A simmering two-part take on a lesser-known 1939 novel puts a fresh twist on a classic formula in Murder is Easy – premieres on NEON December 18. Absolutely delivering on its mystery, these two hours offer a fresh and intriguing take on something cosy and classic, says Amelia Berry.
What is it about the holiday season that makes it such a good time for murder? Or rather… such a good time for curling up on the sofa with a cup of tea and putting on a big old glossy murder mystery. Is it the little bit of distant danger to fill those long listless hours? Is it that satisfying balance of thinking and not thinking? Or maybe being cramped up with distant relatives for days on end has given you… ideas?
Well, whatever the reason, these holidays, another whodunnit gem is hitting our shores, Murder is Easy. A BBC and Britbox co-production, Murder is Easy is a simmering two-part take on a lesser-known 1939 Agatha Christie novel—putting a fresh twist on a classic formula.
Luke Fitzwilliam (David Jonsson) is on the train to London when he meets the friendly Mrs Pinkerton (Penelope Wilton). Pinkerton, he learns, is a woman on a mission. Back home in Wychwood-Under-Ashe, murder is afoot—two, maybe three are dead already, and Mrs. Pinkerton knows who the killer is. Now, she has to get to Scotland Yard before anybody else is killed.
But no sooner are the pair off the train, than Mrs. Pinkerton is struck down in the street by a speeding car. Shaken and confused, Fitzwilliam decides to take it upon himself to finish what Pinkerton had started. Without the name of the killer, all he has to go on is something that she told him on the train—“Murder is easy… for a certain type of person.”
Arriving in Wychwood, Fitzwilliam meets a typically Christie cast of quirky characters: the charming Bridget Conway, her agonisingly posh fiance Lord Whitfield, the kindly reverend, the sneering doctor, the rough yet kind-hearted landlady. Almost the whole Cluedo spread. The murders seem connected to the development of Whitfield New Town, but with so many deaths, and so many suspicious characters about, how will Fitzwilliam ever get to the bottom of it all?
So far, so classic. And with a 1950s setting and the kind of lush costuming and sets you can expect from a BBC miniseries, Murder is Easy feels right at home alongside recent Christie adaptations like 2022’s Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?. But Luke Fitzwilliam is not your average Agatha Christie detective.
Unlike the pompous Poirot with his ‘little grey cells’ or the coy and cunning Miss Marple, Luke Obiako Fitzwilliam is not a master of deduction. Charming, yes. Clever, yes. Debonnaire? Well, he’s got that in spades. But more often than not he’s chasing down a dead end, blundering over a red herring, or coldly accusing someone who actually, definitely, didn’t do it.
While most Christie heroes seem to be in it for the love of the game, here’s a man who’s really just interested in doing a good thing, doing right by his friend from the train, and trying to see justice served when the police are too bumbling and corrupt to make it happen themselves.
The other thing setting Luke Fitzwilliam apart from the usual suspects of Christie crime capers is that in this adaptation he’s Nigerian—recently arrived in England and on his way to take up a position in the Colonial Office in Whitehall. It’s a twist on the original novel that adds new depth and colour to the class commentary that Christie is so well known for.
“Fitz… is a direct homage to my father and grandfather. Highly privileged Nigerians, they came to England to work and study, navigating a place they’d been taught to revere and think of as home,” screenwriter Siân Ejiwunmi-Le Berre is quoted as saying in the press materials. “Finding a way to represent Christie’s hamstrung hero intrigued me. Rather than the tanned, hapless, complacent ex-pat, our African Fitzwilliam could have all the skills of the born detective. As an immigrant, however, in England he would find limits to the power he’s used to wielding back home.”
It’s refreshing to see a new take on the Agatha Christie adaptation formula. While bigotry and racism aren’t at the fore of this retelling, as a background, they help to make the tension, suspicion, and strained loyalties of the story feel compelling and modern in a way that stuffy manor-house politics often struggles to achieve.
But as much as Murder is Easy is about dapper accidental detective Luke Fitzwilliam, it’s also a story that’s deeply concerned with women—their place in society, their power, and their lack of it.
Morfydd Clark (Maud in Saint Maud & Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) does a brilliant turn as the female lead, Bridget Conway. The perfect foil for Jonsson’s Fitzwilliam, Clark slides effortlessly between coy and flirtatious, and troubled and sinister. Performances can often make or break a murder mystery, giving away too much or sometimes not letting in on enough—layered performances like Clark’s will keep you guessing and engaged right to the end.
The press materials quote Director Meenu Gaur (Zinda Bhaag, World on Fire) as saying: “I think one of the most exciting aspects of Murder is Easy is how strong the women characters are. All of them, not just the lead Bridget Conway. As Tamzin who plays Mrs Pierce would often point out that the fact that many of the heads of departments behind the camera were women on this show, was something to feel very proud of.”
Of course, being an Agatha Christie adaptation, the bones of the story are terrific. And Gaur and Ejiwunmi-Le Berre absolutely deliver on the mystery, crafting two hours of television that manages to be a fresh and intriguing take on something so cosy and classic.
Bar the presents, and the food, and the family… thank goodness this is one part of Christmas that’s sorted in advance.
