Sundays, Aug. 13 - 27, 2023 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV / Stream the series now with KPBS Passport!
Based on the novel by the English writer Daphne Du Maurier, JAMAICA INN is a gripping mystery that tells the story of Mary Yellan, a woman who is forced to move into the ominous Jamaica Inn with her aunt and uncle. Mary must uncover the secrets of a local group of smugglers while also managing her growing attraction to the mysterious Jem Merlyn.
EPISODE GUIDE:
Episode 1 airs Sunday, Aug. 13 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV - Circumstances force the spirited Mary Yellan to travel to the ominous Jamaica Inn in Cornwall to live with her downtrodden Aunt Patience. The Inn has no guests, and Patience's violent husband Joss Merlyn is the ringleader of a dangerous group of smugglers. Mary finds her moral resolve immediately challenged, complicated further by her attraction to Joss, enigmatic brother Jem.
Episode 2 airs Sunday, Aug. 20 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV - Mary lies to the magistrate about the inn's involvement with smuggling but feels guilty and visits the vicar, Francis Davey, and his sister Hannah, who partially condone some of the smuggling but disapprove of Joss and ask Mary to spy on him so he can be arrested. Returning to Jamaica Inn she hears Patience argue with Joss about the real smugglers' leader, who gives him his orders. She follows him but gets lost and is again rescued by Jem, who is living rough. After Jem has returned her home a drunken Joss confesses to her that he has nightmares about the sailors he killed for contraband and that her father was also a smuggler, who was hanged. Mary again seeks solace with Jem and they go to an auction to sell the horse - stolen from the magistrate - which he gave her. They decide to spend a night together at a hotel but Jem disappears and Mary is taken home by Francis and Hannah, who are dispensing alms in the area. Francis tells Mary that he has informed the magistrate of Joss's latest plan.
Episode 3 airs Sunday, Aug. 27 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV - To Mary's horror the wreckers lure a ship onto the rocks and then murder and rob the crew as they swim ashore. However the revenue officers arrive and shoot and kill most of the smugglers, Joss and Mary escaping back to the inn. Joss and Patience decide to flee over the river to Devon but before they can do so both are also murdered. Jem, arrested at the auction for horse-stealing, is released from prison on condition he leads the magistrate to the man who gives the smugglers their orders but Mary, discovering the bodies of Patience and Joss, runs to the Daveys, who are sympathetic and give her tea. However all is not what is seems and Jem must race against time to save Mary and unmask the chief smuggler.
Written by Emma Frost, an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's 1936 gothic novel “Jamaica Inn”
