Death in Paradise creator has new crime drama in pipeline

Death in Paradise season 13 stars Neville and Naomi by the sea in Death in Paradise
Robert Thorogood is best known for his Death in Paradise novels. (Image credit: BBC)

Death in Paradise creator Robert Thorogood is getting a TV adaptation of one of his popular crime books.

UKTV has announced that they are adapting The Marlow Murder Club into a two-part series that is set for launch in 2024. Filming has commenced on the project and it stars Samantha Bond, Jo Martin, Cara Hogan, and Natalie Dew.

The exciting news was confirmed across their social media accounts where they shared casting details and some photographs, although we don't have too many details yet with the series only just entering production.

In the UK the series will be shown on UKTV with a US release also set for PBS Masterpiece, who they have collaborated with on the new project.

Commenting on the news, Robert Thorogood said: "After over a decade of working on Death in Paradise, I’m thrilled to be creating a brand new murder mystery series for TV. I can’t wait for audiences to join Judith, Becks and Suzie on their adventures as they solve a series of fiendishly puzzling murders."

Based on early news, we know that Downton Abbey's Samantha Bond plays the leading role of Judith Potts, a retired archaeologist who tries to report a murder but the police are skeptical, leading her to take matters into her own hands.

The official synopsis for The Marlow Murder Club is: "Judith Potts is seventy-seven years old and blissfully happy. She lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow, there's no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink, and to keep herself busy she sets crosswords for The Times newspaper."

"One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. The local police don't believe her story, so she decides to investigate for herself, and is soon joined in her quest by Suzie, a salt-of-the-earth dog-walker, and Becks, the prim and proper wife of the local Vicar."

"Together, they are the Marlow Murder Club. When another body turns up, they realise they have a real-life serial killer on their hands. And the puzzle they set out to solve has become a trap from which they might never escape..."

The Marlow Murder Club will air on UKTV and PBS Masterpiece at some point in 2024. 

Meanwhile, Death in Paradise is available on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK and on PBS and BritBox in the US.

Lucy Buglass
Senior Staff Writer

Lucy joined the WhatToWatch.com team in 2021, where she writes series guides for must-watch programmes, reviews and the latest TV news. Originally from Northumberland, she graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a degree in Film Studies and moved to London to begin a career writing about entertainment.

She is a Rotten Tomatoes approved film critic and has a huge passion for cinema. She especially loves horror, thriller and anything crime-related. Her favourite TV programmes include Inside No 9, American Horror Story, Stranger Things and Black Mirror but she is also partial to a quiz show or a bit of Say Yes to the Dress