‘Magpie Murders’ Adds Timothy Spall as Detective Atticus Pünd Alongside Lesley Manville
The upcoming Magpie Murders has cast its investigator: Timothy Spall will play the clever and complex fictional detective Atticus Pünd in the adaptation of Anthony Horowitz’s best-selling crime novel.
The program features a story within a story, as Pünd is the protagonist of novels written by the (also fictional) best-selling mystery writer Alan Conway.
Spall joins Lesley Manville, who stars as Susan Ryeland, an editor who has no idea that an unfinished Conway manuscript will change her life when she receives it. The logline promises “a beguiling murder mystery with a solution that will both astonish and grip viewers.”
The series will shoot in Suffolk and Ireland and launch on BritBox UK and Masterpiece on PBS in 2022. Production begins the week of March 8.
“I have huge respect for Anthony Horowitz and think the audience will really enjoy his brilliant adaptation of his wonderful and ingenious novel,” Spall said in a statement. “I’m really looking forward to getting to grips with bringing the intriguing Atticus Pünd to life.”
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“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?” Jill Green, CEO, Eleventh Hour Films, added.
“I was overjoyed when I heard that Timothy Spall had accepted the part of Atticus Pünd,” author and screenwriter Horowitz said.. “I’m a lifelong fan and there isn’t another actor in the world I would have chosen for this pivotal role.”
Magpie Murders, 2022, PBS
