Signora Volpe (or Ms. Fox in English) is a 2022 Amateur Sleuth drama series produced/distributed by Acorn TV and AMC in a joint production for three episodes. It stars Emilia Fox, Jamie Bamber, Tara Fitzgerald and Issy Knopfler.
Sylvia Fox is veteran MI6 agent who decided to take an initial leave of absence in order to take a career break after her superiors decide to pull the plug on maintaining a pro-British intelligence network in Hezrah since the Hezrahnis are due to enter into diplomatic talks with London. She later travels to Panicale in Umbria in Italy in order to attend a wedding for her niece, Alice. She's due to marry Tomasso.
Following Tomasso going missing from the wedding, Sylvia uses her skills and experience as a MI6 agent to investigate what happened to him. From there, she decides to settle permanently in the commune. Sylvia sometimes works with Captain Giovanni Riva of the Carabinieri in investigating cases throughout Panicale that seem to be a dead end at first.
This show provides examples of:
- Amateur Sleuth: Sylvia turns herself into an amateur detective by using her experience as a black ops agent with MI6 to solve cases in Panicale.
- Dark Secret: In "Truffles and Treachery", Sylvia finds out that the death of a university student, Mario, is (seemingly) linked to a video where he's involved with another man, who happens to be the son of a Russian oligarch. It turns out her MI6 Italian contact, Ercole, was being turned to a Russian double agent and there's video shot by Mario on a smartphone that exposes him taking money from a GRU agent posing as a diplomat.
- Qurac: "Anxious Aunt" mentions the presence of Hezrah. There's no specific location as to where it's located.
- Police Are Useless: The Carabinieri are good at their job. It just happens that when they try to do their job, they sometimes encounter ambigious evidence or obstructive suspects when they make an arrest that it's sometimes impossible to crack a case. However, Samir and Riva become reasonable to talk to once they're shown with the proper evidence neeeded to close the case.
- Scenery Porn: The camera angle does a good job showing off Panicale and the other towns in Umbria.
- Shout-Out: When Sylvia tests her suppressed pistol in an Italian meadow, it mirrors the famous scene in The Day of the Jackal which stars Emilia Fox's father, Edward Fox as a professional assassin.
- Shown Their Work: The Carabinieri is in charge of policing the communes like Panicale. For cities/big towns, the Polizia di Stato is in charge.
- Title Drop: The locals of Panicale sometimes address Sylvia as Signora Volpe in Italian. Doubles as a Meaningful Name.
- Would Hurt a Child: In "Secrets and Sacrifices", Sylvia stumbles on a case where a young girl went missing near the end of World War II with the partisans fighting pro-fascists Italian troops. The locals assumed that someone killed her since she was never found. This assumption was wrong in the end.
