Acorn TV & Channel 5 to Adapt 'Murder Before Evensong'

Even if you knew nothing about streaming or ratings, it would be evident that Acorn TV is AMC Network's only genuinely successful streaming service out of all its little niche offerings, even more than the "flagship" service AMC+. Even if you didn't know Acorn TV has more subscribers by order of magnitude (in the millions instead of the hundreds of thousands), the sheer wealth of series AMC Networks is greenlighting for Acorn TV outpaces everything else (yes, again, even AMC+). Between the debut of Inspector Ellis, the return of Hidden Assets, Harry Wild, The Madame Blanc Mysteries, Recipes for Love & Murder, and the greenlighting of new shows Art Detectives and Irish Blood, the service has seven series currently in production, compared to AMC+'s six, or Sundance Now's three. Make that eight, as Acorn TV and Channel 5 have joined forces to adapt Murder Before Evensong, the first book in the Canon Clement Mysteries.

Don't feel bad if you haven't heard of the Canon Clement Mysteries. The series is relatively recent; Murder Before Evensong was published in mid-2022, with A Death in the Parish and Murder at the Monastery following in 2023 and 2024. All three are penned by Reverend Richard Coles, one of a small subset of U.K. "celebrity vicars." Initially a pop musician in the 1980s with The Communards, he started studying theology in the 1990s and has since become a regular fixture on radio, celebrity panel series like QI, and competition shows like Strictly Come Dancing, using his fame to preach the gospel.

The turn to writing cozy crime mysteries is post-pandemic, but Coles hit success right out of the gate; all three novels have become Sunday Times bestsellers. It's not surprising that Channel 5 jumped on the chance to adapt it, thought that it landed an American distributor so fast suggests people see the potential for this to become a modern-day version of Father Brown.