The BBC and BritBox have announced the cast for new ten-part mystery drama The Detection Club, with Miles Jupp, Bryony Hannah and Cara Theobold set to play three of Britain’s most celebrated crime writers as filming gets underway in the West Midlands.
Set in 1930s London and inspired by the golden age of detective fiction, the series imagines what might happen if G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers turned their talents for creating fictional mysteries towards solving real murders. Jupp will play Chesterton, Hannah takes on Christie and Theobold stars as Sayers, with Viraj Juneja joining them as young police detective D.I. Greenway.
What Is The Detection Club About?
Created for television by Kit Lambert and based on an original idea from author Simon Brett, The Detection Club follows Christie, Sayers and Chesterton as they meet within the walls of a secret London location to work on their craft. When an unusual invitation leads the writers into their first real murder investigation, their literary skills quickly become useful away from the page, and the trio begin working together on a series of mysteries. Their investigations also bring them into contact with D.I. Greenway, an inexperienced detective determined to prove himself who finds his work both helped and complicated by the writers.
Who Is in The Detection Club Cast?
Miles Jupp, known for Belgravia: The Next Chapter and Napoleon, will play G.K. Chesterton, with Call the Midwife and Rivals star Bryony Hannah taking on Agatha Christie and Downton Abbey actor Cara Theobold playing Dorothy L. Sayers. Viraj Juneja joins them as D.I. Greenway, with further casting still to be announced. Jupp described Chesterton as an “endlessly intriguing” and pleasingly eccentric character, with Hannah saying the series offers the chance to explore a different side of Christie beyond her extraordinary success as a novelist. Theobold also praised Sayers as razor-sharp, funny and uncompromising, describing the opportunity to play her as a dream role.
Is The Detection Club Based on a True Story?
The series takes inspiration from the real Detection Club and the writers associated with the golden age of British crime fiction, but its murder investigations are fictional. Writer Kit Lambert describes the central idea as asking what would happen if the people behind some of Britain’s greatest fictional detectives were given murders of their own to solve, using their lives, writing and friendship as inspiration.
That premise gives the series plenty to play with, particularly by bringing three very different literary personalities together and placing them in cases normally reserved for the detectives they created. With the action set against 1930s London, the BBC is promising a mixture of literary glamour, social change and murder mystery throughout the ten episodes.
When Is The Detection Club on BBC?
The BBC has not announced a transmission date for The Detection Club. Filming is now underway across the West Midlands, with the series consisting of ten 45-minute episodes and set to air on the BBC in the UK, with BritBox carrying the drama in North America. Hans Herbots, whose credits include The Serpent, is directing the first two episodes, with BBC Studios Drama Productions producing and BBC Studios handling global sales. Further casting and broadcast details will be announced later.
For CultureCues, this is such a fun concept, putting Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and G.K. Chesterton into the investigations instead of their famous detective characters. Miles Jupp, Bryony Hannah and Cara Theobold already feels like a brilliant trio to lead it. We are especially curious to see how their very different personalities work together once the fictional murders start piling up. Give us 1930s London, literary rivalries and ten episodes of amateur sleuthing and we are absolutely there. The game, as they say, is very much afoot.
The Detection Club is currently filming in the West Midlands. A release date has not yet been announced.
Nikki Murray is a UK-based writer, screenwriter and founder & editor of CultureCues, covering film, television, music and pop culture. Her work focuses on storytelling and the moments shaping modern entertainment.