, then continues with four more two-parters, spread over eight Thursdays. There may be more seasons, in Corcoran’s global, mobile, sometime silly life.