A salute to Helen Mirren

I realize I'm far from alone in pointing out the greatness of Helen Mirren, but the biggest news I could find this morning is that she is coming back to PBS in "Prime Suspect: The Final Act" starting this Sunday.

You Brits out there may have already seen this one, which apparently has her Jane Tennison battling her biggest baddie yet: The bottle. It sounds kinda depressing, but then I've never tuned in to the great "Prime Suspect" series for a pick-me-up.

They actually showed a trailer for "The Queen" in front of "Borat" this weekend, so I'm cautiously optomistic that we will get Mr. Frears' flick in my little corner of the world sometime before she takes home the Oscar.

In the meantime, a look at my five favorite performances by my favorite actress:

5. "Gosford Park": Though Julian Fellowes rightly won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for this murder mystery, director Robert Altman also should have gotten more credit. It's one of his best among many great ensemble pieces, and Helen Mirren stands out in a cast full of British heavyweights as Mrs. Wilson, the head of the domestic staff at the stuffy Gosford Park estate.

4. "The Madness of King George" This is one is mostly a showcase for the comedic talents of the late, great Nigel Hawthorne, but Ms. Mirren still finds moments to shine in his shadow, because we all know that every crazy king needs a foil and an enabler.

3. "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" Before he became obsessed with Rembrandt, director Peter Greenaway made a series of flicks that were as expressive as paintings. Though it often verged on (and sometimes crossed over to) the realm of the truly gross, this one's still a feast for the senses, and Richard Bohringer and Helen Mirren clearly had a lot of fun making it.

2. "Some Mother's Son" How is that you can now get every possible season of "Saved by the Bell" on DVD, but you can't get this great little IRA flick anywhere? It's the best of Terry George and Jim Sheridan's flicks about "the troubles," and Helen Mirren and Fionnula Flanagan deliver solid performances as the mothers of two men caught up in the hunger strike led by Bobby Sands at the notorious Long Kesh prison. I know Daniel Day Lewis' "In the Name of the Father" and "My Left Foot" get more attention in this series of flicks, but if you can find a copy of "Some Mother's Son," I can't recommend it highly enough.

1. Prime Suspect Though I put "Homicide: Life on the Street" a notch above this one in the arena of cop shows, they're in close company, which from me is a very high complement. Policing has never been more political than in the saga of Detective Inspector Jane Tennison, easily Helen Mirren's best performance. She has played the gritty but very vulnerable cop through seven miniseries now, and they've never gotten old.

If I had to pick one favorite, it would have to be Prime Suspect 2, in which she's knocking boots with Colin Salmon as she's on the trail of the murderer of a young black girl in London. If you need an introduction into this great series, this is where I would recommend to start.

And Sunday, starting at 9 on PBS, she'll finally hang up her badge with Prime Suspect, The Final Act. At least, she might. Thankfully, she hasn't completely closed the door on the story of Jane Tennison. As she told the New York Times about another Prime Suspect, “I don’t think so, no, I don’t think so. You should never say no because it can come back and bite you. But I don’t think so, I don’t think so.”

Sounds like a door ajar to me, but even if it never opens again, I'll follow Helen Mirren just about anywere.