Masterpiece on PBS kicked off its 54th fall season last night, with the premiere of Moonflower Murders on Masterpiece Mystery! The series, a sequel to the beloved 2022 series Magpie Murders, reunites viewers with retired editor Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville), who is now souring on the sweet life running an inn on Crete with her boyfriend Andreas (Alexandros Logothetis). So when a wealthy British couple ask for her help finding their missing daughter, Susan gets once more tugged into the strange world where deceased mystery writer Alan Conway’s (Conleith Hill) books intersect with real life.
Moonflower Murders is an inventive riff on the cozy murder mystery genre, developed by the modern master himself, Anthony Horowitz. The prolific writer has just finished the third and final installment in the Atticus Püdd series, which follow both Susan Ryeland’s investigations and the fictional cases of Conway’s creation, Püdd (Timothy McMullan). So, given that Horowitz has finally finished the series with Marblehead Murders, does that mean PBS is already scrambling to put the third act of Susan’s story in production?
The Future of Masterpiece
Decider asked just this question when we caught up with Masterpiece executive producer Susanne Simpson this summer after the Moonflower Murders panel at TCA. After a quick chat about the the future of the Magpie Murders franchise, we launched straight into questions about all things Masterpiece, from the future of to what’s going on with Miss Scarlet and Grantchester, to PBS’s new Forsyte Saga…
DECIDER: Moonflower Murders is a great show and a sequel to Magpie Murders. Where do you stand on Marblehall Murders, the third book in the trilogy that Anthony Horowitz just finished? Are you already thinking about sending emails to greenlight that?
SUSANNE SIMPSON: I haven’t. I just started reading it. So I am in the preview stage of reading it. And of course we have to put financing together to be able to make it. So we’re just in the early stages for that one.
Did it ever occur to you just keep the show Magpie Murders or to change the title of Moonflower Murders? Because people might be confused and not realize it’s Magpie Murders Season 2. Are you concerned fans might not find it?
Not find Moonflower Murders because they won’t know that it’s a Magpie? I think, actually, we’re hoping that the people that were in the room today will,know to say that it’s a sequel of Magpie Murders. You know, it’s tricky when it’s not the same name. People don’t know if it’s Season 2. But we’re going to do our best, in every place that people are watching it, to be able to say that it’s a sequel to Magpie.
What’s Next for Your Favorite Masterpiece Shows
I have a million questions about a million shows. Not just Moonflower. I am a big fan of the early aughts Forsyte Saga, so I am very curious about your new production. I do have a question about casting because my friend and I were like, “Why is Soames so hot?” Because Damian Lewis is a very handsome man, but he played Soames as kind of a creepy little lizard. The early photos show us a dashing, handsome Soames. Can you give me any insight into the casting process?
Yes. Where our Forsyte begins is, it’s actually a prequel to the book. One of the decisions that we made and talked about a lot was the Soames character, and what made Soames “Soames.” So our writer imagined Soames to be a young, attractive man. Yes, he lives in the world of money and making money, but he falls in love with a woman. And how does that change him? And so we get to see that story of Soames having been kind of, in some ways, a real catch for somebody. And why does it turn?
Yeah.
We’re going to explore that in our new Forsyte Saga.
Cool. And do you have sort of an idea when that would premiere? Is it next year? The year after?
We haven’t set a date for it yet. So I can’t speculate quite yet. It won’t be finished until early next year.
I still get tweets all the time about Sanditon, people are still hungry for more. Right now, they really want deleted scenes released. Can you give any updates on that? They seem to think there are deleted scenes are being held that haven’t been released by Red Planet.
Deleted scenes?!? I’m not aware of any deleted scenes. When we commissioned Sanditon 2 and 3, the show was made to our length in 5120.
Yeah, there’s a campaign on Twitter and I’m like, “Okay, I’ll ask about that.”
You asked. I’m not aware of any deleted scenes for Season 2 and 3.
Okay, got it. And is there any chance that like down the line, there could be a Sanditon spinoff about different characters besides Charlotte?
Never say never, but nothing’s in the planning stages for that.
Miss Scarlet comes back next year as just Miss Scarlet, not Miss Scarlet and The Duke. What was the conversation behind that change? And are you worried, because some people really felt that the show was about the chemistry between those two characters?
I also thought the show was about the chemistry between those two characters. And I thought that Rachael New had done a really brilliant job at stringing that out for us as an audience to kind of enjoy that. But, as things are in the TV industry now, we’re only able to option actors a year at a time. So actors get offered other things. That’s not something we can control. We still see that Kate Phillips is just an amazing lead in this and that we don’t think her story’s done yet. So what we decided to do was, Stuart Martin needed to leave. That was fine. So, Rachael has written a new inspector in Scarlet’s life, and we’re hoping the audience will enjoy that relationship, too.
You mentioned that Grantchester is coming back for the tenth season next year and now it’s on its third hot priest. Do you think —
[Laughing]
Oh, sorry. No, I mean…
It’s good that you say it. I don’t say it. [Laughs]
I mean, I’m a Sidney loyalist, but do you feel that that’s a series that could just go on and just bring in new hot priests, like new Doctors to Doctor Who? How far do you see Grantchester going?
Well, you know, it was very hard, when James Norton decided to leave.
It was very hard for me.
Everybody liked Sidney Chambers. But again, actors have other things that they’re interested in doing. So I was skeptical about, could they find somebody people would enjoy as much? When they cast Tom Brittney, I thought it was brilliant casting, and I thought they did a wonderful job with his story, making it completely different from Sidney. And when Tom decided it was time for him to move on, again, I was skeptical. How many times will the audience accept a change in vicars? But when they suggested Rishi Nair, I had already seen Rishi in another show and thought he was absolutely terrific. I thought, you know, Grantchester is so loved by our audience, I think we should take a risk. And I think we made the right choice. I think people have accepted him and welcomed him in as the new priest. So I hope Rishi decides to stay for a very long time so we don’t have to make that decision again. But we love Grantchester and there’s such a great ensemble cast that we don’t want to lose, that family of people.
And it’s called Grantchester. That helps. It’s about the town and the community.
Exactly. You know, it’s really a kind of buddy show and Robson Green is still interested and wants to be involved.
Another long running series, All Creatures Great and Small, is essentially like the biggest hit on your slate. I have not seen numbers that you have. How long do you see that potentially going on?
I would be hopeful that we would keep All Creatures going as long as possible.
One of our sleeper hits for the spring was MaryLand. Our readers loved that show. I’m very curious what the reaction that you saw from the audience and is that a title that you could see continuing down the line?
Oh, I was thrilled that our audience loved it. The ratings for that were about as high as Grantchester, which was a surprise for a three part series. I think what we also saw is that a lot of people are fans of Suranne Jones, and so they came to it because of her. I had read the scripts and I loved the story, and it was coming out of Suranne Jones and her company. It was her first outing as a production company. And Eve Best, I had known from House of the Dragon. I just thought the sister story was great.
And we’ve been asking ourselves, why did MaryLand catch on so well with the audience? I think some of it is our audience likes these kind of relationship dramas. It’s not a relationship of a man and woman, but it is a very important relationship in terms of sisters and women to their mothers and all of the rest. It was a show that while there was a mystery, that had intrigue to it, it’s a very gentle story. You’re not going to be surprised by any graphic violence or anything like that. So it was just I think a show people enjoyed when they watched it.
We have not heard that they’re going to keep it going. Suranne has some other projects, but when something does as well as that did, it’s always an open question, I think.
You have the Marlow Murder Club coming out this fall. Can you tease why you’re so excited for that one? You’ve already ordered a second season, which tells me you’re confident about that one.
They’ve already been filming [Season 2]. So we haven’t seen footage yet, but we certainly have seen all the scripts. And we’re excited about it. It did really well for UK TV. It was one of their highest-rated shows they’ve ever had since the channel started. It is just a perfect cozy murder mystery. And I think the three women leads are just quirky in their own way, which makes it interesting to watch.
You mentioned Wolf Hall is coming back next year. Can you take me behind the scenes? Like, was that something that the UK was doing on their own finally, after all those years, or something that you guys are pursuing, as you’re pursuing original content? Because it’s been a gap between Wolf Hall 1 and Wolf Hall 2.
Years. There was always the intention to do as many of the Hilary Mantel books as would tell the story of Thomas Cromwell. I can’t remember when she released The Mirror in the Light, but it probably was just around the pandemic. So the length of time had to do with her finishing the book and publishing the book. Then at that point when she did, then the writer Peter Strawn, who had done the original, started the work on writing it. What we wanted was for Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis to come back to do it. And they are so busy with work that we had to wait till the stars aligned for everyone to be available.
Anthony Horowitz brought this up during the panel: He’s got another mystery series, Hawthorne and Horowitz. Is that something that you’re kind of curious about pursuing for Masterpiece?
I love Anthony’s work and I love working with Jill Green as a producer. If we can find a way to do it, you know, it’s something I’d like to try. It’s just about fitting things in our schedule. The timing of when we need things. You know, a lot of things.
Miss Austen is coming next year. Can you tell me anything about that? Why audiences should be excited? Is it really just about that sister relationship between Jane and Cassandra? Is there some fun drama that maybe people don’t know about Jane that we’ll see in the series?
If you read a lot of Jane Austen or read a lot about Jane, there’s always been this question about why did Cassandra burn Jane’s letters?
Yeah.
The author of the book, Miss Austen, Gil Hornby, decided she was going to try and answer that question. So she did a lot of research with the Jane Austen estate and all the rest. And so this book is her answer to that question. Why did Cassandra burn her letters? What I loved about the book and love about the show is that it really is a drama in the present day and has a love story. But what it does is every time she reads one of Jane’s letters, she can reflect back to their childhood and their lost loves and their proposals and their time together. So it really, it’s a very rich story about their life at the time and relationships with other family members. It’s just, I think, a beautiful way to look at who Jane Austen was.
You mentioned you had read Anthony’s novel Magpie Murders before ordering the series. It sounds like you find ideas from books. Are you now looking for original programing by going to books that speak to you? Is that a source of inspiration and how Masterpiece is moving forward with their own original slate?
I think Masterpiece has a history of taking literature to film. So I think we’re very comfortable in a space of adapting novels. Those are the projects that have come to us, so those are the projects we’ve decided to do. “Clementine Churchill“ is completely original. It’s not based on a book. So in that case, the writer did this original work. She imagined a television show that took five moments of Clementine’s life to show how important she was to England and to Winston Churchill. So that is a completely original idea.
What was the thing that Churchill said? That when he first saw her, it was the first time he couldn’t think of what to say?
Yeah, exactly. And, this is a little known story, but on her wedding day, she actually paid a maid to change clothes, and she ran away on her wedding day.
I think I’ve heard that. Yeah, she almost got out of it. Yeah, we would have lost the war.
I’m afraid we might have. And certainly the writers are making the case that she was critical to the war effort.
I know we talked about this before, how it’s getting harder and harder to find British costume dramas. Not only because they’re not being made as much, but you have competitors in your Amazons and your AMCs. Who do you think is your biggest competitor for getting that content right now?
I think our competitors for these high-end costume dramas are really the streamers who can put so much more money into the show. I would say, well, the UK is still coming up with those ideas. If a streamer is willing to pay more like they did for The Crown, like, you know, they’re going to [go there]. So I think our biggest competitors are still the streamers, because I think the American audience just shows how much they love costume drama, whether it’s Bridgerton or Gilded Age or whatever. So, I think we’re still competing with them for that material.
This interview has been formatted and edited for clarity.
