Moonflower Murders on BBC One review: more delightfully devilish crime solving

Moonflower Murders is BBC One’s latest offering successful the cosy transgression genre. A sequel to Magpie Murders (which is itself based connected the books by Anthony Horowitz), this fabulously multi-layered communicative takes each the conventions of the genre and twists them successful ways that makes each cliché consciousness caller again.

Leading the complaint is Lesley Manville arsenic the mildly acerbic Susan Ryeland. Susan mislaid each her possessions successful the devastating occurrence astatine the extremity of Magpie Murders and has present moved to Crete to unfastened a edifice with her longterm fellow Andreas (Alexandros Logothetis).

But of course, the past doesn’t enactment buried and soon capable a hopeless mates are knocking connected the beforehand doorway asking for assistance uncovering their daughter. She’s gone missing, and the lone hint arsenic to her whereabouts is the detective caller Atticus Pünd Takes The Case, by Susan’s aged lawsuit Alan Conway (a sour-faced Conleth Hill).

With Conway dead, it’s near to Susan to ace the case. Soon, a multi-stranded enigma is unfolding, some successful the present-day and successful the 1950s-flavoured satellite of Susan’s imagination, wherever Atticus Pund goes astir solving the lawsuit successful the caller – and pops up occasionally successful the existent satellite to connection her advice.

Manville is, of course, marvelous arsenic Susan. She is witty, self-contained and utterly believable successful her weariness arsenic somebody’s whose caller commencement isn’t arsenic caller (or arsenic exciting) arsenic she thought it was going to be.

Her narration with Pund (who exists wholly successful her head) is besides 1 of the series’ highlights. Do her agelong conversations astir detective enactment with him marque sense? Absolutely not, but damn if they aren’t amusive to watch.

She’s surrounded by an arsenic beardown formed of supporting characters, astir of whom look successful some timelines. There’s Daniel Mays, doing a characteristically fantabulous occupation arsenic a constabulary officer; Tim McMullan arsenic the gentle Pünd, and adjacent a cameo from Mark Gatiss arsenic an irate edifice guest.

There’s besides a cracking plot. As idiosyncratic who started his vocation penning for Midsomer Murders, determination is thing delightfully Midsomer astir Horowitz’s Moonflower Murders (which indeed, helium helped accommodate for screen).

Perhaps it’s to bash with the mildly humanities setting; possibly it’s the over-the-top mode each execution is discovered. Think: a scream, past disrupting a wedding with a outcry of “he’s dead!”

Or possibly it’s the enigma itself, which seems to delight successful keeping radical guessing for arsenic agelong arsenic possible. We person radical going missing and/ oregon dying; we person dozens of imaginable suspects and 2 antithetic stories to manage.

As the bid progresses, the past and contiguous (or astatine least, the past arsenic imagined by Susan) statesman to intertwine and reflector each different successful unusual ways – particularly fixed that galore of the actors look successful some timelines.

It’s custom-built to promote radical to conjecture who truly dunnit, portion besides distracting america with reddish herrings and a litany of ulterior motives. As acold arsenic tea-time telly goes, this ticks each the boxes and past some: wholesome, comic and supra each satisfying.

Streaming connected BBC One and iPlayer from November 16