Stylish Television: Moonflower Murders

The eagerly awaited sequel to last year’s hit Magpie Murders is now showing on BBC1 on Saturday nights. Moonflower Murders again pits literary editor Susan Ryland into the world of fictional detective Atticus Pund in order to solve a murder and disappearance in real life. Susan, who had a very love/hate relationship with Pund’s creator, the author Adrian Conway, once again has to navigate the clues left in the book to try to find the missing hotelier Cecily, who, after reading the Pund book, Atticus Pünd Takes the Case, believes that there may have been a miscarriage of justice in a murder that took place in her family hotel, and that an innocent man may be in prison.

Anthony Horowitz is an absolute master storyteller. I love his Hawthorne crime novels, where he himself is part of the plot, but the Atticus Pund books are my very favourites of his. I’m so excited that a new book in this series is being released in March 2025. (Marble Hall Murders). Moonflower Murders follows the structure of Magpie Murders in that it has a full story within a story, but where the TV series excels is that it uses the same cast to portray characters in both the present day, and the Atticus Pund story so you can see the parallels between the two sets of characters.

Once again, the wonderful Leslie Manville just excels as Susan. I absolutely love Susan as a character. She is a stylish, elegant and intelligent middle aged woman, who is also independent and sexy. Her wardrobe is absolutely enviable once again, full of gorgeous silk dresses and fabulous looks which may well give her the best dressed woman on television award. Susan Ryland is a rare character on television, a middle aged woman who is the protagonist, rather than the victim, or a side character. There really aren’t enough Susan Ryland’s on television.

Tim McMullan is once again wonderful as Atticus, who is two parts Poirot, one part Maigret, and is a thoughtful and sympathetic character. I also absolutely love the cleverness of Pippa Bennett Warner as Madelaine, who is perfect foil for Pund and could be a detective in her own right, if not for the fact that it is 1950’s England and she is a young black woman.

Mayflower Murders are what Saturday night is made for, fabulous clever television with a wonderful story and a pretty incredible cast. Unmissable!

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