The series was filmed and takes place entirely in the hometown of creator Robert Thorogood.
If you’re enjoying Death in Paradise as its new episodes air weekly, but are also looking for something new, then look no further than new two-part series The Marlow Murder Club, which comes from the same creator, Robert Thorogood.
The series, which has been based on Thorogood’s book of the same name, stars Samantha Bond as Judith Potts, a woman who becomes convinced that she has heard a murder taking place at her neighbour’s house in Marlow.
Throughout the series, she then teams up with Jo Martin’s Suzie Harris and Cara Horgan’s Becks Starling in order to crack the case – much to the annoyance of police detective Tanika Malik, played by Natalie Dew.
The series takes place entirely in Marlow, but just where was it filmed? Read on for everything you need to know about the locations used for The Marlow Murder Club.
Where was The Marlow Murder Club filmed?
The Marlow Murder Club is, as you’d imagine given the title, set entirely in and around the country town of Marlow, which is situated in Buckinghamshire along the River Thames.
It also happens to be the hometown of Robert Thorogood, the show’s creator and the writer of the novel on which it is based.
Specific locations within Marlow which were used for filming include the banks of the River Thames, All Saints Church, Marlow High Street and the Marlow Suspension Bridge.
Filming also took place during the annual Marlow Rowing Regatta, and genuine local Marlow homes were used for scenes set all across the town.
What have the cast and crew said about filming in Marlow?
RadioTimes.com went on the set of The Marlow Murder Club during filming, and spoke with the cast alongside other press to find out just what it was like shooting in Marlow, and why it was the perfect setting for this story.
Cara Horgan, who plays Becks, said the town is “absolutely picturesque middle England”, and that it therefore works as a juxtaposition with the “dark” and “really gruesome” goings on in the plot.
Judith star Samantha Bond added of Marlow, where she admitted she had never been before: “It’s adorable, it’s absolutely one of the most beautiful towns. It’s got lovely restaurants, you can go into pubs that were built in the 1500s – I think the oldest one, where I did actually have a glass of wine before I first went in the Thames, that is from 1471 or something.
“So its history really is immense, which also makes me think, which hadn’t occurred to me before, that actually it’s the place where Judith would be very happy. Because it’s old, it’s historical, and of course we’ve had this amazing weather, so it’s looked beautiful.
“It’s this perfect picture, this idyllic bit of England, and then you’ve got something quite sinister going on.”
The show’s creator Robert Thorogood also explained why he decided to set his books, on which the series is based, in Marlow in the first place.
He told RadioTimes.com and other press while on set: “I’ve always been interested in murder mysteries, and when I came up with Death in Paradise, I knew that we had to film it in the Caribbean.
“We were under some pressure, or there was certainly a conversation to try and film it in South Africa, because this is back in 2009, where in South Africa, they’ve got the crew, you’re on the same time zone. It felt like a more manageable thing.
“But Tony Jordan, who’s the brilliant person who owns Red Planet, who really is the father of Death in Paradise as much as I am because he just forced the BBC into making it through his sheer will of personality, he and I just said, ‘It’s got to be in the Caribbean because for a light-hearted murder mystery, which is ostensibly silly, setting is absolutely everything.’”
He continued: “So, when I was trying to come up with a new show slightly nearer to home, I just thought, ‘Well, what is a quintessential British or English murder mystery?’
“You’ve got St Mary Mead, the Agatha Christie, Jane Marple, which is sort of southwest of us heading down towards Hampshire way, and you’ve got Morse up in Oxford and Endeavour up in Oxford, and you’ve got Grantchester murders in Cambridge.
“We all know what it should look like, and there are towns like that around, and I just thought, ‘But so is Marlow, and I know Marlow really well.’
“So rather than doing research by getting on an aeroplane flying to the Caribbean, I can just go out my front door and turn left or turn right.
“All of the locations in The Marlow Murder Club were real in the book, so it’s been really weird watching them actually hire the places like All Saints Church, which is described in the book.
“We’re now filming at All Saints Church and so it’s a natural fit, because it is where it was written and that is where we’re filming it.”
The Marlow Murder Club airs on Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th March at 8pm on Drama. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on.
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