The Marlow Murder Club review: Meet the skinny-dipping sleuth in this ... trends now
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With any adaptation of a novel for the screen, there's always the question: which is better, the book or the show? Potboilers can yield stellar serials, great literature can become flat and compressed.
In the case of writer Robert Thorogood's genteel mystery The Marlow Murder Club (Drama), the answer is easy: though there are minor differences between the bestseller and the two-parter, they're equally good.
That's because Thorogood, the creator of Death In Paradise, is equally at home in both genres. In fact, this tale of three nosy ladies investigating a double killing in their Thames-side town was originally pitched as a TV concept, before transforming into the first in a series of chart-topping books.
Now the author has scripted this TV version. You have to admire his dedication, and the skill with which he pulls together a fistful of separate storylines.
Samantha Bond as Judith Potts in The Marlow Murder Club
From left to right, Jo Martin as Suzie Harris, Samantha Bond as Judith Potts and Cara Horgan as Becks Starling
It's plain he adores his characters, and as a result we soon warm to them too. Leader of the bunch is retired archaeologist and crossword-setter Judith (Samantha Bond).
When we first meet her in the novel, she overhears a murder while skinny-dipping in the river, and Samantha boldly played the scene just as it was written.
