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?