Moonflower Murders: Casting News
Lesley Manville Returns in MASTERPIECE Sequel to Magpie Murders
MASTERPIECE PBS and Eleventh Hour Films have announced that filming has completed on Moonflower Murders, a new television drama based on the best-selling novel by Anthony Horowitz, CBE. The six-part series is written by Horowitz, directed by Rebecca Gatward (Bad Sisters), series produced by Suzanne McAuley (Magpie Murders) and executive produced by Jill Green, Eleventh Hour Films. Moonflower Murders is a sequel to the acclaimed Magpie Murders that aired on MASTERPIECE in 2022, for which Horowitz received an Edgar Award.
Returning in the lead roles they originated in Magpie Murders are Academy Award®-nominee Lesley Manville (The Crown, Phantom Thread, Mum) as book editor turned sleuth Susan Ryeland and Timothy McMullan (Patrick Melrose, The Crown) as famous literary detective Atticus Pünd.
Moonflower Murders is the second novel in Horowitz’s Susan Ryeland series, and once again uses the story within a story format. Published in 2020, it was lauded as “a richly plotted, head- spinning novel” by the New York Times and picks up where Magpie Murders left off.
Susan has left publishing and is living in Crete with her long-time boyfriend, Andreas. But her idyll is disturbed by the shadow of a murder committed at a British country hotel eight years ago. Alan Conway visited the hotel and wrote a novel based on what happened there. Cecily Treherne, the young woman who helps run the hotel, read the book and believed the wrong man had been arrested. Now she has disappeared.
Can Susan uncover the secret hidden in the book and find Cecily before it is too late?
In addition to Manville and McMullan, returning members of the Magpie Murders cast include Alexandros Logothetis as Andreas, Daniel Mays as Locke/Chubb, Claire Rushbrook as Kate, Conleth Hill as Alan Conway, Matthew Beard as James, and Sanjeev Kohli as Sajid Khan. New cast members include Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Nolly) as Parris/Berlin, Rosalie Craig (Anatomy of A Scandal, The Queen’s Gambit) as Lisa/Melissa, Pippa Bennett-Warner (A Bit of Light, Gangs of London) as Madeline and Adrian Rawlins (Slow Horses, Living) as Lawrence/Lance.
Lesley Manville says: “I had an incredible time returning to the role of the smart and feisty Susan Ryeland. Anthony Horowitz has written another ingenious adaptation and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”
Horowitz says, “I’ve been watching the filming of Moonflower Murders with joy. We’re back with the same cast, including Lesley Manville, Tim McMullan and Danny Mays – but this time we’ve got a whole new box of tricks to present as literary editor Susan Ryeland untangles another book within a book and another series of unfathomable murders. I can’t wait to show it to our audience.”
MASTERPIECE Executive Producer Susanne Simpson says, ”Our MASTERPIECE audience loved the cleverness and suspense of Magpie Murders. In Moonflower Murders, Anthony Horowitz delivers the same brilliant storytelling, and we’re thrilled that the incredible Lesley Manville is back for this new series.” MASTERPIECE is presented on PBS by GBH Boston.
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Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville) and Atticus Pünd (Tim McMullan)
Locke/Chubb (Daniel Mays), Madeline (Pippa Bennett-Warner), and Atticus Pünd (Tim McMullan)
Parris/Berlin (Mark Gatiss)Parris/Berlin (Mark Gatiss)
Lisa/Melissa (Rosalie Craig)
