Moonflower Murders star Lesley Manville explains key change from book

Speaking ahead of Moonflower Murders airing on BBC One, Manville was asked about the moment in the new season in which her character Susan and Alan Conway's fictional creation Atticus Pünd, played by Timothy McMullan, reunite for the first time.

Manville said: "I wonder what she thought about that and I don't really know whether she thought, coming back and investigating a book again, that she would have these 'manifestations' of Pünd.

"Anthony Horowitz has handled all of that really well, and it was one of the big successes and surprises for all the millions of Anthony Horowitz fans out there who knew the book so well.

"If you read the books, they're in two separate halves. You get the 1950s halves – the story of the mystery in the Alan Conway book as it were – and then you get the Susan Ryeland world.

"Well, of course in a television series you couldn't do that. It wouldn't be very satisfying, so Anthony's merged the two worlds, and he does it so brilliantly. I think first time round, his diehard fans were so taken aback with the crossover of the two worlds being that Pünd and Susan have this really rather lovely relationship."

Manville continued: "He's a manifestation of her imagination, but there's also a very nice bond between them. She must've thought 'is he gonna be appearing to me again?', and of course he does.

"It’s her own battle with her own conscience. He’s the other half of her conscious and, consciousness and it's a delightful, witty, playful, spiky, quite adoring relationship.

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"I think that when we did Magpie Murders, we wanted to create our own style. We are in that genre, but we wanted to make our own thing. It started with the scripts and the fact that Anthony does this fantastic thing of 'let's marry these two worlds and see if we can cross them over'.

"There were wonderful shots when you've got my red car racing up the Suffolk countryside, and then the little old 1950s Morris Minor with Pünd and his sidekick, who Matthew Beard played, whizzing in the other direction and then the story takes you off with them.

"It was really beautifully done, and I think that Peter Cattaneo, who directed Magpie, set a very good tone, and I also think the music by Murray [Gold]'s been very great in helping all of that.

"And I remember the first time I saw the opening credits, I just thought, yes, this is absolutely the right tone. It's got that kind of retro feel, style to it."

Manville has also recently teased the plot of the new season, saying it is "quite unexpected, certainly for Susan".

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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