The Marlow Murder Club is a cosy crime story. Photo / UKTV, ITV Studios
The Marlow Murder Club (two episodes, two hours each). Streaming on TVNZ+.
Directed by Steve Barron.
Reviewed by Jen Shieff.
With its good range of suspects, not too big a cast, just the right number of red herrings and a suitably shifting focus on whodunnit and why, The Marlow Murder Club is an easy watch, a bit of fun and its ending will surprise and satisfy.
Its lack of violence, sex or profanity will appeal to many.
Cosy crime, those mysteries emphasising solving a puzzle over anything horrific, seem endlessly popular.
Recent cosy crime fiction includes Richard Thorogood’s The Marlow Murder Club and Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club, both published in 2021 by different publishers, and both becoming instant best-sellers.
A film based on Osman’s book is in production for Netflix, but in the meantime, The Marlow Murder Club, a limited series of two two-hour episodes co-written by Richard Thorogood and director Steve Barron, is streaming on TVNZ+.
Judith Potts (Samantha Bond), an archaeologist who’s retired to the peaceful English town of Marlow on the River Thames where she creates crosswords, is startled by a gunshot coming from her neighbour’s garden.
Convinced there’s been a murder, she enlists the aid of Becks (Cara Horgan), the local vicar’s wife, and Suzie (Jo Martin), a single mum and a dog walker.
Soon enough, Judith is proven right, making the police look foolish for fobbing her off.
Memorable characters are essential for a good story. In The Marlow Murder Club, Judith is a smart sleuth, with Miss Marple and Jessica Fletcher in her lineage, focused but not too intense. There’s something chequered in her past, a husband she’s unwilling to discuss.
Becks, a bit of a flirt, is bored with vicarage life and its annoying congregation, including Mrs Eddingham (a comically disapproving Rita Tushingham), while Suzie is more of an underdog champion than dog walker.
DS Tanika Malik (Natalie Dew) heads the investigation, with an appealing mixture of ambition and self-doubt.
When Malik decides to trust Judith and her two off-siders over her own uniformed malingerers, a well-woven and often humorous story ensues in which each of the trio of amateur detectives reveals personal connections to the case.
Their shared belief the police can’t handle the job inspires them to come up with inventive evidence-gathering methods as they race against the clock, narrowly avoiding getting into hot water and of course uncovering the truth.
The setting is picturesque. It’s easy to see why Judith might want to swim in the Thames every day, unnerving to witness the beauty and peace being disturbed so dramatically by gunshots and the discovery of dead bodies - yes, bodies.
In a class that includes Murder She Wrote, Midsomer Murders and The Brokenwood Mysteries, The Marlow Murder Club has good enough bones for further seasons.
As with a lot of cosy crime on screen, it might seem a bit stilted at times, but that niggle aside, it’s an enjoyable series with fun-to-watch fairly ordinary do-gooders bringing down nefarious schemers, and it’s reassuring to find happy endings are possible and crime still doesn’t pay.
★★★★
How a resilient Kiwi village hopes to bounce back from a big drop in visitors.