LESLEY Manville and Tim McMullan will be reprising their roles in the latest Anthony Horowitz adaptation.
The BBC today confirmed they will be completing the hugely popular murder mystery series after acquiring the rights to the final instalment.
Lesley Manville and Tim McMullan will be reprising their roles in the latest Anthony Horowitz adaptation[/caption]
The murder mystery follows book editor – turned sleuth Susan Ryeland[/caption]
The blend of present day and period mystery has won fans over[/caption]
Anthony Horowitz’s stories follow the central character, Susan Ryeland, and her fictitious detective advisor, Atticus Pünd.
The first series was named The Magpie Murders and aired on BBC One and Iplayer in 2023, that was followed by the second instalment – The Moonflower Murders which was released the following year.
In the who-done-it series, book publisher turned amateur sleuth Susan has spent her career editing fictitious crime novels for the ill tempered crime writer, Alan Conway.
In series one Susan finds herself ripped from the pages of fictional crimes and confronted with a very real murder when her star writer turns up dead.
The second series finds Susan making a new life for herself with her partner in sunny of Crete, but she’s soon pulled back into the world of murder and deception.
Now the BBC have revealed the deal has been done to add a third, and final, series to their schedules and, as fans of the books will know, it will be called Marble Hall Murders.
Lesley Manville will be returning to reprise her role as Susan and she’ll be joined once again by Tim McMullan, who plays her wise imagined sidekick and mentor Atticus Pünd.
The series originally aired on the ill-fated BritBox streaming service but it was later acquired by the BBC where it proved popular enough to extend to the second series.
Fans have loved Horowitz’s unique blend of reality and fiction that delves viewers into present day and historical cases at the same time.
At moments throughout the real life cases that Susan is investigating the fictitious detective from her murder novels appears and offers sage advice and wisdom.
In a tease of what’s to come the BBC have confirmed that this time round Susan will be following the story of “Pünd’s Last Case” which is set in 1955, in an exotic villa in Corfu.
The BBC will be hoping that series three will follow in the Moonflower Murder’s footsteps, as the previous case drew in a average of 4.9 million viewers.
Speaking about the show, creator, Anthony Horowitz said: “I’m so happy to bring the team back – stars, director, producers, and crew – for a third instalment of what has been a fantastically successful TV series. I have a feeling this could be the best yet.”
Previously the show’s star Lesley Manville, who fans may recognise from the Crown, has heaped praise on fellow TV sleuths who have come before her.
She said: “It’s made me admire Angela Lansbury and David Suchet who did all the Poirot’s. David was doing a denouement every episode. I delivered the denouement at the end of Moonflower and I was learning it for six weeks.”
Both Magpie and Moonflower Murders are available to stream on the BBC Iplayer.
Marble Hall Murders will follow on from the huge hit – Moonflower Murders[/caption]
