There are few types of television copper Danny Mays hasn’t played. He was BAFTA-nominated as decent but doomed Sergeant Danny Waldron in Line Of Duty, he portrayed the detective who nailed one of our most notorious serial killers in the Dennis Nilsen drama Des, and he totally turned the genre on its head as a robocop in comedy Code 404.
Now fans are in for double joy as he plays not one but two policemen in new thriller Magpie Murders.
The six-part series will appeal to fans of Agatha Christie, Midsomer Murders and Death In Paradise. It’s a gentle whodunnit rather than a gruesome gorefest, and it comes with a novel twist too.
It’s a murder-mystery within a murder-mystery, where the answer to one case is hidden within another – but one is set in the 1950s, and the other in the modern day. But don’t worry, it’s not as confusing as it sounds.
New thriller Magpie Murders explores intertwining crimes in modern day and the world of Atticus Pund in 1955. Pictured: Danny Mays as DI Chubb and Matthew Beard as James Fraser
‘It’s an ingenious idea that keeps you guessing until the end,’ says Danny of the BritBox show, which is based on the bestselling book by Anthony Horowitz, who has also adapted it for TV. ‘It’s two stories in one.’
Lesley Manville, soon to be seen as Princess Margaret in The Crown, plays glamorous, convertible-driving book editor Susan Ryeland who’s at a crossroads in her life when we meet her.
Her handsome Greek lover Andreas (Alexandros Logothetis) wants her to return to Crete with him, while her boss wants to retire and make her managing director of his publishing firm.
The publisher’s biggest name is crime writer Alan Conway (Conleth Hill), whose books about a complex but very clever German detective named Atticus Pund, set in the 1950s, regularly top bestseller lists. But, vain as he is, Conway is frustrated that his more intellectual work is ignored. He’s always disliked Susan too, because she seems to be as smart as he is.
The story begins with Conway delivering his latest book, Magpie Murders, to Susan. But the last chapter is missing and then Alan is found mysteriously dead, having plunged from the top of his mansion.
Was it suicide, or was the king of murder thrillers murdered himself? Susan decides to try to find out exactly what happened to Alan.
Meanwhile, we’re transported back into the 50s and the world of the book, where numerous people are turning up dead and Pund (Tim McMullan) is trying to work out who’s behind the murders.
It quickly emerges that many of the characters in Magpie Murders are actually based on people in Alan’s real life.
Editor Susan Ryeland has to unravel the mystery of Alan’s last moments to get the last chapter of his book. Pictured: Lesley Manville as Susan Ryeland
‘Susan travels to the village where Alan lived to find out both what happened to him and who killed who in the book,’ says Danny. ‘In order to get the last chapter, she has to unravel the mystery of Alan’s last moments. She has to solve one story in order to crack the other.’
The show plays out over two separate timelines – the modern day and the world of Atticus Pund in 1955 – with many of the actors playing both the ‘real’ characters in Alan Conway’s life and the fictional versions of them in the Magpie Murders book.
Danny plays two policemen, Chubb and Locke (yes, Chubb Lock). In the modern world Detective Superintendent Locke considers himself a serious policeman and isn’t too keen on Susan sticking her nose into his investigation.
He’d had a few run-ins with Alan, but was friends with his sister Claire. He’s probably not as good at detective work as he thinks he is, but he’s a genius compared to his fictional alter ego DI Chubb.
It’s ingenious and keeps you guessing until the end
‘Chubb is probably the most inept television detective in the history of murder-mysteries,’ says Danny.
‘Locke is only marginally better. The joy of playing them for me was having these two characters who are similar in one sense and vastly different in another.
‘I’ve played Locke as a real alpha male who thinks he’s a hard-nosed detective but isn’t actually that good at solving crime. Chubb is even less capable and is much more unthreatening. Having these two characters to play was a challenge but also an absolute joy.’
Other characters include James Taylor/James Fraser (Matthew Beard), Conway’s newly estranged young lover in the modern day and in the book Pund’s rather stupid sidekick.
Pippa Haywood plays Conway’s down-at-heel sister Claire, who in the book becomes a nosy parker and village spinster in the 50s. Clever camera work means that sometimes the two worlds collide, with Susan and Pund driving towards each other on the same road, for example, to represent the brilliance of Pund driving Susan on to find the key to the double mystery.
While the series is set in Suffolk it was almost entirely filmed in Dublin which, at the time, was under lockdown. ‘Because I wasn’t in every scene like Lesley, I flew to Dublin to do blocks of shooting at a time,’ recalls Danny.
‘Each time I flew in I had to quarantine in my hotel room for five days, so it felt like Magpie Murders took a long time to complete because we were all quarantining all the time. But once we were allowed to leave our hotel rooms there was plenty of fun… as well as takeaway Guinness!’
Gentle whodunnits are one of the UK’s biggest television exports, and if all goes well with this series there are plans to make a second Susan Ryeland mystery.
‘We do gritty murder really well, shows like Des, but people love mysteries in which they can become the detective themselves,’ says Danny.
‘They love to play along with the detectives – looking for clues. I think they’re a great antidote to some of the more serious, hard-hitting pieces. It’s entertainment, isn’t it? Everyone loves to guess. There’s laughter and tears and murder. Glorious.’
Magpie Murders is streaming on BritBox now.
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