A Talk with Sally Lindsay Solves Why 'The Madame Blanc Mysteries’ Popularity Persists

As antiques expert Jean White, the multi-talented Sally Lindsay heads an eclectic cast in The Madame Blanc Mysteries, the fan favorite cozy mystery set in the south of France and populated by a host of British expats and charming French locals. Not only the lead actor, Lindsay is also the creator and co-writer. Following in the footsteps of shows like Murder, She Wrote, the series centers on a whip-smart but unassuming woman with a remarkable ability to discern details and unravel puzzles.

Being an approachable, likeable character gives Jean an edge that most don’t recognize: the ability to gather pertinent information right out in the open. There’s something impactful and important about Jean being a regular person. Madame Blanc nods fondly at Lovejoy, the Ian McShane show of the late 1980s whose main character was also a mystery-solving antiques expert. But where Lovejoy was difficult and somewhat curmudgeon-y, Jean is affable and joyous.

The mysteries in this show are increasingly creative and mostly, but not always, about murder. The suspicious death of Jean’s husband which begins the show, and her ensuing harassment by his mistress gets wrapped up in series 2, leaving room in series 3 for more exploration of interpersonal relationships. The show appeals for both its character-driven stories and its brainteasing twists. For the audience, it’s rewarding and reassuring that Jean will solve every puzzle thrown her way.

Lindsay sat down with Telly Visions to clue us in on her creative process with her writing partner, her inspirations, favorite characters, and the possibility of a fourth series.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Telly Visions: Congratulations on a well-written, popular series. You are the creator, co-writer, and star. Have you considered directing any of the episodes?

Sally Lindsay: You know what, no. It's not a “know your limits” thing; I've just never been particularly interested in it. I have to be really passionate about something to do it. And I just know better [directors than myself]. Dermot [Boyd] who directs it, he's the yin to my yang. I need that person who can see it as well as I can, who has a similar vision so it's not all on me. I think you need at least one other person. I've got a lot of people because I write it with [co-star] Sue [Vincent]. But essentially, it’s my vision and I do need Dermot to give me the other side: “Do you think it would be better if we did that?” I'm very open to that; I'm not really a control freak. Directing is something I think is brilliant to be able to do, but I wouldn't be the best at it. And that would get on my nerves.

TV: How do you write as a team with Sue Vincent? What do the mechanics of that look like?

SL: I'm the one with this obsession with murder mystery. I've loved it forever, from being little. It was almost a subconscious thing. I've just always read that stuff — even when I was at university reading English, I was reading all the other stuff as well, the thrillers and whodunits. What's happened by osmosis is I am the one with the plot brain, the mystery brain. Sue's really brilliant at dialogue and emotion. I do write a lot of the dialogue as well, but we have a system where I write a 20-24 scene beat sheet. Then Sue goes away and writes a really extended script, 10 pages more than she needs, sometimes more, and then we get back together and rewrite the whole thing. It's a very unusual way of writing. It’s a very female way because there's no ego in it. We know what we're best at. I’ll say, “I'll leave you to do that Sue bit there.” And then she'll go, “Well, you do your Sally bit there.” It seems to keep working so we don’t want to break it! I don't think we'll be asked to do any lectures because people will go, ‘How can that work?’ — but it does.

TV: Have you written together before?

SL: Yes. We met on a comedy drama called Mount Pleasant, which was for Sky. I started that in 2011 and we went for seven years. Sue bizarrely played my auntie on it. She had a guest role now and again, it was very funny. We met and she said, “I’m really into writing” and I said, “Well, I've created series before.” We’ve written comedies before but no actual drama. This is the first nuts and bolts one that we've done. We've been very lucky that it's taken off.

TV: How do you come up with the mysteries?

SL: I could be literally passing a bus stop, and I see someone who's got a weird coat on and that will spark something off. Or I'm walking around the park with my dog and listening to Agatha Christie, and I'm thinking of the structure. And then I go, “What if the antique did that…” When I'm listening to other mystery stuff it just opens another door. And it’s terrible, my [internet] browsing history. It's all murderers, and how do you murder someone? I'd be really worried if I wasn't a mystery writer!

What Sue's brilliant at is she does loads of research, too much! Sometimes our ideas are so out there that our bosses go, “I don't think the audience will believe…” And then we go, “Hang on a minute, it's happened. And this is where it's happened.” [Ideas] come from everywhere, really. I hear a story about an antique or a certain dictator, and they have this hidden thing that'll lead me down a path to something else. There's no rhyme or reason really.

TV: Clearly, there's a ton of research, as you've mentioned, that goes into each of these episodes. What are some of the most interesting facts you've learned?

SL: Last season, we killed someone by sound, which I thought was really interesting [series 2, ep 6]. I don't think I've ever seen that. I'm sure it's been on television before because nothing's really new, but I've not seen it in my experience. We did so much research on that. My husband, who's a musician, said, “What speaker would you need to make that kind of frequency?” -- because it's horrible. The lungs are exploded; that's what happens, it's horrific. For someone to put someone in a room with that, you've got to be a bit tapped. We wanted to make it a twist as well, which it was, and I think that was really interesting because we went into the realms of sonic warfare and why it's never worked: because they can't control it. The sonic warfare would kill you lot as well. There's no we shoot, you shoot back, there's none of that, because everybody's dead. A bit like napalm, why they don't use that anymore.

I think when we did the [Hilma] af Klint in season one [ep 4] as well, we found out that she was not only into the occult, she was also a surrealist before any man. That story’s never been told before. She really was doing all the surreal stuff before the big boys even started the movement. But because she was a woman, it wasn't in history, was it? Now, she's finally got her credit. We did research on a watch last year that was just for polo players, and I was like, why does that work? There's a brilliant one about brandy this year which we were blown away by. It’s this constant thing of finding out just how mad we are as humans and how we value antiques and possessions, and what we'll do for that. There’s a great one when we did Les Dennis’s [episode] last year [series 2, ep 5] with the occult and La Voisin. She was mad! She was a murderer, a mass murderer, and got paid for it. You think, “These people actually existed?” It’s fantastic.

TV: Besides Jean, who's your favorite character?

SL: I'm obsessed with Judith (Sue Holderness) and Jeremy (Robin Askwith). I love writing them. Sometimes me and Sue can make ourselves laugh over FaceTime when we come up with a line for Judith and Jeremy because we know those two amazing actors, we know exactly how they're going to say it. But I think Dom (Steve Edge) is a brilliant character, too. He’s so well-rounded and funny and loved. I'm so pleased with Steve because I've known him since Phoenix Nights when we were 25. It's brilliant that he's got this character and made it so real. And I love Caron (Alex Gaumond); and Tony Robinson’s character Uncle Patrick’s come back and he's brilliant. And Gloria (Sue Vincent) is fabulous. I love all our regulars. Because they're so defined and so different, it's very easy to keep the world alive with them. I fight for the regulars to be in it more than they are because I love their drama as much as the mysteries. I'm obsessed with them all, really.

TV: Let's talk about Judith. In the episode “Kidnap,” we get to see a piece of her backstory that humanizes her in a very touching way. Can you talk about her evolution as a character?

SL: I worked with Sue Holderness in 2008; we did The Vagina Monologues on tour. I remember looking at this woman that everybody knew from this one character in a very famous television program, and thinking she was one of the best actors I've ever worked with. I was just obsessed with her. What's brilliant about Sue is she is really, really posh; she lives in Windsor, where the Queen lives. She's really cool, but she's so down to earth and such a brilliant actor.

SL: Judith is very out there. She thinks everyone adores her, which they do, but not for the reasons she thinks. She's a typical British expat. The level of arrogance is off the scale because they think there’s still pink on the map. Jeremy and Judith get their food shipped in from Fortnum & Mason, and they don't speak a word of French. I wanted to make them larger-than-life characters. But then I always had a reason why they were like that, why they chose that life. What happened to them that made them so, “We get what we want, we're hedonistic, we've got all this money, we have a lovely time; we don't care about anything else. We just love each other, and that's it.”

That was the reason I came up with this. I wrote them that scene about Judith and Jeremy's background because it's very important for the men to be involved as well. That’s speaking as a huge feminist; child loss is a very important thing for both men and women, and you never get over it. I've seen it in the edit a million times, but when they did that episode, I was in tears. I just thought they were so brilliant. They're both such fantastic actors, and they treated it with such warmth and depth. I was so proud of them.

TV: The end of series 3 is extremely satisfying, and it could be seen either as a series finale or a new beginning. Will we get a series 4?

SL: I very much hope so because I see it as a new beginning. But I don't own a network, so unfortunately, I can't say! I think if you lot over there watch it, then hopefully we can carry the story on, because I think it’s got so much more to go. I think we can go anywhere with it now. I mean, the world. And, you know, we've only just started on a few of the new regulars. I'm raring to go to with the next one. So, hopefully, fingers crossed! I'll put it out there in the universe. The kids call it manifesting, don’t they?

The Madame Blanc Mysteries Season 3 premieres on Acorn TV on Monday, February 19, 2024, with two episodes. (Technically, Episodes 2 and 3, as the Christmas special in December 2023, was Season 3, Episode 1). The rest of the season will follow a weekly release schedule thereafter.