‘This Is Not a Murder Mystery’ To Be Solved on Acorn TV
The Belgian-produced, English-language Agatha Christie-esque ‘This Is Not a Murder Mystery’ lands on Acorn TV.
It would be wrong to say the 2020s Agatha Christie revival is due to her recent centenary, as that would suggest Christie’s popularity wavered at some point in the public’s imagination. However, the recent spate of Christie-inspired series is new: The Benoit Blanc Mysteries, for example, and Only Murders in the Building both created different versions of Christie’s trademark “underestimated sleuth” for modern-day audiences. Daniel Craig’s Blanc is a Foghorn Leghorn-accented variant of Poirot, while Martin Short and Steven Martin amalgamate into a comic two-headed Miss Marple monster who only eats dip.
But neither series quite hit the high notes of This Is Not a Murder Mystery. The European series hails from Belgium, and as cross-Channel neighbors of the U.K., the country has a uniquely droll set of insights into the psyche of its former E.U. sibling. The concept was originally shopped at 2022’s Berlinale, landed funding the next year, filmed in Ireland and Belgium in 2024, and eventually aired on public broadcaster VRT 1.
Had the series been in one of Belgium’s three official languages (Dutch, German, French), the series would have been a lock for Walter Presents, a perfect fit for the PBS Passport series. However, the producers wanted the show to be an international hit, so they filmed it in English. We still thought the show would eventually come to PBS*, as it works as a great bridge between the Walter Presents shows and the English-language remakes of the same. But instead, Acorn TV surprised us by snapping it up in time for the 2026 Autumn to Die For lineup.
(*It may yet still! Popular Acorn TV series tend to go to select PBS Passports in second run; we’ll keep an eye open for that.)
Here’s the Acorn TV version of the series’ synopsis:
Set in England during the 1930s, world-renowned Surrealist artists, including young Dalí and Magritte, find themselves trapped in a lavish mansion with a mysterious serial killer on the loose and Scotland Yard on the case. But is everything what it seems?
The series stars Stephen Tompkinson (Inspector Ellis) as the series sleuth, DCI Thistletwaite, with Donna Banya (Hard Truths) as DC Mary Quant.
The main ensemble features Iñaki Mur (We Were the Lucky Ones) as Salvador Dalí, Frank Bourke (Toxic Town) as Man Ray, Mike Hoffmann (SOKO Potsdam) as Max Ernst, Lauren Versnick (Astrid) as Sheila Legge, Florence Hall (Queens of Mystery) as Lee Miller, and Pierre Gervais (High Tides) as René Magritte.
(Acorn TV)
Other actors playing famous artists include Eduardo Aladro (The Assassin) as Pablo Picasso, Aoibhinn McGinnity (The Woman in the Wall) as Lord James, Mathilde Warnier (World on Fire) as Georgette Magritte, Regina Bikkinina (Into the Night) as Gala Dalí, Geert Van Rampelberg (Soft Leaves) as ELT Mesens, and Oscar Louis Högström (The Chapel) as Paul Nash. Brendan O’Rourke (Game of Thrones) and Jonathan Delaney Tynan (Vikings) round out the cast.
Christophe Dirickx, Matthias Lebeer, and Paul Baeten created and wrote the series; Lebeer splits helming duties with Hans Herbots. Kato Maes and Kristoffel Mertens produced the series in association with Panenka and Deadpan Pictures.
This is Not a Murder Mystery premieres exclusively on Acor TV on Monday, October 12, 2026, and will stream with one episode a week through mid-November.
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