Moonflower Murders official trailer
Saturday night saw BBC viewers tuning in to the first episode of Moonflower Murders, a sequel to Magpie Murders.
The audience was delighted as Lesley Manville reprised her role as detective Susan Ryeland, albeit with a significant change in her life circumstances. No longer an editor, Susan is now managing a quaint hotel in Crete, though it's evident she's not entirely content.
The new series begins at a countryside wedding in England, which takes a dramatic turn when a housekeeper interrupts the speeches, her hands covered in blood.
A murder has taken place, and fast-forwarding eight years, we see Susan's life is far from tranquil. She receives a visit from the parents of the bride featured at the start of the episode, who reveal their daughter has disappeared.
Their daughter had read a murder mystery loosely based on the crime committed on her wedding day, and she believes the wrong person was arrested after noticing something in the book, reports Lancs Live.
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Since Susan edited the novel, the parents are convinced she can identify the same clue in the book as Cecily did and determine her whereabouts and who abducted her.
This leads to the show alternating between scenes from the book playing out in Susan's mind and real-life events as she attempts to solve the mystery. As the drama unfolded, viewers couldn't resist flocking to Twitter to heap praise on actress Lesley Manville for her performance.
One fan commented: "Anything Lesley Manville is in does be absolutely brilliant the woman is a genius."
Another person wrote: "I really like Lesley Manville, she's always different in the things I've seen her in. Loved her in Mum."
A third tweeted: "Lesley Manville always looks so good."
A fourth person said:"Loved #MagpieMurders tbf, any script Lesley Manville @TeamLManville chooses is good and always enhanced by her."
"The moment I saw starring Leslie Manville and Daniel Mays l knew I would enjoy it. Two incredible character actors. A crime series done the good old fashioned way and all the better for it," wrote another.
In response to another tweet, someone else said: "Yeah I've seen #LesleyManville in about 8 different things the last year or so and she's been fabulously different in them all #MoonflowerMurders."
Anthony Horowitz, the author of the novel from which the series is adapted, shared his delight, saying: "I've been watching the filming of Moonflower Murders with joy.
"We're back with the same cast, including Lesley Manville, Tim McMullan and Danny Mays but this time we've got a whole new box of tricks to present as literary editor Susan Ryeland untangles another book within a book and another series of unfathomable murders. I can't wait to show it to our audience."
The synopsis for the upcoming episode reveals: "Susan re-reads Atticus Pund Takes the Case, and recalls what inspired Alan Conway to write it - the moment he discovered that Frank Parris had been murdered in the very same Suffolk hotel from which Cecily Treherne has gone missing".
Moonflower Murders is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
