This Is Not A Murder Mystery: reimagining the whodunit

While the setting might be familiar from Agatha Christie, the cast of characters in This Is Not a Murder Mystery is far from usual. The series is set at the time of the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London, and features artists such as René Magritte, Man Ray, Lee Miller, Max Ernst and Salvador Dali.

They have all been invited to the country house of Lord James, a noted art collector. But the next morning, Magritte wakes up beside a dead body, and Scotland Yard is called in. Further surreal killings follow and, as the prime suspect, Magritte must find the murderer and clear his name.

Despite the British setting, This Is Not A Murder Mystery is a very Flemish production.

The six-part series was directed by Hans Herbots (The Serpent, Riviera and Paris Has Fallen) and written by Christophe Dirickx (Tabula Rasa, Red Light) and Paul Baeten (Two Summers, Over Water) from an original idea by Dirickx and co-director Matthias Lebeer.

The exteriors of Monkton House, Lord James’ residence in the series, were filmed in Ireland, at the Curraghmore Estate in County Waterford, and at Runenborg Castle, a 19th century mansion in Destelbergen, near Ghent.

Some of the interiors such as scenes in the hallways and bedrooms were shot at the 18th century Hex Castle at Heers in the Limburg region of Flanders, and the extravagant Tree Bar was filmed in the glasshouses of the botanical gardens near Meise.

But to do justice to the period and place of the story, it was necessary to build some of the sets from scratch. This was done at AED Studios at Lint, near Antwerp.

“Monkton House is a very specific location, which had to be designed as the surrealists would have designed it,” says Bart Van Loo, production director on the series. “It’s difficult to find a real building where you can do that, so I was happy to have the freedom of the studio. And thanks to DoP David Williamson we were able to make it look realistic.”

Van Loo has a lot of experience with period drama, from the First World War series In Vlaamse Velden to the film Wil, set during the Second World War. But this was his first time working on the 1930s.

“It’s a period with problems, with the feeling that the war was coming, so people were unsure of their future, but they wanted to live and to party,” he says. “So it was also a very extravagant and glamourous period.” The interiors he devised combined the rigor of Art Deco with the legacy of British colonialism, providing a strong contrast with the frenzy of surrealism. “It’s a very rich and interesting period to work with.”

One of the most creative parts of the series is the murders themselves.

Some of the crimes were easier to stage than others. “There is a murder which refers to a Dali crucifixion, which had to appear high on the castle walls, and that involved a lot of thought and inventiveness from David Williamson,” Van Loo says.

It was also important that the series should feel alive, and not stuck in the past. “The biggest challenge was to make This Is Not A Murder Mystery into a fun, modern whodunnit, even though it is set in the 1930s,” Mertens says.

“All the surrealists were very young at this point, so we tried to think of parallels between how we behaved as art students in the 1980s and how they behaved then,” says Van Loo. “That not only made it a period series, but gave it something more modern and recognisable.”

Belgian actor Pierre Gervais (Julie Keeps Quiet) takes on the role of Magritte, while his wife Georgette is played by French actress Mathilde Warnier. Magritte’s larger-than-life agent, ELT Mesens, is played by Flemish veteran Geert Van Rampelberg (Young Hearts, The Broken Circle Breakdown).

The international cast is completed with Spain’s Iñaki Mur as Dali, German actor Mike Hofmann as Ernst, Ireland’s Frank Bourke as Man Ray, and Britain’s Stephen Tomkinson as Scotland Yard detective DCI Thistlethwaite.

“All the artists in the show were real people, and when you see the transformations from how they looked then, in the 1930s, to the characters on screen, it’s amazing how close they are,” says Mertens. “And that’s thanks to the fantastic work of our crew in Belgium.”

Working alongside Bart Van Loo were costume designer Charlotte Willems (Mr K, Wil) and make-up and hair designer Kaatje Van Damme. Post-production was also handled in Flanders, by Sonhouse and Flow Post-production.

The series was initially commissioned by VRT, which in turn brought in New8, a recently formed alliance of public broadcasters that includes ZDF in Germany, NPO in the Netherlands and the five Scandinavian public broadcasters.

“We are also collaborating on the series with Proximus, the Belgian telecom company, and the commercial broadcaster on the French-speaking side RTL Belgium, and we have support from Screen Brussels, the Brussels-Capital Region, Screen Flanders and the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF),” says Mertens. “And thanks to our co-producer in Ireland, Deadpan Pictures, we also have access to European funding – Creative Europe and Eurimages – and some financing from Screen Ireland.”

The series is already sold in over 10 territories around the world, with Studiocanal handling the remaining distribution rights. The show was nominated for Prix Europa 2025, where it got a special Jury Mention (2nd place) in the category of Video Fiction Series. In Belgium, the series premiered on Pickx+, and on the red carpet at the Ghent Film Festival in October. It is now airing as well on VRT1 and VRT MAX.