THE FIRST BBC drama to be filmed entirely on location in Botswana, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is a charming story chronicling the adventures of Mma Ramotswe. When Precious Ramotswe was young, she spent her days with Obed, her father, in the wilds of Botswana learning the secrets of nature, and with that the joys of a natural inquisitiveness and intuition. When Obed dies, he leaves Precious the first ‘step-up’ into her new career - one hundred and eighty cows. With this investment she decides to become her country’s first ever female detective.

With a bad marriage to jazz musician Note Makoti behind her, the sassily independent Precious Ramotswe embarks on a radical and exciting new chapter in her life.

Precious is not deterred by town gossips and despite few assets, a tiny white van, two desks, two chairs, two decrepit typewriters, a teapot and three teacups, she sets up her detective agency with a powerful sense of vocation.

The most troubling of her cases however, involves an evil form of witchcraft and the riddle surrounding a kidnapping...

“Filming The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency in Botswana was an amazing adventure” said Minghella. “The people were marvellous and the landscape, especially in the northern areas of the country, is extraordinary.”“Particularly fascinating to me was working and filming in an African country where old and new are currently co-existing, where traditional values have not yet been eroded by the demands and efficiencies and neuroses of the modern. It was a privilege to be working on a film which celebrates what we can learn from Africa and not what we think we can teach it.”