The Marlow Murder Club creator reveals what he prefers to Death in Paradise

Since its first season The Marlow Murder Club, has split its stories across two episodes, with season 2 being made up of three stories over six episodes. As it airs on UKTV, each episode ends up being around 45 minutes over an hour-long slot, meaning the stories last for around an hour and a half – half an hour longer than Death in Paradise episodes.

When it comes to the show's structure, Thorogood said while speaking at a Q&A for season 2: "That's something which we need to thank UKTV for, because when we first pitched it to them, they said they wanted a story per episode, like Death in Paradise, like nearly every show.

"But you only get 45 minutes to tell a story in, and one of the things I've noticed with Death in Paradise is the things that I really enjoyed in that is the chit chat around the case, the interpersonal relationships, the development of relationships."

Thorogood continued: "And so when UKTV said that it would have to be a standalone story per episode, we said, 'Look, is there any way you could change it so we could tell a story over two episodes?' Because I was so keen that we'd have the space for the fun and for the relationships.

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"And UKTV said, 'We don't have a model for doing that, so we're going to create a model for doing that so that we can have you'. So without them, we wouldn't have the chance to do these two-episode stories, and I think it really benefits from that. It makes it so much more joyous to write, because on Death in Paradise, for example, you're aware it's just plot, plot, plot.

"You put a motor on the plot. Whereas here, there is time. There’s a wonderful scene when they're looking for Sir Peter's will – they're not really looking for Sr Peter’s will, are they? It's just chit chat. It's just friends hanging out and having a nice time, as well as catching killers."

The Marlow Murder Club season 2 once again stars Samantha Bond, Jo Martin, Cara Horgan and Natalie Dew, while guest stars this time around include Samantha Womack, Andrew Knott, Nina Sosanya and Hugh Quarshie.

The Marlow Murder Club season 2 will air on U&Drama and U from Wednesday 19th March at 8pm, while season 1 is available on U now.

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