Acorn TV’s ’80s Set 'Murder Before Evensong' Is Remarkably Timely

Murder Before Evensong, AcornTV’s latest murder mystery, is set in the 1980s with the AIDS epidemic as a backdrop. Gay people, those diagnosed with AIDS, and those who support them and love them are ostracized and condemned. More than 40 years later, it’s hard to understand people being judged by who they chose to love and how they chose to live their lives. 

Kidding!

Sadly, even though Murder Before Evensong, based on the Canon Clement Mysteries series by Reverend Richard Coles, takes place almost four decades ago, many of its themes resonate today, making this ostensibly period piece remarkably timely. 

Matthew Lewis (the all-grown-up Neville Longbottom from the Harry Potter movies) stars as Canon Daniel Clement, the Rector of Champton. Daniel is an exceptionally kind man, the epitome of a person who lives his faith. He rushes to the bedside of those who are dying, offering forgiveness for anything that may be troubling them. He accepts the dead rabbit given to him by a parishioner to make pies, only to provide the rabbit with “a proper burial” in his yard. He listens to his flock with compassion and offers sound advice. “Doing the right things usually comes at a cost, but only you can decide if it’s a price worth paying,” he tells one conflicted man. Daniel knows everyone in the fictional village of Champton, and they all know him. 

(Champton comes across a little like the British version of Stars Hollow. Everyone is in everyone’s business. Everyone hangs out at the same pub. Attends the same town carnival. Reads the same town paper. It’s the ’80s! There are still newspapers!)

As the six-episode series opens, Daniel finds himself in the crosshairs of many of his parishioners and the Parish Church Council. The uptight Stella (Tamzin Outhwaite) is livid that Daniel wants to add a bathroom to the church and divert money from her precious flower budget. Sisters Kath (Marion Bailey) and Dora (Amanda Hadingue) might actually support the need for a bathroom, but they are too afraid of Stella to cross her. 

Meanwhile, Daniel is getting letters mailed to his house that say things like “You should burn in hell” for his support of the “gay plague” and his belief that “everyone deserves God’s love.” On top of all that, his mother, Audrey (Amanda Redman), arrives to live with him a whole week earlier than planned. She’s not upset by his support of AIDS patients, but is livid that he would be photographed wearing pale socks with dark trousers. 

Amidst all this, he finds Anthony Bowness (Adam Smethurst) murdered in the church, his throat slashed, before the evening prayer known as evensong. (Ed note: We have title!) Anthony, a history buff, was deep into investigating a World War II covert army that was put together in order to mount an attack if the Nazis ever invaded Britain. His cousin Bernard (Adam James) found him to be a bit of a family embarrassment. Bernard’s son Alex (Alexander Delamain) seems too busy with his “performance art” to have paid him much attention. 

Soon, DS Neil Vanloo (Amit Shah) is there investigating the murder and questioning who the intended victim truly was. DS Vanloo doesn’t exactly welcome the help from the local priest. “You’re not a detective, Daniel,” he admonishes him at one point. 

The highlight of the series is the somewhat fraught relationship between Daniel and his mother. Redman’s Audrey and her well-placed barbs provide the series with some delightful comic relief. “How dare they upset you like this?” Audrey says at one point. “That’s my job!” The family bonds of other key characters are also explored with nuance and grace. No character fits neatly into a stereotypical box, allowing them to behave in surprising ways. 

There are numerous layers and subplots to the story, including clandestine romances, long-held secrets, high-end art forgery, scandalous (for the time) out-of-wedlock births, terminal diagnoses, and complex family dynamics. All serve to offer up several extremely plausible red herrings about who the murderer could be over the season’s six episodes. The show zigs and zags so much, you start to worry they’ll lose the thread, but in fact, the ultimate reveal packs quite a shock, neatly sticking the landing. 

With his calm demeanor, Lewis grounds the series, allowing the viewer to genuinely accept that the local vicar can also be a crime solver. With some great ’80s fashion, some even better ’80s bops (it’s been far too long since I’ve heard “She Drives Me Crazy” by Fine Young Cannibals), and fantastic performances, Murder Before Evensong is a delight. 

Rev. Coles, who serves as an executive producer, has an entire Canon Clement series of novels. (Book 4, A Death on Location, is newly on shelves, in a nice bit of timing.) It’s easy to see this series continuing and Daniel solving more crimes. From my mouth to God’s ears, as the saying goes. 

Murder Before Evensong debuts on Acorn TV on Monday, September 29, 2025, and will stream one episode a week on Mondays through the end of October.