Donβt look for a through-line in Lesley Manvilleβs Oscar-nominated career. There isnβt any.
βWhat gets me up in the morning is that I can play Susan Ryeland and then I can play Princess Margaret and then I can play Ada Harris and theyβre all different ends of the social spectrum,β she says. βI get excited when itβs a character or type of character that Iβve not really played before.β
Thatβs Ryeland, a book editor, who investigates the death of a writer and the missing chapters in his latest novel. Sheβs the centerpiece of βMasterpieceβsβ latest offering, βMagpie Murders.β
Because the character doesnβt arrive until nearly halfway through the book, author Anthony Horowitz had to do some adjusting for the television adaptation.
βIf you have a talent such as Lesley, you do not leave her until Episode 4,β Horowitz says. Rather than set it in two time zones, two worlds and two eras (as the book did), he starts with Ryeland and works through Atticus Pund, the character the writer created, to solve the crime.
βThe key person is Atticus and, in a way, (the two) become one mind. Sheβs not a detective but sheβs got these detective antennae on the go,β Manville says.
Tim McMullan, who plays Pund, says the character has βfantastic interest in peopleβ¦and he believes thereβs no such thing as coincidence, so every little thing is on the scale. He discovers who commits the crime almost with as much sorrow as triumph because weβre all in this together.β
What Manville loved about Ryeland is her independence. βShe doesnβt have to explain herself,β she says. βSheβs chosen not to get married. Sheβs chosen not to have childrenβ¦.and she still drives an open-top sports car. Sheβs absolutely not conforming to anything. It was just wonderful playing the scenes when she just kind of cuts these men off absolutely brilliantly with her language and her skills.
βIβm so glad Anthony didnβt write her as sort of a 20-, 30-year-old something. Itβs just so great that sheβs got all this gravitas and experience. We need to see more women on film that are represented in that way. You can still be quite exciting, even though youβre over 50, oddly enough.β
Earlier this year, the 66-year-old Manville played a much more submissive woman, Ada Harris, in βMrs. Harris Goes to Paris.β Currently, sheβs portraying Princess Margaret in the final two seasons of βThe Crown.β
For her work as the crisp sister of a dressmaker in βPhantom Thread,β she was nominated for an Academy Award. She followed that with βLet Him Go,β a western in which she played the mother to an unhinged group of cowboys.
βMagpie Murders,β she says, heightened her own sleuthing skills. βIf I wasnβt an actress, Iβd be a detective because I would make a brilliant one. Iβve had ex-boyfriends who still donβt know how I found out stuff about them and, honestly, theyβll never know.β
"Magpie Murders" airs Oct. 16-Nov. 20 on PBS' "Masterpiece."
