PBS is ready to bring classic stories to life in a new way this season on Masterpiece, with several announcements made today during a TCA press conference for Tom Jones, premiering April 30th.
(Courtesy of MASTERPIECE)
What’s Happening:
- Masterpiece has ordered a follow-up to Magpie Murders titled Moonflower Murders, with Lesley Manville (The Crown) returning as Susan Ryeland.
- PBS also released the first image from Nolly (above), which stars Helena Bonham Carter (The Crown, Harry Potter) as soap opera legend Noele “Nolly” Gordon, one of the most famous faces on British TV in the 1960s and 70s, whose unceremonious firing from her hit show at the height of her career was front-page news.
- More information on each show can be found below.
Masterpiece – Moonflower Murders:
- 2023—PBS’ MASTERPIECE announced today at the Television Critics Association press tour that it will co-produce and broadcast Moonflower Murders, a new six-part drama based on the best-selling novel written by Anthony Horowitz, CBE.
- A sequel to the acclaimed 2022 MASTERPIECE adaptation of Horowitz’s Magpie Murders, Moonflower Murders is executive produced by Jill Green and Eleventh Hour Films and adapted by Horowitz. BBC is the UK partner on the series.
- Anthony Horowitz said: “I can’t wait to get started on the scripts of Moonflower Murders. We had a fantastic response to Magpie and, speaking personally, it was a joy bringing Susan Ryeland and Atticus Pünd to life on the screen. There are lots of surprises in the second book, including something I’ve never done before in a murder mystery. It’s going to be great fun.”
- Returning in the lead roles they originated in Magpie Murders are Academy Award-nominee Lesley Manville (The Crown, Phantom Thread) as editor turned sleuth Susan Ryeland and Timothy McMullan (Patrick Melrose, The Crown) as famous literary detective Atticus Pünd.
- MASTERPIECE executive producer Susanne Simpson said, “We’re delighted to partner with Eleventh Hour Films on another ingenious mystery from Anthony Horowitz. Magpie Murders was a hit with our audience, who loved its clever storytelling of a mystery-within-a-mystery. It’s thrilling to know that Lesley and Tim will be returning to MASTERPIECE in Moonflower Murders.”
- MASTERPIECE is presented on PBS by GBH Boston.
- More than 5.5 million viewers watched Magpie Murders and the series has been streamed over 3.1 million times. The press were fans, too, with the Los Angeles Times writing, “It has everything you want in a British mystery,” and TV Guide dubbing it “a superior brainteaser.”
- Executive Producer Jill Green said: “We had the best reviews ever for an Eleventh Hour Films drama, which was hugely satisfying given the creative attention given over to every aspect of the series, by every member of cast and crew. So, it is wonderful to be all returning again with the equally complicated and riveting Moonflower Murders.”
- Moonflower Murders is the second novel in Horowitz’s Susan Ryeland series. Published in 2020, it was lauded as “a fiendishly plotted crime novel, with a fabulous twist” by the Guardian and picks up where Magpie Murders left off: Susan has left the cut-throat world of publishing and is living in Crete with her longtime boyfriend, Andreas. She ends up returning to London when she is asked to investigate a mystery relating to Alan Conway, the author of the best- selling Atticus Pünd mysteries, whose death changed her life in Magpie Murders.
- Moonflower Murders will be available to stream in the US on PBS.org, the PBS App and the PBS MASTERPIECE Prime Video Channel. In the UK, the series will be available to stream on iPlayer.
- Moonflower Murders is an Eleventh Hour Films production in association with Salt Films for MASTERPIECE and BBC One, and distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Television and PBS Distribution in North America.
Masterpiece – Nolly:
- Helena Bonham Carter (The Crown, Harry Potter) stars as soap opera legend Noele “Nolly” Gordon, one of the most famous faces on British TV in the 1960s and 70s, whose unceremonious firing from her hit show at the height of her career was front-page news.
- A bold exploration of how the establishment turns on women who refuse to play by the rules, Nolly is an outrageously fun and wildly entertaining ride through Gordon’s most tumultuous years, and a sharp, affectionate and heart-breaking portrait of a forgotten icon.
- Written by Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies, Nolly is the first production from Nicola Shindler’s new production company Quay Street Productions, which is part of ITV Studios.