Die laughing: Murder Most Horrid
Published: Sunday 19th January 2025
If getting a sitcom on television is difficult, it's nothing compared to the struggle of convincing commissioners to give the go ahead to an anthology show. A series with different plots and casts each week means a much higher budget, and it is only since the huge success of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's Inside No. 9 that the format is being revisited.
However, there is a precedent, particularly in comedy, for shows written around the talents of a single performer. Perhaps the most prolific of these was Ronnie Barker, who had several shows written specifically for him - The Ronnie Barker Playhouse, Hark At Barker, Six Dates With Barker, and, most notably, Seven Of One, a series of pilots that led to full series of Porridge and Open All Hours.
On the other side of the camera, Galton & Simpson wrote the first two series of what went on to become the long-running pilot strand Comedy Playhouse. Providing plenty of plots for a cornucopia of comic actors, their handful of episodes include Eric Sykes and Warren Mitchell in Clicquot Et Fils; Stanley Baxter and Daphne Anderson in Lunch In The Park; Peter Jones and June Whitfield in The Telephone Call; and of course Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett in The Offer, the story that became Steptoe And Son.
Impasse, an episode from the second series about two drivers who come head-to-head on a single-track country lane with each refusing to give way to the other, originally featured Yootha Joyce, Bernard Cribbins and Leslie Phillips. The script was so successful that it was remade no less than three times: once with Alfie Bass and Ian Carmichael as the Pride segment of 1971 film The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins; once with Paul Merton and Geoffrey Whitehead as part of the Paul Merton In Galton And Simpson's... series in 1996, in which Merton took the lead in fifteen of their classic scripts; and most recently for BBC radio with Mitchell & Webb in 2009.
Having conquered the comedy scene of the 1980s as part of The Comic Strip (who themselves became famous for a long-running, self-titled anthology of satirical comedies), 1991 saw Dawn French in the midst of a hugely successful run of sketch show French & Saunders. Then came the premiere of Murder Most Horrid, her first solo outing: a series that showcased her range as a performer in a range of blackly comic thrillers. The show was created by Paul Smith, who previously wrote the superb Mel Smith vehicle Colin's Sandwich with Terry Kyan in 1988.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of Murder Most Horrid was the writing talent that brought it to the screen. Writers were given free reign, and each episode varies wildly in tone and content accordingly, all linked by the titular theme. Steven Moffat wrote three episodes across the series. Overkill, the first episode of Series 2, reunited him with his Press Gang director Bob Spiers and opens with French recording a suicide note with a noose around her neck. In typically twisty fashion, after a story about accidental assassinations and double crosses, by the end of the episode her character is dead and the message plays, now even more prescient than at the beginning. David Renwick wrote a similar gag using an answering machine message in One Foot In The Grave episode The Pit and the Pendulum.
However, Moffat is not averse to inserting some silliness alongside his more sophisticated plotting, such as when Amanda Donohoe's assassin is forced to explain what a blowjob is to French's clueless social worker:
DONAHOE: I'm afraid a blowjob is oral genital gratification.
FRENCH: That's quite a mouthful isn't it! Oh...
Moffat admitted in an interview that he was "in a filthy mood" when he wrote it. Having penned two series of Press Gang and with Joking Apart on the horizon, he had to "squeeze this in the middle. I think that's why I killed so many people in it". The cast of Overkill includes Colin Salmon, who later worked with Moffat in Silence In The Library and Forest of the Dead, his highly acclaimed two-part story from the fourth revived series of Doctor Who in 2008.
Ian Hislop and Nick Newman also scripted several episodes, the highlight being Series 1, Episode 3, He Died A Death, which follows the interpersonal relationships of the cast of a long-running crime thriller play. Just as tensions reach a head backstage, the murder in the play becomes real as the actor, disliked by just about everyone, is shot for real. Featuring a terrific, snappy script, a rare on-screen role for Mr Bean co-writer Robin Driscoll as a droll barman, the late Tony Slattery, and many theatrical in-jokes (the play being performed is shown to be written by 'Ian Newman').
The only thing that could have improved Murder Most Horrid would have been a more diverse range of writers bringing their sensibilities to the series. The only credited female, for example, is French herself, on the episode Mrs Hat And Mrs Red. According to Jasper Rees's 2020 biography Let's Do It, Victoria Wood turned down the opportunity to write an episode due to her overwhelming work schedule.
Although most episodes of the show were helmed by veteran sitcom directors like Spiers and Tony Dow, the third series saw a fresh faced Edgar Wright direct Confessions Of A Murderer. According to a Guardian profile, Wright was told that he shot more film in a single day than the previous director had in three weeks. (It must have been a fruitful experience, because Wright went on to direct a Titanic parody with French & Saunders later in the same year.) Hislop and Newman were once again on scripting duties for the episode, which chronicles the life of serial confessor Harriet Snellgrove. It is full of Wright's trademark cinematic flourishes, from unusual camera angles to whip pans, for which he later won huge acclaim in Spaced.
With each episode showcasing French in a different character role in a different setting, there is an unusually high number of guest stars. Highlights include Kathy Burke and Jim Broadbent in time travel mystery A Determined Woman, Hugh Laurie in novelist Anthony Horowitz's episode The Body Politic, while Sean Hughes takes centre stage alongside a cameo from Janette Krankie in Moffat's final contribution Elvis, Jesus And Zack.
As with any anthology series, the quality can vary, but by and large Murder Most Horrid succeeded on the strength of the scenarios. The beauty of such a format is that no matter your comedy preference, there will be an episode for you somewhere across its run. Those who like a more surreal slant will enjoy Hislop and Newman's Dead On Time, which has French as an exasperated Grim Reaper who, despite her best efforts, cannot complete her work. Then there's Paul Smith's Going Solo, which is more of a character study with French and Sarah Lancashire in a tale of sailing and subterfuge.
Smith and Kyan went on to create Bonjour La Classe starring Nigel Planer, as well as taking the reins for the last two series of The Brittas Empire. French, of course, acquired national treasure status with her role as Geraldine Granger in The Vicar Of Dibley, the perfect vehicle for her warmth as a performer to shine through, before returning to blacker themes with the likes of Wild West.
Horowitz went on to explore the theme of murder in greater detail by creating anthology drama Murder In Mind for the BBC in 2001, while Moffat enjoyed further success with the revival of Doctor Who later the same decade. Hislop and Newman continue to pen projects together, including sitcom My Dad's The Prime Minister and World War Two play, and later a film, The Wipers Times.
Murder Most Horrid takes a unique place in the pantheon of British comedy. From idiots to schemers, politicians to pariahs, it was the perfect showcase for Dawn French's chameleon-like ability to inhabit such a wide range of characters. Although it has undoubtedly been overshadowed by the huge success of The Vicar Of Dibley, the show stands as testament to her talent.
Where to start?
Series 4, Episode 7 - Dinner At Tiffany's
Perhaps the best example of the show's one-off format can be seen in the final ever episode, written by Jonathan Harvey. French plays Tiffany Drapes, a dinner lady with an unrequited crush on Frances Barber's Gloria Twigge, the selfish, spoiled headteacher, who soon finds herself competing for her affections with Isobelle Middleton's games mistress Evangeline.
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Love comedy? Find out moreMurder Most Horrid - The Complete Collection
The BBC's Murder Most Horrid starred Dawn French as a different dastardly character in each of the 24 self-contained episodes. The anthology series's unusual mix of comedy, murder mystery and horror received widespread critical acclaim when it was first broadcast in the early 90s, and was an instant hit with audiences.
Whether she was playing the murderer or the victim, Dawn French's versatile acting talent was never more apparent than in this brilliantly dark comedy, with episodes written by the likes of Steven Moffat and Ian Hislop.
All four series appear in this brand new set, including early appearances by a cast of fine British talent including Ray Winstone, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Minnie Driver and Hugh Bonneville.
First released: Monday 18th November 2013
DVD- Distributor: Revelation Films Ltd
- Region: 2
- Discs: 4
- Subtitles: English
- Catalogue: PAR61668
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