MARBLE HALL MURDERS S3 - (magpie/moonflower) sat 930 bbc 1 - TV PACE NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

Yah. No 3 of Atticus Pund and Susan Roland trio of books by Anthony Horowitz

6 parts and on a Saturday night - fab for me as I have no life at all lol

If you haven’t seen the previous 2 - stop reading and go and watch via iPlayer

1 Magpie Murders
2 Moonflower Murders
3 Marble Hall Murders

S1

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/4772295-magpie-murders-sat-915-bbc-1-tv-pace-no-spoilers?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

S2

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5204406-moonflower-murders-s2-was-magpie-murders-s1-starts-16th-nov-sat-915pm-tv-pace-no-spoilers?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

Now in s3

Susan Ryeland returns to England and works on a continuation manuscript titled "Pünd's Last Case" by a troubled young author.

The 1955-set story takes place in Corfu and hides the identity of a real killer, drawing Susan into a new murder case where she becomes a suspect.

Lesley Manville returns as Susan Ryeland and Tim McMullan returns as literary detective Atticus Pünd.

New cast members include Jamie Blackley, Patricia Hodge, and Zubin Varla.

Recap e4

https://reelmockery.com/marble-hall-murders-series-1-episode-4-recap/

No, he’s the elder biological brother Roland. Susan met the adopted ‘man in the attic’ with the eye patch when she visited Marble Hall.

I enjoy the dual casting, trying to work out what’s significant and what isn’t.

This time I’m distracted by thinking ‘hasn’t Adam from Spooks aged!’ Rupert PJ was still quite baby-faced in his 30s, his skin has caught up with him.

We were shown the children’s potion at the beginning as a ‘truth’ but there’s been present-day suggestion from Roland that it was just a game - so the things they called deadly nightshade, arsenic etc were not really those things. (I think they were too old for a pure make-believe version). That still leaves open the question of whether Grandmother drank the potion - or whether someone else got there first.

Love the clothes and decor.

Also loved seeing Samira doing her real job on Front Row and coping with Eliot’s car crash(!) of an interview.

Love the clothes and decor.

I thought Susan looked fabulous in that dress!

Oh thanks @lottiegarbanzo. They all look so similar to me

so she’s banging her hubby brother

eye patch is adopted and also plays the police man in book as they like to interact the actors - must be had learning lines and acting 2 diff people

ok so the brother def doesn’t like susan and if he killed granny then he kills two birds with one stone - with getting rid of Elliot if likes his wife and ignoring the who killed granny issue

Yes, Roland is the obvious suspect. For that reason and a sense of ‘follow the money’ but not in the most obvious way, I suspect someone else.

Something strange about Elaine I think.

So the policeman is presumably a good character in the book.

Does that mean he's bad irl??!!

Who is going to carry on with the writing?

Who is going to carry on with the writing?

There was another writer mentioned when Susan was talking to the publisher (?) in his office, and he was talking about the Tiny People and a continuation novel for that, and he suggested someone, and Susan said, good choice.

That was Michael Morpurgo, real life v famous children’s author. War Horse, Private Peaceful etc.

Ah, thanks.

It would have been funny if they’d said it was Anthony Horowitz

Ha ha.

Am I imagining it or did Elliot say that he killed his grandma to his wife right at the beginning of the first episode?

Yes he said that.

Ive revisited ep 1-4. Things I noticed:

Clearly Elmer Weysmith is based on Jonathan, guardian of the estate, his Roland-alike son scampering around at his command. It wasn’t him.

Jonathon’s brother / BIL, Eliot’s father, is very shifty and in need of money in Corfu (where Jonathon also appears as himself, the elder son). He looks horrified when it’s pointed out the penalty for murder would be death by firing squad. We know very little about E’s real-life father, except that he and wife moved to America and he’s returned not very rich.

The Doctor was one of Miriam’s lovers. She gave him his cars / money for them.

The doctor covered up Miriam’s murder because, why? Life insurance or, more likely, other things would come out. There’s something significant about the taxidermy; the chemicals used, the doctor’s treatment of Miriam’s husband. The doctor and his wife detest child-Eliot because he was ‘sneaky’. He must have know something about the doctor, what, bumping off the husband?

I’ve been trying to work out who Sophie is in the present day. Is she the tour-guide, partner of adopted-bother Fred? Could she be the doctor’s daughter? She knows way too much. Sophie at the will-reading looked horrified and said ‘she can’t have been (poisoned)’, in a way that suggested she knew something else.

Gillian was my other thought but that doesn’t seem right. She acts almost like a nurse appointed to look after Eliot, rather than his wife.

Luan (sp?) the driver / gardener is important.

No spoilers here but lots of speculation.

The taxidermy is the antiquities. Weysmith is a version of Miriam’s second husband (as well as having Jonathon’s estate management responsibilities- J was already in this role when Miriam was alive, so Weysmith is an amalgam). A civil servant whose hobby was taxidermy and who died three years before Miriam, when Eliot was nine. Eliot claims (on Front Row) not to remember him.

Possibly the taxidermy included illegal specimens and the civil service position is relevant. Gamekeeper turned poacher smuggling endangered species. Maybe museum specimens.

The doctor was in on this. May have provided illicit chemicals. The shoe polish is relevant. His payments were to keep him quiet, or a share of profits. It’s relevant that when Brenda (Maria / Sophie?) is leading the tour, she says health & safety is a reason not to touch the taxidermy. That’s odd. It’s poisonous somehow, as described with the husband’s skin condition- or more?

Eliot knows more than his siblings. He knows something about the doctor and the taxidermy. He may have pieced it together over time. Maybe he inadvertently assisted by stealing something that was supposed to be innocuous but wasn’t. So when he said at the beginning that he helped kill her, he didn’t mean with his siblings.

Miriam was left-handed and colourblind. Did she pick up the wrong bottle?

It’s possible Jonathon did the murder e.g. Miriam had threatened to sell the IP. There was a deal (rather than a will) that had to be stopped. Or Eliot’s father did it, as he had big debts. Or she was being kept alive with something illicit but overdosed.

But the doctor had a huge vested interest in keeping her mode of death covered up.

Also when Eliot says he can see the person the room, he’s looking deep into the room, not at his uncle on the stage.

Who wasn’t at the party, so could have driven the car?

Gillian.
Matthew the publisher?

Eliot knew where Susan lived. So did Gillian.

So they managed to hot-wire the MG? Should be pretty obvious if the ignition wiring had been tampered with. Great speculation work @lottiegarbanzo ! Afraid I'd pretty much given up in trying to tie the two story-lines together.

I read the book when it first came out so must n't contribute to any speculation about suspects. However I don't remember why that policewoman was so arsey towards Susan. Unless it was just envy of her gorgeous dressing gown.

If the keys were in the coat she wore they could have taken them from the pocket.

The way it happened it looks as if the driver was ready & waiting.

So it was pre planned & with the intention of setting Susan up?

Ooh, I think I've guessed what happened.

I’ve had a thought. Bother, I need to go back and check some things.

Or who left early

Deffo

That is great deduction /detective work

👏👏👏
none of this occurred to me.
Have to say good acting.