The Lineup: The Characters in Moonflower Murders
Two timelines, two mysteries, and a whole lot of characters to keep track of…but luckily, we’ve now got one handy guide to help you keep track of them all! Get the full rundown on who’s who in Moonflower Murders, both in Susan’s world and Atticus Pünd’s, who is a familiar face from Magpie Murders and who is new, plus the talented actors playing them. [Warning: Contains spoilers for Magpie Murders.]
- 1.
Returning: Susan Ryeland & Atticus Pünd
Played By: Lesley Manville as Susan Ryeland and Tim McMullan as Atticus Pünd
Where You’ve Seen Lesley Manville Before: The Crown as Princess Margaret; Phantom Thread; World on Fire as Robina Chase
Where You’ve Seen Tim McMullan Before: Shakespeare in Love as Frees; The Queen; The Crown as Robin Woods; King Charles III; Foyle’s War
Case Files: Former book editor and amateur sleuth Susan Ryeland has once again teamed up with Atticus Pünd, the fictional detective at the center of the book series that defined her publishing career when a new real-life mystery—the disappearance of a young woman named Cecily Treherne—is brought to her doorstep by Cecily’s parents, indicating that the answers to Cecily’s disappearance may lie in the pages of Conway’s novel Atticus Pünd Takes the Case.
Meanwhile, the fictional case at the center of Pünd’s story revolves around ex-silver screen star Melissa James who, post movie career, is running a struggling hotel in the village of Tawleigh called The Moonflower. When James is murdered, it’s up to Pünd and his team to find out whodunit…and that answer may just be the key to solving the mystery of what happened to Cecily Treherne.
- 2.
Returning: Alan Conway
Played By: Conleth Hill
Where You’ve Seen Him Before: Mendel Liberman in PBS’s Vienna Blood; Lord Varys in Game of Thrones; lawyer Edward Darby in Suits
Case File: Technically, author Alan Conway was murdered in Magpie Murders, and it fell to Susan (with the help of Alan’s very own hero, detective Atticus Pünd) to solve his murder by dissecting the clues he left behind in his final novel. While Conway is indeed still dead, he lives on through his novels and his own legacy, which we see when Susan finds herself revisiting Atticus Pünd Takes the Case to uncover the truth behind the mysteries surrounding the Treherne family. Just before her disappearance, Cecily had been reading the famous Conway novel. Was Conway up to his old tricks yet again, planting clues between the lines?
- 3.
Returning: Locke/Chubb
Played By: Daniel Mays
Where You’ve Seen Him Before: The Bank Job; Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as Tivik; Good Omens as Arthur Young; 1917 as Sergeant Sanders
Case File: Mays reprises his roles as Locke and Chubb in Moonflower Murders. Investigating Cecily’s disappearance, Inspector Locke is less than happy to encounter amateur sleuth Susan Ryeland once again on his case.
In the world of the book, Mays again plays Detective Inspector Chubb, who is investigating Melissa’s murder alongside Pünd and his assistant, Madeline Cain. After running into the pair, Chubb suggests the three of them work together to try and solve the crime. With their combined brain power, can they solve the mystery of who killed Melissa James, and why?
- 4.
New: Madeline Cain
Played By: Pippa Bennett-Warner
Where You’ve Seen Her Before: Harlots as Harriet Lennox; Gangs of London; Roadkill as Rochelle Madeley
Case File:In Moonflower Murders, we meet Madeline Cain, a whip-smart and enthusiastic Atticus Pünd’s all around Girl Friday as they dive into the mysterious murder of Melissa James.
- 5.
New: Aiden MacNeil/Algernon Marsh
Played By: Will Tudor (Mr. Selfridge, Game of Thrones)
Where You’ve Seen Him Before: Game of Thrones as Olyvar; Shadowhunters as Jonathan/Sebastian; Mr. Selfridge as Frank Whitely
Case File: Tudor also steps into not one, but two roles, in Moonflower Murders. In the contemporary timeline, Tudor plays Aiden MacNeil, Cecily’s husband and PR maven for her parents’ hotel, Branlow Hall.
In the world of the book, Tudor plays Algernon Marsh, the shady financial manager to the recently murdered ex-Hollywood actress Melissa James. Marsh also just so happened to be part of a hit-and-run incident on his way to see the former star.
- 6.
New: Lisa Treherne/Melissa James
Played By: Rosalie Craig
Where You’ve Seen Her Before: The Serpent Queen as Jeanne d’Albret, queen of Navarre, wife of Antoine and mother of Henry IV; MI-5; Macbeth as Lady Macduff alongside Kenneth Branagh
Case File: Craig, too, dons two hats. In the contemporary storyline, she plays the Lisa Treherne, sister of the missing Cecily and the (not so enthusiastic) sister-in-law to Aiden. In Pünd’s world, Craig plays Atticus Pünd Takes the Case‘s murder victim Melissa James.
- 7.
New: Frank Parris/Oscar Berlin
Played By: Mark Gatiss
Where You’ve Seen Him Before: Sherlock as Mycroft Holmes; Nolly as Larry Grayson; The League of Gentlemen; Christopher Robin
Case File: Gatiss plays both Frank Parris, the difficult, snobbish guest at Branlow Hall whose body was discovered on the day of Cecily and Aiden MacNeil’s wedding, and Oscar Berlin, Alan Conway’s fictional film producer and one of the possible suspects in the murder of Melissa James.
- 8.
New: The Trehernes & The Gardners
Played By: Pooky Quesnel and Adrian Rawlins
Where You’ve Seen Pooky Quesnel Before: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as Mrs. Phillips; Great Expectations as Sarah Pocket; Waterloo Road; Doctors
Where You’ve Seen Adrian Rawlins Before: Mary & George as Sir Edward Coke; the Harry Potter films as Harry’s deceased father, James Potter; Gentleman Jack as Jonathan Gray; Season 3 of All Creatures Great and Small as the curmudgeonly Charles Harcourt
Case Files: In the contemporary timeline, Quesnel plays Pauline Treherne, mother of Cecily and wife to Lawrence Treherne, played by Rawlins. The pair own Branlow Hall, the hotel where, years ago, a guest was murdered on Cecily and Aiden’s wedding day.
Meanwhile, in the world of the book, Quesnel and Rawlins play Maureen and Lance Gardner, hotel managers of The Moonflower, which also just so happens to be the main setting for the investigation into the murder of ex-Hollywood star Melissa James.
- 9.
Be on the Lookout...
While tuning in to Moonflower Murders, Sanditon fans may notice a few other familiar MASTERPIECE faces, including Liam Garrigan, who plays Leonard Collins and portrayed Samuel Colbourne in Sanditon Season 3, and Kate Ashfield, who plays Joanne Webster and played Sanditon’s beloved matriarch Mary Parker!
