Phyllis Logan's puzzling whodunnit is like a spoof of Midsomer Murders, says RONALD WHITE
About halfway through Murder Most Puzzling, actor Adam Best delivered what is surely the most whodunnit line ever: 'This is DI Hooper. A body has been found in the library.'
Found? You'd have to be Chief Inspector Clouseau to have missed it. The bloodied corpse dropped from the balcony during amateur detective Cora Felton's birthday party — straight on top of the giant cake.
But never mind the death, a bigger mystery was the party itself.
Inspector Hooper's main job in this series is to look cross while telling Cora to mind her own business. Why would he organise her birthday party?
And how do you slit a hard-bitten private investigator's throat and heave him over a balcony into a room full of police officers without anybody noticing?
Murder Most Puzzling has been compared with the BBC 's hit Ludwig, mainly because Cora — like David Mitchell 's character — is a famous crossword compiler.
But that's where the resemblance ends. Crosswords and logic are how Ludwig solves crimes, posing as his identical twin brother. There is also something darker lurking in the background, not to mention the suggestion that Ludwig fancies his sister-in-law.
We only knew Phyllis Logan's Cora was a famous puzzler in this episode because everybody kept mentioning it. She could just as well be a celebrity chef. Her red specs were straight out of the Prue Leith eyewear range.
This six-parter has none of the subtlety of Ludwig. Sometimes it was like watching a spoof episode of Midsomer Murders. There were some clever twists, but far too much seemed far too unlikely.
It's a waste of Phyllis Logan, and at two hours, it's much too long (by contrast, the BBC's Death Valley is only 45 minutes).
In last night's episode, Cora was hired to clear the name of a man in prison for killing his girlfriend.
I don't want to give too much away, but the mayor of Bakerbury (Richard Croxford) could not have been a more obvious villain if he had a duelling scar, sported a twirly moustache, and stroked a white cat.
Cora confronted him alone in his office, and it's a miracle she survived long enough to do this. Her preferred method of solving crimes seems to be meeting suspects in circumstances of obvious danger and asking if they've killed anybody recently.
At least she had a gun when confronting one killer, who was caught in the act. Who knew crossword compilers were routinely armed?
She also managed to force her way into the office of Mr Peacock, the rather limp governor of Bakerbury Prison and an early suspect, by bribing the guards with biscuits.
Presumably, these guards were sacked following this outrageous security breach — and immediately recruited by RAF Brize Norton.
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