Susan Ryeland is stepping back into the world of the Atticus Pünd mystery novels in Moonflower Murders, the follow-up to Magpie Murders, both of which are based on Anthony Horowitz's best-selling novels.

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She has since retired from book editing and is now running a boutique hotel in Crete with her boyfriend Andreas, but when a couple from England arrive and ask her to help find their missing daughter, she takes them up on their offer.

After a man was murdered at their fancy Suffolk hotel Branlow Hall on Cecily's wedding day, she disappeared a short time later.

The clue to that mystery lies in one of Alan Conway's much-loved detective novels, in which the owner of another hotel, The Moonflower, is also murdered.

Susan, as the foremost expert in the minutiae of Atticus Pünd, is their only hope.

Read more:

Like Magpie Murders, filming for Moonflower Murders took place in Ireland, but a new location, one with a much hotter climate, was also used in the making of this series.

For more information, read on.

Moonflower Murders filming locations

Lesley Manville as Susan Ryeland and Tim McMullan as Atticus Pund in Moonflower Murders
Lesley Manville as Susan Ryeland and Tim McMullan as Atticus Pund in Moonflower Murders. BBC/Sony Pictures Television/Jonathan Hession

When we first meet Susan in Moonflower Murders, she's living in Crete, so that's exactly where Lesley Manville and the crew filmed for that strand of the story.

Speaking about how they went about making that possible, series producer Suzanne McAuley said: "First of all, we had to find a Greek production company to work with. I knew I wanted a boutiquey company in Crete, not dissimilar to my own company [Salt Films] in Ireland, that we could work together rather than a big corporation that's not based in Crete.

"That straight away was key to kind of getting the chemistry right for who we were going be working with over there. So then we briefed them, and we went out and we spent eight days scouting with quite possibly the nicest, talented, loveliest, hardworking people in Greece who knew we wanted and knew how to show it to us. So we got a feel for what we were looking for."

That led them to the Hotel Trifilli.

"We literally found this hotel that couldn't have been more perfect for the script," said McAuley. "He [Anthony Horowitz] was then able to see the geography of where we were going actually shoot a lot of our Greek scenes. We were able to doctor the script to actually match, and it just became more and more fun."

The different locations combined with the different period setting also made the team feel like they were "making three different shows in one", added McAuley.

"We shot the period out at the beginning and we said goodbye to the period world, and then we came into the modern world, and now we're going to Greece. It's a very enjoyable experience."

Conleth Hill plays Alan Conway., sat in a chair with his arms outstretched
Conleth Hill plays Alan Conway. Sony Pictures Television/Jonathan Hession

Howth Castle in Dublin was another of the locations used in Moonflower Murders.

It doubled as Branlow Hall, the modern-day hotel in Suffolk which is owned by the Trehernes and is where a man is murdered on the day of their daughter Cecily's wedding, before she goes missing.

Speaking about how they differentiated the two hotels, set decorator Justine Wright said: "We needed Moonflower and Branlow to look very different, and that had to be obvious for the viewer.

"For Branlow, we referenced Kit Kemp who designs hotels in the UK and New York. I was inspired by her work. She uses lots of interesting textiles, pops of colour and art inspiration from all over the world, combining traditional furniture with quirky colours as well being a practical space for hotel guests. So that's where the look came from and how we turned it into a luxury contemporary boutique hotel."

Speaking about the period setting, Wright added: "We knew that the period part of the filming schedule was at the beginning of the schedule, so we got straight into looking at 1930s film references, and looking at old Hollywood hotels, and references like that.

"There was a lot of looking at beautiful old Hollywood homes – Mae West and Errol Flynn – just gathering different elements from real Hollywood homes."

Moonflower Murders kicks off with a double-bill at 9:15pm and 10:20pm on Saturday 16th November on BBC One.

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Authors

Abby RobinsonDrama Editor

Abby Robinson is the Drama Editor for Radio Times, covering TV drama and comedy titles. She previously worked at Digital Spy as a TV writer, and as a content writer at Mumsnet. She possesses a postgraduate diploma and a degree in English Studies.

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