20-06-2025
What is Murder Most Puzzling? Channel 5 launches Ludwig-style murder mystery show
There are few entirely new concepts in TV, so it's unsurprising that every so often a debut series feels like a déjà vu moment for viewers.
Murder Most Puzzling might well spark that sense of familiarity in anyone settling down to watch Channel 5 on Thursday, 19 June as the murder mystery starring Downton Abbey's Phyllis Logan follows a similar premise to Ludwig, a hit for the BBC in 2024. Both comedy-dramas feature an oddball cryptic puzzle writer who joins forces with the police to solve some head-scratching cases.
Whether Logan's show can replicate the huge success of the David Mitchell starrer remains to be seen, but if you like quirky sleuths and mind-boggling clues, this could be the series for you.
Here's all you need to know about Murder Most Puzzling as it begins on Channel 5.
A cryptic crossword enthusiast at odds with social norms joins forces with the police to help solve a series of puzzling murders - no, it's not the second season of BBC's Ludwig, this is Channel 5 offering Murder Most Puzzling.
This time, the cruciverbalist in question is Cora Felton, played by Phyllis Logan. She's a Bloody Mary-swilling, chain-smoking brain box who turns out to be a match for local detectives when she tries her hand at sleuthing.
Ludwig fans might spot plenty of similarities in this three-part series, but it's actually based on the crime-thriller Puzzle Lady Mysteries novels by Parnell Hall which were published between 1999 and 2019.
Hall is a US author, but the TV adaptation couldn't be more British, set in the village of Bakerbury where like Midsomer Murders, there is an unusually high ratio of suspicious deaths in the small community.
Downton Abbey's Phyllis Logan is the series star as Cora and she told This Morning on Thursday, 19 June what a fun time she'd had making the series.
"It's so punchy and different," she said. "I know it's about murder, but if you can have a comedy side to murder then this is it. She likes a Bloody Mary before just great fun to play a character like that."
Logan added: "Everybody can't get enough of (crime drama), and people can't get enough of making it either. But this has got a really lovely twist to it because it's not your straightforward, grisly old crime."
Her co-stars include Charlotte Hope as Sherry Carter, Adam Best as DCI Hooper, and Nick Danan and Jack Weise as his police colleagues DS Sam Brody and PC Danny Finley.
Logan also welcomed her husband Kevin McNally onto set for the second time in a year as they co-starred again after playing husband and wife in BBC's Miss Austen.
She told This Morning: "We started the year last year working together playing Mr and Mrs Austen, and then we finished the year playing a kind of romantically-linked couple in Murder Most Puzzling. It's like bring your husband to work day!"
Murder Most Puzzling begins on Channel 5 at 8pm on Thursday, 19 June.
