On song
Murder Before Evensong stars Matthew Lewis and Amit Shah lift the lid on this adaptation of Reverend Richard Coles’ murder-mystery novel, their on-screen partnership as a vicar and a detective investigating a distressing death, and issues with facial hair.
With blond hair and a full beard and moustache, Matthew Lewis looks nothing like Canon Daniel Clement, the character he plays in new murder-mystery series Murder Before Evensong. In fact, the actor had hoped he could keep his facial hair for the role, but after turning up on set, he quickly determined it wasn’t the right look.
“On the first day of filming, Matt turned up with a full beard and then by the time we were ready to film, it was off,” laughs Amit Shah, who plays DS Neil Vanloo in the drama based on the first novel by the Reverend Richard Coles.
“We love a bit of facial hair chat, don’t we, with you and your moustache,” Lewis adds of his co-star’s own on-screen look. “Long story short, there was a degree of worry, maybe, that I might look a bit too young [for the role]. And admittedly, when I shave, I do look very young. When I was in the costume, I even felt like I was a child doing cosplay. I did feel like I was at Halloween dressed as a priest, rather than an actual priest.
“Here’s the thing: I don’t like shaving. I don’t want to shave. I don’t enjoy it. So whenever a producer or a director goes, ‘Oh, you can keep the beard,’ I’m like, ‘Great.’ But for Daniel, it wasn’t what I envisaged. It wasn’t right. I didn’t feel comfortable. I said, ‘Look, this just isn’t right.’ And they went, ‘Yeah, we don’t think it is either.’ So we got rid of it.”
Murder Before Evensong, which debuts tomorrow on 5 in the UK following its recent launch in the US and Canada on Acorn TV, introduces Lewis as Daniel, the Rector of Champton, who finds himself unexpectedly entangled in a murder case when a dead body turns up in his church.
Sharing Champton Rectory with his widowed mother Audrey (Amanda Redman) – and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda – Daniel’s plans to modernise the church leave his parish community divided. Then when a body is found at the back of the church – the first of several to appear – he joins DS Vanloo in a bid to find the killer and keep his fractured community together.
Playing out across six episodes, the drama also features cast members Adam James, Meghan Treadaway, Alexander Delamain, Marion Bailey, Amanda Hadingue, Tamzin Outhwaite, Francis Magee and Nina Toussaint-White.
With the show arriving on screen alongside a host of other murder-mystery series (The Marlow Murder Club, The Puzzle Lady), some also involving vicars (Grantchester, Father Brown), Lewis dismisses the suggestion that Murder Before Evensong could be considered TV’s latest ‘cosy crime’ drama.
“I don’t know if there’s anything really cosy about it. Honestly, it’s quite dark and, tonally, it might surprise some people,” he tells DQ, speaking from his Florida home where he spends his time when not in the UK. “Obviously there is a murder mystery at the heart of it, and it is a clergyman, so I can see why it’s in that thing. But it’s got a lot more to it than that. It’s really atmospheric and very character-driven.”
The adaptation has been penned by Nick Hicks-Beach. According to Lewis, the writer has taken the “main bulk” of the source material but added new subplots and issues relating to the show’s 1980s setting.
“Britain’s going through a very interesting time in the late 80s. We talk about the shifting socioeconomic situations where people who live in big stately homes and are lords of the manor are all on their way out, and the place is, in theory, becoming more egalitarian,” the actor explains. “We focus very heavily on the AIDS epidemic, and therefore the LGBT community – and religion as well. The Church of England’s going through a transition at this time where it’s trying to figure out if it still has a place in this new world and trying to navigate social questions, so Nick has put all of this in this series.
“So yes, you have a good old murder mystery at the heart of it, but there is an awful lot more. Hopefully people who come to it expecting just a fun little cosy crime will be challenged a little bit more and will get more out of it than they’re expecting.”
That the main murder mystery is serialised over six episodes means the show – produced by The Lighthouse and distributed by AMC Networks – gives viewers time to invest in the characters and their intricate, often complicated relationships. “You really do want to hook viewers at the end of each episode, so that they do watch the next one, and they continue on this journey,” Shah says. “Nick has done a wonderful job in creating this episodic nature and adapting it from Richard’s book.”
A police officer who is originally from Manchester, DS Vanloo transferred to Braunstonbury and has been waiting to make his mark in an area with a decidedly different crime rate. When events in nearby Champton change everything, he is brought in to investigate multiple murders, blackmail and fraud. He then meets Daniel, and is open-minded over accepting help from the local vicar.
“He thinks outside of the box; he will use what’s at his disposal, and that just happens to be Daniel, who is at the centre of this community,” Shah says of his character. “In some ways, he feels he’s an outsider, but he develops this really interesting working relationship with Daniel, and it develops into a fondness and then a friendship. In a sense, they work on this case together as a team.”
Daniel is hardly a reluctant partner in the investigation, however. In fact, “he’s absolutely fascinated by it,” says Lewis, who is best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films, as well as roles in Ripper Street, The Syndicate, Happy Valley and All Creatures Great & Small. “One of the interesting things is his mother is a curtain-twitcher. She’s a gossip, and she’s obsessed with knowing what’s going on. The reason they butt heads so much is that actually they’re quite similar in that respect. Daniel finds it all very uncouth, but he’s just as interested. He’s just as much of a rubberneck as she is. He just doesn’t care to admit it.”
He also describes Daniel as a problem-solver. “I imagine he sits in and does the Times crossword every day,” he jokes. Now with a murderer in his parish, Daniel has the chance to reunite his community, find justice for the victim and also solve a puzzle – “so it ticks a lot of boxes for him.”
Like DS Vanloo, Daniel has also swapped a big city for a quieter life, and sees the police officer as someone with whom he can be friends in a more personal way than he can be with his congregation.
“Amit sent me a thing the other day about a member of the Church of England talking about why reverends are obsessed with crime and with murder,” Lewis adds. “She didn’t really have an answer, but she was just saying, ‘They absolutely are.’ I don’t know if the job of a reverend is intrinsically linked with death, but it’s linked with a sense of justice and mercy and salvation. It does feel like a natural thing for a reverend to stick his beak into, honestly.”
DS Vanloo is equally filled with fascination, but for Daniel himself and his faith in religion. “Neil is the other side of the spectrum. He’s quite skeptical and suspicious of people. But Daniel is intrigued by how he works as a detective and how he solves these crimes,” Shah says. “It becomes a working relationship, which then develops into a friendship. There’s a lot of banter and wit along the way, but there’s a real respect between the two men because they know they can use each other, in a sense.”
As the lead character, Lewis features in most scenes in the series, ably supported by Shah and Redman. He therefore felt a responsibility to lead the show and set the tone during filming on location in the West Midlands. “I’ve been doing this for over 30 years now, and I’ve been really fortunate to be led by some really fabulous actors who created environments that allowed everyone, including myself, to thrive. I’ve also had a handful of actors who have been less enjoyable to work with, and I’ve always known which one I want to be,” he says. “I just want everyone to be able to come on to a set and be able to do their best work possible.
“A lead actor has a responsibility and can play a big part in setting that tone and creating that environment. That was what I tried to do. I just wanted to make sure the crew and the cast were all one. I was as nervous as anyone else, so I wanted everyone to be able to come in and feel like they could play and shoot their shot. And if it fails, it fails. So what? Let’s try something else.”
In particular, he points to Succession actor and his Ripper Street co-star Matthew Macfadyen as a “great” example of how to behave on set. Lewis joined the period crime drama in its fourth season, “being very nervous coming into this very established cast as a new regular, and Matthew, it was his set, and he made everyone feel like part of it,” he says. “We all felt very safe and comfortable very early. In my opinion, that’s how you get the best out of people, so that’s what I wanted too. The only responsibility I felt I had was to try to do that.”
Shah adds: “It was a pleasure working with Matt. He very much was a leading man on this show, but he was incredibly collaborative and treated everyone equally, and also set an incredible example because he was so prepared and hardworking. It really did inspire everyone else.”
With more books by Rev Coles in the Canon Clement book series, Lewis and Shah would both be keen to reunite to solve further mysteries in Champton.
“It was a real treat to be working alongside him and I looked forward, every single day, to going into work,” Lewis says of his co-star. “We’ll see how this show plays out with the audiences. I’d love to go back to work with this man and take their relationship on another journey.”
Like that? Watch this! Suggested by AI, selected by DQ
Grantchester: An Anglican vicar partners with a hard-boiled detective to solve crimes in a 1950s English village, confronting deep secrets beneath the rural calm.
Father Brown: A gentle, sharp-witted Catholic priest uses empathy and insight to unravel baffling murders in the English countryside, bringing faith and forgiveness to a world plagued by crime.
Midsomer Murders: With the idyllic villages of rural England as a backdrop, Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby and his team peel back layers of genteel facades to expose shocking murders and family secrets.
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tagged in: 5, Acorn TV, AMC Networks, Amit Shah, Matthew Lewis, Murder Before Evensong, Richard Coles, The Lighthouse