Susan Calman presides over the BBC One afternoon quiz that marries Midsomer Murders cosiness with Cluedo mechanics. From a pastel armchair pod, three amateur sleuths watch a 20-minute drama set in Mortcliff, a Lake District backlot populated by jealous heirs, blackmailing vicars and at least one corpse per day. They can pause the tape, study evidence bags on a touchscreen coffee table and interrogate Stephen Billington’s DI Knight, Roger Jean Nsengiyumva’s DC Slater and Sarah Baxendale’s CSO Simmons via live link. Every episode ends when the contestants lock in a killer; a correct accusation wins the hollow but satisfying prize of knowing they outwitted the writers.
Puzzle designers David Bodycombe and Dan Peake, veterans of Only Connect, plot each four-day timeline on a colour-coded spreadsheet so dense that even off-screen characters have alibis. Clues are buried in overheard pub gossip, the angle of a blood spatter, the price on a parking ticket. The production shoots two dramas a week, cycling through 20 self-contained murders between 20 November and 22 December 2017, then vanishes, leaving only the catchphrase echoing: "No one gets away with murder in Mortcliff."
Production Details
BBC One / 1 Season / 20 Episodes / 2017 - Present
Producer(s): Carly Brooks Daniel Twist
Main Cast
Susan Calman as Herself - Presenter
Stephen Billington as DI Knight
Roger Jean Nsengiyumva as DC Slater
Sarah Baxendale as Simmons
Kal Sabir as George Wilson
