| Porthole 16 Nov 21

QUEEN Mary, the retired Cunard Line transatlantic ship which has been docked in Los Angeles’ Long Beach for some years as a floating hotel, ceased operating last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic – but since then she hasn’t been sitting completely idle.

Hollywood TV producers seem to have latched onto the vessel’s potential for authentic seagoing location shots, with Queen Mary to appear as the setting for a couple of upcoming shows including comedy series “Reno 911” in an episode where bumbling police officers run afoul of a shipboard QAnon convention.

The Long Beach Post reports the ship will also be seen in a new US ABC-TV program called “Career Opportunities in Murder & Mayhem,” described as “a sort of Agatha Christie/Love Boat mashup in which rich and powerful passengers on an ocean liner…are each hiding something, and one may be a murderer”.

Starring Homeland’s Mandy Patinkin as the indefatigable detective hero, the report adds that the thriller is set on a ship that actually works – which is perhaps “a stretch role for the Queen Mary”.