‘Marble Hall Murders’ Star Tim McMullan on Atticus Pünd’s Final Mystery & Working With Lesley Manville

Not many actors get to play a fictional character who knows he’s a fictional character. But that’s what Tim McMullan has been doing ever since he landed the role of Atticus Pünd. The Poirot-esque private detective is back on the screen for a third investigation in the new PBS series Marble Hall Murders. And this time, it will be his last.

A midcentury German immigrant residing in Britain, Atticus has grown on McMullan, who first played him in the 2022 Masterpiece whodunit Magpie Murders, then two years later in Moonflower Murders. “One of the things that I love most about Atticus is that he does know he’s fictional,” McMullan tells TV Insider. “He has this awareness that he exists in another world, in which all the clues add up. He also knows he’s going to die at the end. I think it gives him a rather lovely vulnerability.”

In this latest outing, adapted by Anthony Horowitz from his novel, McMullan and costar Lesley Manville, who plays Susan Ryeland, the book editor in charge of the Atticus Pünd mystery series, once again are tasked with solving parallel murders in different realities. She’s in present-day England; he’s reconnecting with his Greek ancestry on the island of Corfu in 1955.

Lesley Manville and Tim McMullan (Courtesy of Eleventh Hour Films and MASTERPIECE)

The six-episode series was partially shot on location in Corfu, an arrangement that more than satisfied McMullan. “It was heaven,” he proclaims, “and the house that the crime I’m solving revolves around is stunningly beautiful, with a balcony looking across to Albania.”

Back in London, Susan is working with Eliot Crace (Jamie Blackley), a young writer penning a new Atticus Pünd novel (after the original author’s murder in the first series). Eliot’s characters are based on family members — one of whom he believes murdered his nasty grandmother Miriam (Patricia Hodge), a world-famous children’s book author, 20 years ago. While Atticus chases the killer in Eliot’s manuscript, Susan tries to figure out if there’s any truth to the young author’s theory.

As for Atticus, McMullan found him angrier in Marble Hall Murders than he was in previous series, and he understands why: “If you’re going to be robbed of your own life and then you see other people taking lives for no good reason, it just feels such a waste.”

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McMullan has also appeared in the later seasons of Horowitz’s acclaimed World War II drama Foyle’s War and guest starred on two other popular PBS mystery series, Grantchester and Endeavour, but he has found a level of fame thanks to Atticus. The first time the actor was recognized for the role was when he was on holiday in Greece, even if the viewer couldn’t quite get the name right. “The man said to me, ‘Excuse me. Excuse me. You’re off the telly. You’re Atticus Finch, aren’t you?’” McMullan says, amused at his character being mistaken for the courageous attorney in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Pünd being fictional, of course, doesn’t prevent him from interacting with Susan. And perhaps because they know their time together is coming to an end, there’s an added poignancy to their meetings this time. McMullan says he and Manville enjoyed those moments.

“I love working with Lesley,” says the actor, who previously appeared with her in a stage production of Ben Johnson’s The Alchemist and as her butler in a 2015 TV film version of The Go-Between. “We like pushing each other and seeing what will happen because those scenes are really good fun. I always like to think he knows that she’s actually a fictional character, too.”

Marble Hall Murders, Sundays, 9/8c, PBS (check local listings at pbs.org)