Geneva Pattison.
The book, Magpie Murders by international bestselling author Anthony Horowitz, is being adapted for television as we speak and where better to film a detective mystery story than Donnybrook’s very own Belmont Avenue?
The 2021 Dublin City Council report on Arts, Culture, Leisure and Recreation confirmed that the Magpie Murders would begin filming in Dublin and Wicklow this March. Marco Pierre’s Courtyard Restaurant in Donnybrook will serve as the location for some of the production shots from Friday the 19th of March. The show will be filmed in Ireland for 10 weeks, before returning to London to finish shooting.
The plot of the story follows Susan Ryeland, the long suffering editor of difficult to work with crime fiction novelist, Alan Conway. She receives the novel manuscript for the author’s final book, only to find the pages are incomplete. Susan visits Alan’s home, to retrieve the authors final pages but when she arrives, she finds him dead. Susan discovers that Alan’s final murder mystery book may have been based on true events, which led to him being murdered. Following the clues in the manuscript, Susan tries to uncover he mystery of the author’s death and the whereabouts of the missing pages.
Award winning actress, Lesley Manville CBE who has starred in The Crown as Princess Margaret and Ciril in Phantom Thread, amongst other prominent roles, will play the lead part of Susan Ryeland.
Magpie Murders will also star renowned actor Timothy Spall, in the role of detective Atticus Pünd, the main character of the fictitious author Alan Conway novels. In relation to casting Spall, Jill Green, Chief executive of Eleventh Hour Films said:”Atticus Pünd is a complex, deep thinking 1950s detective who is at the top of his game – so who better than to have Timothy Spall?”
The six-part television mystery series has been picked up by PBS/Britbox and author of the book, Anthony Horowitz, has signed on for script writing and development.
