Anthony Horowitz has opened up about the making of his TV series Magpie Murders, based on his 2016 book of the same name, which the BBC initially declined to help him make.
The murder mystery has made its way to BBC One, starting with episode 1 tonight and continuing through the full six-episode season on BBC iPlayer.
While it seemed inevitable that Magpie Murders would ultimately air on the BBC, with a cast that included Lesley Manville, Tim McMullan, and Conleth Hill, it appeared at first that it might not be feasible.
When questioned by Metro.co.uk what it means for the show to have found a new home, the Alex Rider creator said, ‘I’ll be honest, it means a lot to me.
‘I always thought of it when I wrote it as being a perfect show for the BBC. I’m not quite sure why, but it has so many of the values of shows… you know of a classic detective series yet with something different happening, a twist to it, old fashioned and new.
‘I just always thought to myself for some reason that it was perfect weekend, Saturday/Sunday viewing on BBC, and I was very disappointed when some years ago, they decided not to develop it with me. But here we are – all’s well that ends well.’
‘It’s always very difficult to understand why executives say no to a project, particularly when you’re actually sitting on it some years later, and it’s had the success and popularity it’s had and it spawned a sequel,’ he said of why the BBC said no in the first place. It’s now exactly where it should have been.’
The BBC thought the novel was “too complicated to adapt,” Anthony recalled, and that “it just couldn’t be done.”
He admitted that it was a challenging novel to adapt because it is a story within a story with many twists and turns.
Anthony eventually discovered the key formula for the TV version after several rewrites, with crucial advice from his wife Jill Green, whom he characterised as “so clever” when it comes to scriptwriting.
‘The problem was that it had to be both very complicated – because the book is full of clues and twists and turns and suspects and red herrings – but at the same time, it had to be something that an audience can follow very easily,’ he outlined.
‘You can’t have your audience getting lost after 20 minutes or they’ll turn off. So it was difficult to get it right but in the end I did and here it is.’
Anthony described the creation of the Magpie Murders TV programme as a “joy,” emphasising that “it’s very rare that you get the perfect shoot, where everything goes right.” And this is one of those extremely uncommon occurrences’.
While praising the cast and director Peter Cattaneo, the renowned author hinted that while Magpie Murders is a ‘twisty’ murder mystery, it also contains’something more,’ for those who are unfamiliar with the tale.
‘It is also a contemplation about the nature of whodunnit, why we read them. It’s a contemplation about the nature of murder. Why is a murder in a street something that is disgusting and unpleasant, whereas a murder in a book is entertainment? At what stage does murder become neutralised?’ he explained.
‘Why do we read murder mysteries? What is the pleasure of all of a whodunnit? Why is Agatha Christie still the most popular writer in the world, certainly in terms of book sales? So it is both an examination of the world of whodunnit and it is, I hope, a pretty much unguessable whodunnit in its own right.’
Magpie Murders will be available to watch tonight at 9.15pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
