Why did Priya leave The Chelsea Detective? Fans are still posting "get her back" under series 2
Series 1 of The Chelsea Detective ran four feature-length episodes on Acorn TV in February 2022, and the double act at the centre of it was DI Max Arnold (Adrian Scarborough) and DS Priya Shamsie (Sonita Henry). By the time series 2 arrived in August 2023, Priya was gone and Arnold had a new partner. The show barely paused over it.
Where the script put her
Series 2 disposes of Priya in a line: she's taken her family to Brighton. That's it. In her place comes DS Layla Walsh, played by Irish actress Vanessa Emme, newly transferred and slotted straight into the passenger seat. Emme has stayed on ever since, including series 3, which opened with the Christmas special "Everyone Loves Chloe" in December 2024.
Why Sonita Henry actually left
Nothing dramatic — she had other jobs. Telly Visions reported at the time that Henry stepped away because she'd been cast elsewhere, and the CV backs it up. The stretch either side of her Chelsea exit is busy:
- Surfside Girls (2022) — recurring as Dr Pfeiffer for Apple TV+.
- Midsomer Murders (2022) — Clodagh Kaine in "The Blacktrees Prophecy".
- Father Brown (2023) — Charlotte "Charlie" Maidland.
- Silo (2023) — Regina Jackson in the episode "The Relic".
- Black Cake (2023) — recurring as Mabel Martin in the Hulu adaptation.
- Wild Cherry (2025) — five episodes as Detective Khan.
Henry has never given a public statement on the exit, and neither Acorn TV nor creator Peter Fincham has offered one. Two shooting schedules that don't fit together is the entire story.
The reviews that won't let it go
The IMDb page for series 2 became a small shrine to the old pairing. Reviewers complained that the chemistry had gone, that the new plots leaned harder on red herrings, and one wrote the line that keeps resurfacing under episode listings: get her back. Series 2 also drew stronger guest names — Claire Skinner, Neil Morrissey, Simon Williams — which did nothing to settle the argument.
Could she come back?
Nothing rules it out. Priya isn't dead, isn't disgraced, and isn't even out of the country — she's an hour from Victoria. Emme's Layla is established across two series now, so a Priya return would mean a three-hander rather than a swap. Neither Henry nor the production has hinted at it as of August 2026.
For the record: the show's original hook was that Arnold lives on a battered Cheyne Walk houseboat while investigating the wealthiest postcodes in London. Priya was the one who kept pointing that out.