Will there be a Murder Before Evensong season 2 — we certainly hope so, but is our optimism misplaced

In this cutthroat world of modern television production, many ostensibly good series with potential don’t make it far enough to fully develop. The cost of production needs to balance audience numbers (the BBC may be less susceptible to this), and well-regarded good programmes vanish into the limbo of cancelled tv shows. Will Murder Before Evensong join these shows, or make it through to season 2 (and beyond) — here’s our view.

The succeed the show needs audience, preferably a good reaction and scope to extend. We’ll take these in reverse order.

Is there scope for Murder Before Evensong season 2

The show is based on the Reverend Richard Coles novel of the same name. Despite the relatively high body count for a small community, the good news here is there are more novels. From the Reverend’s website, there are three more books and a novella. These are A Death in the Parish, Murder at the Monastery, A Death on Location and Murder Under the Mistletoe. Yes, the last of these set at Christmas. More on that later.

Is there an audience and is the adaptation well received

The books clearly tick those boxes, for the TV its not so clear. The BARB UK audience figures for episode 1 are strong enough — the seven day consolidated figures place the episode at #31, with over 3 million viewers, ahead of the ever-popular All Creatures Great and Small available on Channel 5 as well. It’s too early for the 28 day figures. Subsequent weeks are disappointing. The Yorkshire vets remain popular, but our crime-solving priest has dropped out of the range of the Top 50. Not a good sign. We don’t have any numbers for other regions where the show is available via Acorn TV itself.

Like a lot of UK shows, it attracts little interest on Rotten Tomatoes. A general search for reviews turns up the inevitable range of “cozy”, “not as good as the book”, “slow but satisfying” and so forth.

Our overall thoughts

We suspect there is a good chance of a season 2, simply due to the vast international market for this kind of show (think Sister Boniface, Father Brown, Midsomer Murders…) The ’80s setting is a little lost in the village of Champton, itself harking back to the ’50s in many ways. The cast is solid, production likewise and we’d be happy to watch again. We’d even go for a Christmas special, noting the existence of the novella named above.

We’ll certainly be looking out for more news, and bring it when we have it. Until then, the show is available to stream. Enjoy!