Reviewed: Murder Most Puzzling, Mitford drama Outrageous

This isn't the first time Phyllis Logan has dabbled in crime. Her gangster's wife in Guilt was more terrifying than any of her character's henchmen, and deserved a series of her own (quick as you like, Neil Forsyth).
In the meantime, we will have to make do with Murder Most Puzzling, one of a growing band of 'cosy crime' offerings taking over the TV schedules (Ludwig, The Madame Blanc Mysteries), publishing (Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club) and film (Netflix's adaptation of Osman's book, arriving August). Cosy and crime: it's a difficult combination to get right.
Logan's Cora Felton could have gone either way. A crossword setter known as The Puzzle Lady, Cora has come to the small town of Bakerbury with her niece, Sherry (Charlotte Hope), hoping for a quieter life.
As per, all is not as it seems, starting with Cora. When a woman is found dead with what looks like a crossword clue in her pocket, the local plod ask for Cora's help. Before you can say a four-letter word for unbelievable, the victims are piling up and Cora has turned into a full-blown sleuth.
The oft-married, loves-a-tipple Cora is a likeable sort given added heft by Logan. There's a scene at the start, when Cora is interviewing the parents of a young woman who died in an accident, that could have gone horribly wrong if not for Logan bringing her acting chops to bear.
Cora/Logan is also a highly convincing dropper of the F-bomb, a power she uses seldom but well, ditto her Scottish sarkiness. 'Isn't the internet a marvel,' she says while picking a lock. 'All these instructional videos by cheerful men, helping burglars.'
The rest is strictly Scooby-Doo, and I'd still rather have a series with Logan as a crime clan matriarch, but I might be tempted back to see how Cora is getting on.
Outrageous
U&Drama (free to air)
***
WHAT ho folks, it's a thoroughly spiffing drama about those game gels, the Mitford sisters. You know the ones: Nancy the novelist, Diana the beauty, the one who went full blown Nazi … There ought to be a verse, like the one for Henry VIII's wives. Published, divorced, fascist …
Written by Sarah Williams, Outrageous wisely gives the job of narrator to Nancy the novelist (played by Bessie Carter). It is Nancy who introduces us to the six sisters and one brother. Since he's the lucky chap who will inherit everything, it's up to the rest of them to marry well, a rule swiftly ignored like all the rest.
Outrageous is handsomely shot and convincingly shabby in its depiction of the times. A few clunky moments of exposition aside ('Mrs Guinness? Oswald Mosley'), it rolls along like a game of croquet on a well-tended lawn. The first episode - one of six - is a warm-up for what comes next, but Anna Chancellor is already a standout as the mother desperate to get the gels off her hands. Careful what you wish for, 'Muv'. Next week: Diana invites Unity to join her on a trip to Germany.

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• The Guardian

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Metro

an hour ago

• Metro

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