Angeline Walsh is the writer and director of the new independent TV series The Coroner’s Assistant. The dark comedy follows the misadventures of medical student James Rigby as he unintentionally becomes entangled in the dark underworld of Victorian London’s cadaver business. The series received the Inaugural Indie Series Spotlight Award at the Astra Awards in December 2024, and began streaming on Tubi in January 2025.
The TV Ratings Guide: You wrote The Coroner’s Assistant seven years ago. What’s an overview of the development process for the show?
Then, of course, when you're a 22-year old woman living in a Midwest suburb and you go around telling people that you're making a period piece "on a budget," you're going to receive a lot of skepticism. I joined local filmmaking groups and started shopping around the idea of The Coroner's Assistant and there were middle-aged men private messaging me to tell me I was too inexperienced to make something of this caliber. I pushed on with the project anyway.
Long story short, we finally began principal photography in April 2018. It was the show's producer's (Giorgiana Lascu) 25th birthday, and the first time most of the cast had met each other. We finished production over a year later, in June 2019. We shot the first episode, then ran out of money and had to find funding to make the rest.
Angeline Walsh: I always find the eccentric side characters the most fun to write, maybe because the stakes are usually pretty low for them. Then again, as someone who writes character-driven stories and ensemble pieces, I believe every single character - whether they have two scenes or twenty - adds essential elements to the story. For Season 1, writing Mary was always a lot of fun. She's unpredictable by nature and very zany, so I can easily channel comedic relief through her and it doesn't necessarily have to "make sense" because she's absurd.
The character that was the most challenging to write, believe it or not, was James Rigby. I always feel very psychically connected to my characters, and he remains a bit elusive. He's reserved and still figuring out who he is, and his curiousity leads him more than a real sense of self. That can be difficult to pin down. Thankfully, Cedric transformed his character into someone so dynamic that it made my job easier as a writer while drafting Season 2.
The TV Ratings Guide: In these past few months you’ve received the inaugural Indie Series Spotlight Award at the Astra Awards, a digital download release on Apple TV and Prime Video, and a streaming release on Tubi. When did you realize you had something special on your hands?
Angeline Walsh: Truthfully, the moment I began writing the very first episode. There's always a moment, as writer, when the story transforms from an idea into a real-live thing. It's like seeing 2-D turn to 3-D. While that often takes some drafting and brainstorming, it occurred in very quickly and naturally for this project, literally while writing the very first scenes of the first draft. The characters immediately felt alive.
It's very fulfilling to see the show finally out in the world the way it is. There were years when I didn't think it would survive post-production, so I'm relieved!
The TV Ratings Guide: Tubi is owned by Fox Corporation, and is most known for hosting shows from their catalog and shows licensed from other major studios. What do you think it says about The Coroner’s Assistant that Tubi is eager to host it on their platform?
Angeline Walsh: Of course, I hope that means that someone at Tubi saw the potential in it that so many others overlooked. Trying to find a platform for The Coroner's Assistant was just as difficult as getting it from pre-production into production. There were places that thought it was interesting, but ultimately decided that there was no audience for it, or didn't know what to do with it. I'm grateful to the team at Tubi for taking a chance with my show.
The TV Ratings Guide: Do you have plans to make a second season, and if so, what can you tell us about it creatively?
Angeline Walsh: I started drafting scripts for Season 2 back in June 2020. I didn't intend on doing so - at that point, the first season wasn't even edited yet. But the pandemic had settled in and I was creatively restless, so my imagination went back to The Coroner's Assistant. Now, I have a 10-episode arc written that, of course, I intend to see to fruition - come hell or highwater.
Season 2 is darker, but also funnier. It goes places that Season 1 couldn't, due to our constraints but also due to my having been a less experienced artist. Season 1 was inspired by Victorian crime stories and melodrama. Season 2 carries that spirit and adds in dark academia, medical ethics, and cults. All very exciting!
The TV Ratings Guide: Would you like Season 2 to be a bigger budget production with a major studio involved, or would you rather create it the same way you did the first season?
Angeline Walsh: Honestly, I'm open to whatever route is going to offer my team the most creative autonomy while ensuring everyone is compensated fairly for their work. By nature of its scope - Season 2 has a larger cast and more locations - it will need a much bigger budget. But the good thing about me and my team is that we know how to do a lot with very little.
A major studio would probably be too over-involved in our process, but if an indie or mid-sized studio took a chance with us, I would enthustically explore that option. But just like with Season 1, I won't be waiting for anyone's permission - I'll be pursuing funding without compromising my artistic integrity.