Saturday 22 April 2023

More Murder Mysteries

Over the Easter break, we watched two murder mysteries on TV. The first was "Magpie Murders", and the second "Why didn't they ask Evans?"
MM, based on a story by Anthony Horowitz, starred Lesley Manville and Tim McMullan [he played the assistant in Foyle's War- another AH creation - alongside Michael Kitchen and Honeysuckle Weeks]
The plot involves the death of an author, Alan Conway [Conleth Hill]. Manville plays Susan Ryeland, his editor. She refuses to accept it is suicide. Conway had just finished his latest whodunit - but the manuscript sent to Susan has the final chapter missing.
Concentrate here... McMullan plays Atticus Pünd, Conway's absurdly named detective. The storyline is in two parts - the actual Ryland's [contemporary] search for the truth, and fictional Pünd's [1950s] solution to another death. Because Conway based his characters on the locals in his little Suffolk village, many of the actors play two roles, then and now [the village copper and vicar, Pünd's sidekick/Conways PA, etc] I found that a little bit disconcerting. It was like Midsomer interspersed with Miss Marple. 
It was cleverly contrived - and Horowitz pays homage to many of the classic fictional detectives [and the fact that in the end Conan Doyle did not like writing the Holmes stories, and Conway hated Pünd] The Suffolk locations were lovely. Pünd 'appears' to Ryeland to help her solve the mysteries. Finally all is solved, ends tied up as neatly as a bow on a birthday present.
But I can only give it 4 out of 5 - 
  • firstly, we were both really irritated that in the 1950s section they had the "dumpy" milk bottle on the table. This was not introduced until 1980 - in the 50s bottles were taller with a slender neck. 
  • two characters were talking mysteriously about "the secret which they could not divulge" - but towards the end, it became clear that the person who started the conversation did not even know that secret existed!
  • the answer lies in Conway's use of word play, and the final novel gives the last clue to his conundrum. I think Horowitz has forgotten that aficionados of Morse and Christie [like me] are often crossword fanatics too. Had Conway been a real author, the guardian review would have pointed things out after the 4th novel if not before.
****
[nb, you usually get a murder of crows. The collective noun for magpies can be mischief, tribe, gulp, or conventicle]
The second piece we enjoyed was a reworking of Agatha Christie's "Why didn't they ask Evans?" written, directed, and starring the gifted Hugh Laurie. This was very well done and studded with stars. Having just watched Magpie Murders, it was odd seeing the opening scene included Conleth Hill - this time playing an avuncular doctor, not a crabby author. Lucy Poynton[Frankie] and Will Poulter[Bobby] were a superb pairing as the two amateur sleuths, Emma Thompson and Jim Broadbent played Frankie's eccentric parents [we could have done with them in a few more scenes though, they are so good together] This Christie does not include Poirot or Marple, giving a little more freedom for interpretation - and Laurie deftly pictures the between-the-wars-1930s-England with clever dialogue. He uses wit and wisdom, and there are subtle nods to the authors of that period [like Wodehouse and Waugh] 
Billy finds a dying man at the bottom of the cliff, and he and his old friend Frankie then seek to find out more about him, and why he died.
Laurie himself plays a doctor, and there were also appearances from Miles Jupp, Paul Whitehouse, Alistair Petrie, Morwenna Banks and other well known actors.
Even if you know the original story, this is well worth watching. 
HL has done really well with this one, I think even Mrs Christie would approve - definitely
*****
[Agatha did not want her books made into films, in the first movie, there were many errors - not least one of the corpses getting up and walking off set mid-scene!]
Have you seen any good whodunits/police dramas lately?



14 comments:

  1. I've read both of these so I'd like to watch them. Which medium did you watch them on please Ang?x

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    1. MM was on BBC iPlayer, and WDTAE on ITVx

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  2. Her name's Lesley (not Felicity) Manville!
    We enjoyed both Magpie Murders and Why Didn't They Ask Evans, but MM just won for us! They got all the casting right in MM, especially making Michael Maloney a bit of a creepy type, who turned out to be a 'baddie'! Daniel Mays is one of my favourite actors too!
    We too noticed the milk bottle shape, but decided to suspend reality and just enjoy the storyline. I was crocheting whilst watching MM, and hit rewind a couple of times when time flicked backward or forward again! It does require a bit of concentration at times!
    Perhaps because we've seen so many incarnations of WDTAE, we've tired of it a bit? We enjoyed it, just not quite as much as MM! X




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    1. ooops! thanks for the correction [no idea why I typed Felicity!] I've amended the post. Yes the casting was very good. I had to give up my attempts at stitching and concentrate harder too.
      The first WDTAE I remember [1980] had Joan Hickson in it [but NOT as Miss Marple!] then there was another in 2009 [less satisfactory IMHO] where they'd altered the script to include Miss M [played then by Geraldine McEwan] Still, both MM & WDTAE made for good Bank Holiday viewing.

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  3. Thanks to your description I now understand why I couldn't get into the Magpie Murders book! I've only watched part 1 of the series and have already forgotten the story. Hope to watch all 6 sometime.

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    1. I never read the book - I imagine it might be hard to follow, what with all the time shifts and real/fictional characters.

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  4. We enjoyed Why didn't they...etc and are watching MM at the moment. Mr FD is enjoying it; I'm a bit meh about it. I don't know why, but it hasn't really grabbed me. I think I prefer my police/crime dramas a bit more "gritty". We've gone back to the beginning of "Shetland" and are watching all of them again. Love FD xx

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    1. Oh I love Shetland (Esp Dougie H) Brilliant plots and beautiful scenery

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  5. I live in the states and watched Why didn't they as Evans and enjoyed it. We subscribe to both Broth of and Acorn tv through Amazon Prime and enjoy many shows.

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    1. I'm always surprised how many UK shows are popular in the States.

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  6. I've made a note or MM and the new version of WDTAE.
    I've always wondered how Midsomer Murders could go on for so long as surely peple would avoid moing into Midsome, given the death rate!

    Sorry for the typos.

    Hugs!

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    1. I always think that about Midsomer. There is a village near here called Cawston - the same as the one of the villages on Inspector Barnaby's patch. Fortunately they do not have murders there

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  7. I read MM some time ago and we've been watching it on iplayer. The screenplay is different to how I remember the book (although the story is roughly similar) It's a brilliant example of how using visual storing can enhance the written story.

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