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 think in the book Daniel is mid 40s and his mother is 80. In the book they had been living together 8 years before the events of the book . It seems that the producers have knocked a decade off everyone's age to fit the chosen cast. Amanda Redman is 68 so looks about 70. There is no way she is playing Audrey as an 80 year old.

They are not related. Of the two young men, the one who did the paint stunt is Bernards son, Alex. The other lad Edgy is the grandson of the gamekeeper/land worker.

Is Edgy his Dad? I thought he was some sort of grounds keeper. The young gay man is his son.

I haven't read the book, so I'm just going on the show.

I think the two are going to be very different!

That's often really annoying, isn't it?

Matthew Lewis seems to have one style - befuddled. He seems perfectly pleasant but certainly not the greatest of actors.

I didn't think this was as bad as several PPs have said . So far it looks like an easy watch , along the lines of Grantchester and Midsomer Murders.

But I don't think the lead actor is suited to the role .

I definitely object when they change who the killer is! I don't mind some updating. I recall a TV film of a Rosamunde Pilcher book .in the book a character sustained a major injury during the NI troubles. On screen it was the Falklands War . As the TV film was produced and funded in Ireland I had no problem with that change.

I hate it when they do it with Agatha Christie. Unforgivable.

He's not. I can't imagine him in charge of a parish.

Are we both thinking of the end of Murder at the Vicarage by any chance!!

Yes!

@SixtiesHermit and @Mildorado wonder why I thought he was the dad of Adam James

I don't know, but in all honesty, the exposition could have been clearer.

Audrey is in her late 60s in the book, so Amanda Redman at 68 is spot on age wise although she definitely was already living with Daniel and also kinder than the TV Audrey. I agree on Daniel - I’m sure he was about 40, just over in the book but I’d say the 36 yr old actor could pass as 40 and I’ve met priests very similar. In the books Daniel isn’t assertive but he is intelligent and perfectly capable.

The Sharman sisters relationship was talked about in the first episode more than one but especially when they were talking about Dora’s cancer recurrence.

Honestly I don’t think its as bad as some pp are finding. I was expecting a Father Brown/Grantchester type production and that is pretty much what we have. I do think the 80s and 90s in a middle England parish is a tough period to recreate on TV because its recent enough to be in a lot of memories and doesn’t have the locale to flag the era with big fashion and style statements.

I don’t get why so many didn’t like it

I disagree about the difficulty of getting the era right. I watched It's a Sin a few years ago. Every episode took me right back to thev1980s with the hairstyles, clothes, telephones, wallpaper. I remember thinking over and over. Yes, I remember that. In a country setting, it would be harder but not impossible.

I love the books but found it boring and the characters are not how I’d imagined them.

I think the third book set in the monastery would be tricky. I found a lot if the terminology that Richard Coles referred to quite difficult.

I also missed the geeky bits about the church that are in the books, and are why I like them.

@SixtiesHermityes I agree that one wa a bit tricky. Loads of talk about arcane bits of theology/ Greek translation that went over my head and had little to do with the story.

Phew,I had wondered if I was the only one who felt that way about the arcane rituals and terns referred to!

After reading the recap

so the gamekeeper (Francis) grandson Nathan is gay and having an affair /relationship with the man in sack - Bernard’s son Alex

Yes