# Year of the Rabbit (2019)

> A booze-soaked anthropomorphic rabbit detective investigates crimes in Victorian London while his failing heart keeps interrupting the case.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/76442

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 6
- Episode runtime: 25 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: comedy, crime
- Network: Channel 4
- Cast: Matt Berry, Freddie Fox, Susan Wokoma, Alun Armstrong, Paul Kaye, Ann Mitchell, Keeley Hawes, David Dawson
- TMDB rating: 7.4/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8530456/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: deadpan, irreverent, absurd, dry, whimsical

## What critics say

Audiences rated the single season positively, praising its absurdist, surreal take on the Victorian detective genre and its deadpan lead performance.

## Synopsis

Year of the Rabbit (2019) is a British comedy crime series created for Channel 4, a single-season absurdist spoof of the Victorian detective story. Matt Berry plays Detective Inspector Rabbit, a hardened, booze-soaked anthropomorphic rabbit policing a dark, smoky London alongside Freddie Fox as the ambitious Detective Sergeant Wilbur Strauss and Susan Wokoma as Mabel Wisbech. Rabbit's heart keeps stopping at inopportune moments, and each short episode turns a murder case into a deadpan mix of hardboiled noir clichés and surreal period detail. Alun Armstrong and Paul Kaye fill out the force, and Keeley Hawes and David Dawson appear among the wider cast. The show runs six episodes of roughly twenty-five minutes each, so it reads as a compact, self-contained burst rather than a long saga. Its register is dry, irreverent, and absurd, with the flat delivery of the detective genre played against bizarre events. Fans of Blackadder, Jonathan Creek and Sherlock Holmes adaptations will find a similar blend of period charm and comic eccentricity.

## Shows like Year of the Rabbit

- [Code 404 (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/85725)
- [Murder Rooms: Mysteries of the Real Sherlock Holmes (2001)](https://ember.film/tv/8975)
- [Toast of London (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/54756)
- [Houdini & Doyle (2016)](https://ember.film/tv/58157)
- [Shakespeare & Hathaway - Private Investigators (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/67034)
- [Ripper Street (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/42498)
- [The Frankenstein Chronicles (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/57005)
- [Murder Most Horrid (1991)](https://ember.film/tv/844)
- [The Thin Blue Line (1995)](https://ember.film/tv/2182)
- [No Offence (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/55662)

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