An intriguing blend of cosy crime and surrealist art, the Flemish series This Is Not a Murder Mystery (U&Drama, Wednesday, 8pm, and streaming on Channel 4) offers a classy and entertaining experience. Silent movie credits set the scene in 1936, where an English aristocrat hosts a private show for surrealist artists on the brink of fame. After a wild party, René Magritte awakens next to a dead woman, their heads wrapped in shrouds—a grim recreation of his painting The Lovers.
A Whodunnit with Artistic Flair
DCI Thistlethwaite and DC Quant arrive to lock down the estate, which houses bohemian guests including Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Man Ray, performance artist Sheila Legge, and war photographer Lee Miller. Magritte is determined to clear his name, but as the show approaches, the murders become more theatrical, each paying twisted homage to the artists' masterpieces.
Fact Meets Fantasy
The title nods to Magritte's The Treachery of Images. Pierre Gervais plays a striking, horse-jawed Magritte, towering over the cocaine-fuelled bohemians. DC Quant allows Magritte to investigate, driven by his mother's death. The show mixes fact and fantasy, incorporating real surrealist works and lore—Picasso only drinks sparkling water, and Freud never shuts up at dinner.
British TV often feels mundane, so this show's European pretentiousness is refreshing. Magritte introduces Quant to repoussoir, a painting technique for depth, arguing that police miss background details. "Artists speak a specific language—let me be your interpreter," he says. A foreign visual artist leading an investigation as the chief suspect? Wild. As wild as a lobster telephone.
Grisly Set Pieces
The killer's signature style is a familiar trope, but actual artists as murderers is a fun twist. Imagine Damien Hirst bisecting a vicar or Louise Bourgeois swaddling a neighbour. The show revels in staging flamboyant, grisly murders. "The mise en scène is beautiful," blushes Magritte, as Gala Dalí purrs.
With René playing detective, the cops risk being superfluous. Thistlethwaite approaches his 365th murder case, planning to retire. "Because of you, that's become a possibility," he says, but his protege's deductive skills need sharpening.
The striking cast includes Iñaki Mur as a rake-thin Dalí and Florence Hall as an ethereally beautiful Lee Miller, carrying a glass revolver and salt bullets. This is not just cosy crime—it's Belgian cosy crime, studded with artistic Easter eggs and 1930s decor. If someone doesn't shout "I was framed" by the end, viewers might want their money back.
