Caption
Judith Potts (Samantha Bond), Suzie Harris (Jo Martin), Becks Starling (Cara Horgan)
Credit: MASTERPIECE, Monumental Television, and UKTV.
Banner Image
Section Branding
Header Content
From Screen to Street: Exploring the Real Marlow Behind the Murder Mysteries
Hero Image
Primary Content
The fall season is almost here, and with it comes another roster of British dramas on Sunday nights. While some are new (see future issues of NEXT for more), the season kicks off on Sunday, August 24 with several returning favorites including the MASTERPIECE hit of 2024, The Marlow Murder Club. Adapted from Robert Thorogood’s novels (you may recognize him as the author behind the popular series Death in Paradise, also adapted for television), we pick up in Season 2 with Judith (Samantha Bond), Suzie (Jo Martin), Becks (Cara Horgan), and their contact-turned-friend at the police station, Tanika (Natalie Dew), for three new cases, including an adaptation the second book, Death Comes to Marlow, uncovered over the course of six episodes.
However, we cannot forget about the fifth main character of the cast: Marlow itself. Thorogood is deliberate with his setting choices when writing The Marlow Murder Club, with various locations in the real-life Marlow appearing both on the page and the show. It not only gives the series an element of authenticity, it inspires viewers, myself included, to want to visit the small town on the Thames where welcoming boutiques and cozy cafes reign supreme, the river is alive with fishing, swimming, and rowing, and the community is close-knit. From services at All Saints Church to the annual Marlow Town Regatta, friends and neighbors take time to reconnect, share gossip, and in the context of The Marlow Murder Club, investigate murders.
While the murders are best kept to fiction, the rest of Marlow’s charm is undeniable. For an inside look, I turned to my friend Jonathan Sweatman: while he has spent four decades living in the U.S. and now calls Atlanta home, he was born and raised in the U.K., spending much of his adolescence in Marlow. Over cups of English Breakfast tea, he was pleased to share memories of Marlow and his recommendations on getting the most out of your own visit.
“[The film production] put a lot of energy and effort into the establishing shots of the iconic architecture of Marlow,” Jonathan was quick to share when I asked what resonated with him the most when watching Season 1. “The bridge in particular, and All Saints Church right there by the bridge.” The High Street and the background shots featuring swans were also attention-grabbing, and accurate to the Marlow he grew up in and now visits whenever he can with his family. The swans, he mentioned, are maintained by a group that works for the British Crown called Swan Uppers. “Every year, they start at one end of the Thames and they essentially row wearing traditional uniforms, capturing every young swan in order to put a ring around its foot in order to monitor population growth and health.” A possible setting for a future murder perhaps, though Jonathan was quick to mention that residents of Marlow never make it an event: “we’ll just go about our day when they row into Marlow.”
Jonathan’s parents chose to move their family to Marlow in 1967 after previously living in Birmingham and Kent. “That part of the country had a completely different education system,” He explained his parents’ choice of selecting Marlow to raise their children, leaving his father to commute in and out of London for work. “There were two different education systems and the one in that part of the country was what my parents thought would be better for my siblings and I.” His family wasn’t alone: plenty of families chose Marlow for that reason, and still do today. Jonathan likened the commute from London to Marlow as similar to commuters into New York City’s Manhattan from northern New Jersey: a very common route that balanced the lives of working parents and the environment where they wanted to raise their children. “The Stockbroker belt,” he called it, including Marlow in a safe, affluent area of England far enough away from the problems of bigger cities but close enough to access more lucrative job opportunities.
“But I’m really enormously proud to be from there. It was an idyllic little town,” Jonathan emphasized: there’s a fondness in his expressions as he recalled his memories of Marlow. “Kind of the way it is portrayed in The Marlow Murder Club. But it was very insular, very monochromatic.” It wasn’t until Jonathan had nearly graduated from the British equivalent of high school that out of 550 boys, his school admitted their first pupil of color. In the sixties and seventies, the restaurants were mostly focused on British cuisine, save for the two Chinese restaurants in town. Now, an array of cafes and curry houses join the restaurants and pubs, just like the one that receives the detectives’ patronage in Season 2.
Still, some things about Marlow stay the same: the buildings, for one. “The buildings themselves you cannot touch,” Jonathan shared as he illuminated upon some of the changes of Marlow: cities like Marlow, like many across Great Britain with any history in them at all, are subject to very strong architectural protection rules. While the retail businesses change, the buildings themselves are protected. “There was a store on the High Street that was a butcher shop since the 17th Century and remained that way, passed down through the same family, right up until Mad Cow Disease, and then it became a jewelry store. But the buildings themselves must remain the same.”
Another tradition that remains the same and is featured multiple times on The Marlow Murder Club is the propensity to enjoy the Thames: from Judith’s swimming to rowing and sailing, Jonathan was eager to confirm for me that rowing especially was, and still is, a popular pastime for Marlow residents and visitors alike, thanks to a Marlow celebrity who put the town on the map before Robert Thorogood: Sir Stephen Redgrave. “Rowing was huge in Marlowe when I was there because of Sir Stephen Redgrave. Sir Stephen Redgrave rowed at Marlowe. He won the gold medal in five consecutive Olympics. My sister went to school with him.” While rowing competitions have moved to other towns, Marlow’s annual Town Regatta is more of a celebratory festival with various styles of boats on display and, as Jonathan describes it, “One big party.” Not a bad place to catch up with friends like the murder suspects did in Season 1.
But friendships made in Marlow are formed to last. When Jonathan’s father passed away, a former Mayor of Marlow and previously a part of the Marlow Town Council, he reached out to the Town Council for help in honoring his memory, resulting in a ceremonial procession through the High Street with as many current and former mayors and council members walking behind the hearse as they could fit. The mayor at the time? An old school friend of Jonathan’s.
The Mayor of Marlow also factors into The Marlow Murder Club, though presumably not until Season 3 which will likely cover the third book in Thorogood’s series, Queen of Poisons. In the story, the fictional Mayor of Marlow is an important character, and I couldn’t resist asking Jonathan his opinion about what the series should include in order to really bring the role to life. “To try to bring some development to the town without changing the character,” He answered decisively. “It’s not uncommon to see a celebrity walking up and down the High Street in Marlow. When celebrities make their millions and move out to the country to buy the farm, there’s a lot of that around. There is a strong effort to preserve the old look and feel, so my father would work on plans during his time in the town council and as mayor not to change the road systems and frontages of the buildings.”
But it’s not just celebrities moving to Marlow: tourists also pay the town a visit, with trains to and from London to make it an easy day trip or a long weekend. It’s best to come on a clear day, Jonathan recommended: “The Compleat Angler Hotel is classic, and right on the Buckinghamshire side is All Saints Church, which is very pretty. It’s easy to walk up and down the High Street, and particularly today, Marlow has become a hub for tremendous food culture because of Tom Kerridge. Now when people are visiting, you see a lot of foodies in Marlow.” Jonathan also insisted that a trip to Marlow isn’t complete without a visit to the Marlow Brewery for a pint of his favorite beer, Rebellion. Unfortunately, it can’t be shipped to the USA, so fans must enjoy Marlow’s unique offerings there. “It’s why people want to come visit and move there, because it still has that old English town feel and hasn't been built up. The town doesn't feel as if it's lost the plot.”
I wondered if he’d visited any towns in Georgia that reminded him of Marlow, and for a moment that seemed to have stumped him. But finally, he gave me his recommendation for where Georgians can get a similar feel to Marlow at home. “I would say the closest would be somewhere like Savannah because of its history and the layouts of the streets and river. And of course, the preservation efforts.”
Season 2 of The Marlow Murder Club premieres Sunday, August 24 at 9 p.m. on GPB-TV and will be available to stream on GPB Passport.
Secondary Content
Author
Bottom Content
