MURDER BEFORE EVENSONG - Tue 7 Oct ch 5 9pm - TV PACE NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

A first-look trailer has been revealed for Murder Before Evensong (https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/murder-before-evensong-matthew-lewis-first-look-newsupdate/), the new six-part murder mystery series based on the novel of the same name by Reverend Richard Coles.

He was in IACGMOOH - I liked him

Matthew Lewis's character Canon Daniel Clement.

Daniel is the Rector of English village Champton, who finds himself entangled in a murder case when a dead body turns up in the church.

Other cast members for the series are also seen in the trailer, including Amanda Redman as Daniel's mother Audrey, Amit Shah as DS Neil Vanloo, Adam James as Bernard De Floures and Tamzin Outhwaite as Stella Harper.

Other stars featuring in the show's cast include Meghan Treadway, Alexander Delamain, Marion Bailey, Amanda Hadingue, Francis Magee and Nina Toussaint-White.

As the police move in and the bodies start piling up, Daniel is the only one who can try and keep his fractured community together... and catch a killer."

Beyond Murder Before Evensong, Coles has written four more books in the Canon Clement series (https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Reverend-Richard-Coles/author/B0DR7F4RHW?tag=radtim0b-21&ascsubtag=radiotimes-2323684) – 2023's A Death in the Parish, 2024's Murder at the Monastery and Murder Under the Mistletoe, and 2025's A Death on Location.

Lewis is, of course, best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter film series,

Murder Before Evensong
Canon Daniel Clement is Rector of Champton, where he lives alongside his widowed mother – opinionated, fearless, ever-so-slightly annoying Audrey – and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda.

When Daniel announces a plan to install a lavatory in the church, the parish is suddenly (and unexpectedly) divided: as lines are drawn, long-buried secrets come dangerously close to destroying the apparent calm of the village.

I can’t wait. I enjoyed the books.

I'll watch it in the hope it's better than the book.

I usually love RR on telly but some of the sentences were so long they took up most of a page. I'm not stupid but had to look up the meanings of a few words throughout.

Ooh thank you

Looks good.

Will be watching!

I’ve never read his books but I love a murder detective thriller killer

Will definitely NOT be watching. I read the book and thought it very, very poor.

Glad I'm not the only one. I listened to it on audio book and it was slightly better.

I enjoyed the second one more but the third one 🙄

Ooh it feels a bit like an 80s Grantchester perhaps. I’ll watch the first and see if it’s suitable for DS to watch with me. We watched The Residence together on Netflix and he now is hooked on murder mysteries!

sometimes they change the series from the book so it might be ok?
I haven’t read the book

I’ve read the book. It’s ok and the second is better. After that it goes downhill fast. Matthew Lewis as Daniel is reasonable casting but Amit Shah as Neil Vanloo bears no resemblance in any way to the book character so that’s disappointing. And Amanda Redman is defo not up to Audrey ( who is the best character by a country mile)

Wonder why they don’t make the actors similar to the book

I agree , they're nearly always different . I don't think they'd make a tv drama unless they thought it had potential.

Oh, I've just noticed it's on Channel 5 though. 😅. I live in hope!

If a book is so good and good enough to make only a drama

why change the plot

I would be pissed off if I was the author

@Blondeshavemorefun Don't know if you watched either of the Scrublands series? The first one had lots of changes from the book but in the adaptation of the second book I'd say 95% was different. Awful adaptations.

I watched both. Did threads on them. But didn’t read the books so to me I didn’t know any different the ending

I thought I remembered you doing a thread - thanks!

I think I'll either stick to watching on TV or reading the book, not both.

Cast all look too young.

Too young to be a priest ?

No, but I thought the character was middle aged in the book. And then Amanda R would be far too young to be his mum.

I thought Daniel the priest should be older. The police guy was of Moravian Brethren stock but cant recall his parents nationality. I think I read in Radio Times that the story has been altered from the book so murder happens sooner. It may do ok.

Neil’s family is Dutch and he looks like a rugby player. Daniel is late 40s , Audrey in her late sixties or early 70s I think. She was a nurse in the war and the books are late 80s. And she’s very classy. Which is not Amanda Redman. Sorry but no. Matthew Lewis is 36 so a bit young but not stupidly so.

Making the murder happen earlier can only improve it. I have read the first 2 books and you need to get about half way through before anyone is murdered

I’ve only just got around to watching episode one and I agree about Amanda Redman and Amit Shah. Amanda is late 60s but just isn’t “Audrey” in my head. Audrey is more impoverished slightly posh with aspirations who always gets her way “quietly”. Redman is much more overt and feisty, which doesn’t quite match.

Neil is one of the few characters well described physically in the books - the blonde, Yorkshire-Dutch rugby play is not there, maybe the character will work.

Daniel being too young was less of an issue - he may only be 36 but he has that “look” that young clergy often adopt of being prematurely middle aged.

The first book wasn’t great although the premise was a decent idea and murders solved by clergy is a well established device. Most authors have some shaky books in the first half dozen but I think the series still has potential.

Casting issues aside, the tv version could easily turn out to be better than the book and lead to a longer running series of the Father Brown/Grantchester type. It has the advantage of being able to present visual cues to the time period etc more economically in than in the book and for those who haven’t read the books, Redman and Shah will be fine in their roles.