David Farnor | On 09, May 2020

“There’s what’s legal and there’s what’s right.” That’s the sound of Perry Mason coming back to our screens this June, and a new trailer gives us a look at the all-new incarnation of the famed defence attorney.

Based on characters from Erle Stanley Gardner’s novels, HBO’s reimagining of Perry Mason stars Matthew Rhys as the iconic lawyer, haunted by his wartime experiences in France and suffering the effects of a broken marriage. We join him in 1932 Los Angeles, before he becomes the household name made famous by Raymond Burr in the CBS TV series from the 1960s.

L.A. is booming while the rest of the country recovers from the Great Depression — but a kidnapping gone very wrong leads to Mason exposing a fractured city as he uncovers the truth of the crime.

Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) will play Sister Alice, the leader of the Radiant Assembly of God, preaching three sermons a day to a hungry congregation and a radio audience that spans the country. Entertainer, politician, God’s conduit to the City of Angels, Sister Alice wields great power when she speaks, and plans to use it in ways only she can know.

John Lithgow plays Elias Birchard “E.B.” Jonathan, a personal attorney at the nadir of his career and a semi-regular employer of private investigator, Perry Mason. A mentor and a father figure to Mason, E.B. is handed the kind of case he hasn’t seen in years: a high-profile parallel investigation to the LAPD involving a case of child kidnapping.

Chris Chalk plays Paul Drake, a beat cop with a knack for detective work, Paul is an outlier, with the added challenge of having to navigate an extremely race-conscious city and a downright oppressive police department. He must weigh the responsibilities of being a husband and father against his desire to seek justice in a controversial and politically loaded case.

Shea Whigham co-stars as Pete Strickland. Pete is hired by Mason as an extra set of eyes on his various investigations (some less than savory). Strickland has a brotherly rapport with Mason and a cheerfully rakish demeanor that wins friends and influences damsels.

And Juliet Rylance will play Della Street, E.B. Jonathan’s legal secretary. Street has the brains, know-how, creativity and drive to be a CEO at any modern-day corporation. But this is 1931…

HBO veteran Tim Van Patten — whose directing credits include the Game of Thrones pilot along with episodes of The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, Sex and the City, The Wire, The Pacific, Rome and Deadwood — will direct and executive-produce the series. Ron Fitzgerald and Rolin Jones will act as showrunners.

The series premieres on Sky Atlantic in the UK this June. Here’s the trailer:

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