Lesley Manville returns to star as Susan Ryeland in the BBC mystery series Moonflower Murders, which serves as a sequel to Magpie Murders.

Magpie Murders aired back in 2022 and was an adaptation of the book of the same name by Anthony Horowitz.

The first series revolved around a dual storyline, with one section following Susan investigating the alleged suicide of author Alan Conway and the missing chapter of his final book in the Atticus Pünd murder-mystery series.

The other showed the fictional storyline of Pünd solving the murder of a housekeeper in 1955.

Following the conclusion of the series, Susan moved to Crete with her boyfriend Andreas to run a hotel.

A synopsis of Moonflower Murders on Radio Times states: "Susan Ryeland's idyll in Crete, where she's living with her boyfriend Andreas, is "disturbed" when a murder committed eight years ago at a British country hotel rears its head.

"Alan Conway, Susan's prima donna former author, visited the hotel and wrote a novel based on what happened there – a novel that later led Cecily Treherne, who helps run the hotel, to believe that the wrong man is behind bars.

"Now Cecily has disappeared. Can Susan uncover the secret hidden in the book and find Cecily before it's too late?"

BBC Moonflower Murders full cast list

  • Lesley Manville as Susan Ryeland
  • Timothy McMullan as Atticus Pünd
  • Conleth Hill as Alan Conway
  • Daniel Mays as Locke/Chubb
  • Alexandros Logothetis as Andreas Patakis
  • Mark Gatiss as Frank Parris/Oscar Berlin
  • Rosalie Craig as Lisa Treherne/Melissa James
  • Amy Griffiths as Cecily
  • Pippa Bennett-Warner as Madeline Cain
  • Adrian Rawlins as Lawrence Treherne/Lance Gardner
  • Pooky Quesnel as Pauline Treherne/Maureen Gardner
  • Will Tudor as Aiden MacNeil/Algernon Marsh

  • Rupert Evans as John Spencer
  • Thomas Coombes as Derek Endicott/Eric Chandler
  • Joanna Bacon as Gwyneth Endicott/Phyllis Chandler
  • Wade Briggs as Liam Corby
  • Kostis Daskalakis as Vangelis
  • Liam Garrigan as Leonard Collins
  • Tim Plester as Martin Webster
  • Kate Ashfield as Joanne Webster
  • Jeany Spark as Samantha Collins
  • Alec Secareanu as Stefan Leonida
  • Claire Rushbrook as Katie Williams
  • Matthew Beard as James Taylor
  • Martyn Ellis as Edgar Schultz
  • Billie Gadsdon as Roxanna MacNeil
  • Mitchell Robertson as Jack Williams

Recommended reading:

When will Moonflower Murders be on TV?

The first episode of Moonflower Murders will air at 9.15pm on Saturday, November 16 on BBC One, with the second following shortly afterwards at 10.20pm.

Overall, there will be six episodes, with the third scheduled to air at 9.25pm on Saturday, November 23.

Alternatively, if you don't want to wait for it to air on TV, all episodes will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer from November 16.