“Stonking great roles for women over 50”

Britain’s Julie Graham is very clear cut on what appealed to her about whodunnit series, Queens of Mystery.

“I just loved the fact that didn’t take take itself too seriously, and it had stonking great roles for women over 50, which is highly unusual in these televisual days.”

Graham, who has a lengthy CV of credits extending back to the 1980s, plays one of three amateur sleuths in the Acorn TV drama.

Created by Julian Unthank (New Tricks, Doc Martin), the series follows a young, single detective and her three meddlesome aunts all of whom are crime writers. As young Matilda (Olivia Vinall), tries to settle into her new detective position, her aunts somehow manage to find themselves in the middle of all her cases – and her love life.

“I suppose it’s kind of Midsomer Murders meets Miss Marple. But it’s got own unique take on the murder mystery. I just thought it was very quirky, very unusual and very tongue in cheek,” she continues.

Graham, whose credits include Benidorm, Shetland and The Bletchley Circle plays Cat Stone, a gay sibling to characters played by Siobhan Redmond and Sarah Woodward.

“Cat for me was the one that leapt off the page in terms of a rebel,” she explains.

“I liked the fact that she was gay. She’s a rebel. She doesn’t suffer fools gladly. She’d a bit of the black sheep of the family in that she left home quite early to pursue her dreams of being in a band. She’s come back into the family fold. She’s quite mysterious, in a way. She keeps her own counsel to a certain extent, but I certainly wouldn’t cross her. I quite like that about her. She doesn’t really care about what people think about her. I think that’s always a great quality in a character. You can take that quite far and have a lot of fun with it.”

Cat’s back story involves a torrid love affair with an 80’s rock singer, but a romance which left her with a broken heart. Although she is an older gay character in Queens of Mystery, she is without a partner.

“She’s very much a lesbian, and unapologetic about it as well. But she just hasn’t met anyone. I mean, she’s had lots of love affairs, which is kind of hinted at, but she’s never really found that great love in her life again. But she’s not tragic in any way. She’s just choosy. She flirts a lot with most of the female characters in the show.”

Whodunnit mysteries take place across two episodes on Acorn TV, which skews to female viewers. The tone remains light, allowing the viewer to play couch-sleuths.

“Women seem to be obsessed with true crime. It’s a huge audience. Maybe there’s something in the safety about about watching crime and not being the victim of it… maybe that’s what it is,” she reflects.

“I’m not saying men don’t have this, but I guess there’s a curiosity about the human condition, and why people do the things that they do. I don’t really have a concrete answer for that. I know my mother was obsessed with Agatha Christie when I was growing up. There were Agatha Christie novels everywhere in our house yeah. Maybe women have that sort of brain… a lot of the great crime writers are women, I guess.

“It’s got a nod to it kind of high camp in a way, it’s quite theatrical. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. Although we do have quite a high body count…. nobody’s safe. I guess Midsomer Murders is a little bit more forensic, a bit more procedural whereas we increase the mystery. We’re all amateur sleuths interfering, as police would think, or as we think ‘helping matters along,’ because they’re all smart and collectively they’re good problem and puzzle solvers.”

While the show doesn’t get too graphic in its murder scenes, Graham insists nobody is safe.

“We don’t really show a lot of blood. There was a bit of gore in the first series at a literary awards festival. One of the writers got murdered by his own award, which is quite funny. He got the golden dagger stuck in his head,” she recalls.

“But we tend to not go there in terms of high gore. We’re not on that kind of show. But nobody is safe. Everybody’s up for grabs in terms of being murdered.”

Queens of Mystery S2 premieres January 10 on Acorn TV with two episodes.