Murder Most Horrid
Encyclopedia
Murder Most Horrid is a BBC
dark comedy
anthology series starring comedian
Dawn French. It ran for four series runs, in 1991, 1994, 1996 and 1999.
Created by Paul Smith
, who also co-created Colin's Sandwich
(with Terry Kyan
, below) and has written for The Brittas Empire
, among other programmes, the series starred French as a different character in each episode. Many episodes were directed by the noted director Bob Spiers
, who also worked with French on The Comic Strip Presents... and French and Saunders
.
Most episodes parodied the thriller and murder mystery genres with one notable episode lampooning the trials and tribulations of being a children's presenter in general, and Blue Peter
in particular. In 1998, this episode ("Murder at Tea-Time") was repeated to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Blue Peter, as part of a section entitled Spoof Peter, which also featured (among others) the Python
skit "How to Do It".
Each episode was standalone, and the episodes were written by different writers or writing teams with several contributing multiple episodes across the four series. Among these writers, the pairing of series-creator Paul Smith with Terry Kyan, (who had previously collaborated on Not the Nine O'clock News
and Alas Smith and Jones
) is particularly notable. The two would subsequently create and write Bonjour la Classe
, starring Nigel Planer
.
Other series writers included Private Eye
editor and Have I Got News For You
stalwart Ian Hislop
; Press Gang
s Steven Moffat
, award-winning Children's author Anthony Horowitz
, Nick Newman
and John O'Farrell
.
Each episode would typically begin with French selecting and reading from a book, usually a quotation actually or allegedly from William Shakespeare
. The series' theme song, which featured at the end of the episode, was sung by Ruby Turner
. The penultimate line was a word rhyming with "horrid", sometimes humorously forced.
in 1996, through BBC Worldwide
/Talkback
(the former of which became 2|entertain). Both were released on 7 May 1996, the first containing three episodes from series one and the second, three episodes from series two. These two series were not repeated on British television as often as the later series, and as a result, episodes not featured on the videos released by the BBC (The Case of the Missing, He Died A Death, Mrs. Hat and Mrs. Red, A Severe Case of Death, We All Hate Granny and Smashing Bird) have proven fairly difficult to view.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
dark comedy
British dark comedy
British dark comedy refers to a comedy containing gloomy or disturbing elements, produced in Britain. One of the most successful British dark comedies is the League of Gentleman, coming in at number 41 in the BBC Britain's Best Sitcom.-2000s:...
anthology series starring comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
Dawn French. It ran for four series runs, in 1991, 1994, 1996 and 1999.
Created by Paul Smith
Paul Smith (writer)
Paul Smith is a British television writer best known as creator of the Dawn French series Murder Most Horrid , and as co-creator of the Mel Smith series Colin's Sandwich....
, who also co-created Colin's Sandwich
Colin's Sandwich
Colin's Sandwich was a late 1980s/early 1990s BBC2 sitcom starring Mel Smith as Colin Watkins, a British Rail clerk who aspired to be a horror writer. The show was written by Paul Smith and Terry Kyan and ran for two series of six episodes...
(with Terry Kyan
Terry Kyan
Terry Kyan is a British television writer best known for writing .These include sketches/episodes for such sketch shows as Not the Nine O'clock News, Spitting Image and Alas Smith and Jones, as well as the Dawn French black comedy Murder Most Horrid, and the sitcoms The Brittas...
, below) and has written for The Brittas Empire
The Brittas Empire
The Brittas Empire is a British sitcom created and originally written by Richard Fegen and Andrew Norriss. Chris Barrie plays Gordon Brittas, the well-meaning but incompetent manager of Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre....
, among other programmes, the series starred French as a different character in each episode. Many episodes were directed by the noted director Bob Spiers
Bob Spiers
Bob Spiers was a director. He is particularly noted as the director of the early series of Absolutely Fabulous , the musical comedy Spiceworld, and of the second series of Fawlty Towers . He also worked with Steven Moffat on Press Gang and Joking Apart...
, who also worked with French on The Comic Strip Presents... and French and Saunders
French and Saunders
French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television show written by and starring comic duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act....
.
Most episodes parodied the thriller and murder mystery genres with one notable episode lampooning the trials and tribulations of being a children's presenter in general, and Blue Peter
Blue Peter
Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having first aired in 1958. It is shown on CBBC, both in its BBC One programming block and on the CBBC channel. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time...
in particular. In 1998, this episode ("Murder at Tea-Time") was repeated to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Blue Peter, as part of a section entitled Spoof Peter, which also featured (among others) the Python
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...
skit "How to Do It".
Each episode was standalone, and the episodes were written by different writers or writing teams with several contributing multiple episodes across the four series. Among these writers, the pairing of series-creator Paul Smith with Terry Kyan, (who had previously collaborated on Not the Nine O'clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News is a television comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC 2 from 1979 to 1982.Originally shown as a comedy "alternative" to the BBC Nine O'Clock News on BBC 1, it featured satirical sketches on current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy...
and Alas Smith and Jones
Alas Smith and Jones
Alas Smith and Jones is a British comedy sketch television series featuring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. It was broadcast on the BBC from 1984 to 1998...
) is particularly notable. The two would subsequently create and write Bonjour la Classe
Bonjour la Classe
Bonjour la Classe is a British television comedy series broadcast on BBC1 in 1993. Created and written by Paul Smith and Terry Kyan, the series centered on Laurence Didcott, a new French teacher at prestigious Mansion School. Didcott discovers a prevailing attitude at Mansion, among staff,...
, starring Nigel Planer
Nigel Planer
Nigel George Planer is an English actor, comedian, novelist and playwright.Planer is perhaps best known for his role as Neil Pye in the cult BBC comedy The Young Ones. He has appeared in many West End musicals, including Evita, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Wicked and Hairspray...
.
Other series writers included Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
editor and Have I Got News For You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
stalwart Ian Hislop
Ian Hislop
Ian David Hislop is a British journalist, satirist, comedian, writer, broadcaster and editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye...
; Press Gang
Press Gang
Press Gang is a British children's television comedy-drama consisting of forty-three episodes across five series that were broadcast from 1989 to 1993...
s Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
, award-winning Children's author Anthony Horowitz
Anthony Horowitz
Anthony Craig Horowitz is an English novelist and screenwriter. He has written many children's novels, including The Power of Five, Alex Rider and The Diamond Brothers series and has written over fifty books. He has also written extensively for television, adapting many of Agatha Christie's...
, Nick Newman
Nick Newman
Nick Newman is a satirical British cartoonist and comedy scriptwriter.The son of an RAF officer, Newman was born in Kuala Lumpur and schooled at Ardingly College where his satirical career began, working on revues with Ian Hislop...
and John O'Farrell
John O'Farrell
John O'Farrell is a British author, broadcaster and comedy scriptwriter.-Early life:O’Farrell grew up in Maidenhead, Berkshire the youngest of three children, attending Courthouse Primary School and then Desborough Comprehensive...
.
Each episode would typically begin with French selecting and reading from a book, usually a quotation actually or allegedly from William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
. The series' theme song, which featured at the end of the episode, was sung by Ruby Turner
Ruby Turner
Ruby Turner is a British R&B and soul singer, songwriter and actress. In 1967, she relocated with her family to Handsworth, Birmingham, England when she was nine years old...
. The penultimate line was a word rhyming with "horrid", sometimes humorously forced.
Series 1 (1991)
- "The Case of the Missing" - with Dawn as W.P.C. Diane Softly, traffic officer
- "The Girl from IpanemaThe Girl from Ipanema"Garota de Ipanema" is a well-known bossa nova song, a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s that won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962, with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. English lyrics were written later by Norman Gimbel.The...
" - with Dawn as Maria, a Brazilian immigrant who moves in with the Howling family. - "He Died a Death" - with Dawn as Judy Talent, an actress in a play
- "A Determined Woman" - with Dawn as Rita Proops, a scientist
- "Murder at Tea Time" - with Dawn as Bunty Bresslaw, presenter of children's TV show Write Away.
- "Mrs. Hat and Mrs. Red" - with Dawn as Katie Hatcliffe and Sonya Redfern, two identical-looking women with opposite personalities
| # | |Writer | |UK air date |
|---|
Series 2 (1994)
- "Overkill"Overkill (Murder Most Horrid episode)"Overkill" is an episode of the British comedy television series Murder Most Horrid. It was written by Steven Moffat, who had worked with director Bob Spiers on Press Gang and Joking Apart.-Plot:...
- with Dawn as Tina Mellish, social worker turned reluctant assassin - "Lady Luck" - with Dawn as Denise Cunningham, hairdresser
- "A Severe Case of Death" - with Dawn as Maud Jenkins / 'Dr Adams', Victorian maid turned cross-dressing doctor
- "We All Hate Granny" - with Dawn as Lily Gibbs, grandmother
- "Mangez Merveillac" - with Dawn as Verity Hodge, travel and cookery writer
- "Smashing Bird" - with Dawn as Vikky, nightclub singer
Series 3 (1996)
- "Girl Friday" - with Dawn as Sally Fairfax, P.A.
- "A Life or Death Operation" - with Dawn as Kate Marshall, surgeon and TV presenter
- "Dying Live" - with Dawn as Daisy Talwinning, sacked abattoir worker
- "The Body Politic" - with Dawn as Linda Bryce, schoolteacher and wife of the Leader of the Opposition
- "Confess" - with Dawn as Wendy Hodge, police sergeant
- "Dead on Time" - with Dawn as The Grim Reaper
Series 4 (1999)
- "Frozen" - with Dawn as Lily Wood-Newton, churchgoer and pillar of the community
- "Going Solo" - with Dawn as Tracey Phillips, yachtswoman
- "Whoopi Stone" - with Dawn as Barbara Greaves / Whoopi Stone, police constable turned 'Queen of New York'
- "Confessions of a Murderer" - with Dawn as Harriet Snellgrove, serial confessor and nuisance
- "Elvis, Jesus and Zack" - with Dawn as Jill Tanner, head of the Obituaries Department at Broadcast One
- "Dinner at Tiffany's" - with Dawn as Tiffany Drapes, school dinner ladyLunch LadyLunch lady is an American slang term for a woman who cooks and serves food in a school cafeteria; the equivalent British English term is "dinner lady". In Britain, a dinner lady also patrols the school playgrounds during the lunch breaks to maintain order amongst the children...
, and Frances BarberFrances BarberFrances Barber is an Olivier Award-nominated English actress with a long and distinguished stage career. She has also appeared in numerous television productions...
as the selfish, glamorous Head Teacher, Gloria Twigge.
Notable guest stars
- Jane AsherJane AsherJane Asher is an English actress. She has also developed a second career as a cake decorator and cake shop proprietor.-Early life:...
(The Girl from Ipanema) - Emma Amos (OverkillOverkill (Murder Most Horrid episode)"Overkill" is an episode of the British comedy television series Murder Most Horrid. It was written by Steven Moffat, who had worked with director Bob Spiers on Press Gang and Joking Apart.-Plot:...
) - David BamberDavid BamberDavid James Bamber is an English actor, known for his television and theatre work. He is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.-Early years:...
(Smashing Bird) - Frances BarberFrances BarberFrances Barber is an Olivier Award-nominated English actress with a long and distinguished stage career. She has also appeared in numerous television productions...
(as Headmistress Gloria Twigge in Dinner at Tiffany's) - Thelma BarlowThelma BarlowThelma Barlow is an English television actress and writer, most famous for her roles as Mavis Wilton in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street and as Dolly Bellfield in the sitcom Dinnerladies....
(Dinner at Tiffany's) - David Battley (Frozen)
- Lucy BenjaminLucy Benjamin-Career:Born Lucy Jane Baker in Reading, Berkshire, England, she took the stage name of Benjamin after her brother. Benjamin trained at the Redroofs Theatre School in Maidenhead. Her first acting role was as a child actor in Doctor Who in 1983 playing a young version of the character Nyssa...
(A Severe Case of Death) - Hywel BennettHywel BennettHywel Thomas Bennett is a Welsh film and television actor. Bennett is best known for his recurring title role as James Shelley in the television sitcom Shelley from 1979 to 1984 and its sequel The Return of Shelley from 1988 to 1992....
(Smashing Bird) - John BirdJohn Bird (actor)John Bird is an English satirist, actor and comedian.-Early life:Born in Bulwell, Nottingham, England, and educated at High Pavement Grammar School, Nottingham, Bird briefly joined the Socialist Party of Great Britain, while still at school...
(A Life or Death Operation) - Hugh BonnevilleHugh BonnevilleHugh Richard Bonneville Williams, known professionally as Hugh Bonneville , is an English stage, film, television and radio actor.-Education:...
(Confessions of a Murderer) - Jane Booker (Murder at Tea Time, Mangez Merveillac)
- Jim BroadbentJim BroadbentJames "Jim" Broadbent is an English theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in Iris, Moulin Rouge!, Topsy-Turvy, Hot Fuzz, and Bridget Jones' Diary...
(A Determined Woman) - Philip Martin BrownPhilip Martin BrownPhilip Martin Brown is an English actor, born in Manchester. He has starred in many TV shows and movies in a career that has spanned nearly four decades...
(Smashing Bird) - Ann BrysonAnn BrysonAnn Bryson is a British actress who is best known for featuring in the television series Days Like These and Space Vets.-External links:...
(Lady Luck) - Kathy BurkeKathy BurkeKatherine Lucy Bridget Burke is an English actress, comedienne, playwright and theatre director. She is best known for her portrayals of Perry in the Harry Enfield film Kevin and Perry Go Large, and of Linda La Hughes in the British sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme...
(A Determined Woman) - Jim Carter (Mrs. Hat and Mrs. Red, Dying Live, Going Solo)
- Kenneth CranhamKenneth CranhamKenneth Cranham is a film, television and stage actor. He starred in the title role in the popular 1980s comedy drama Shine on Harvey Moon. He also appeared in Layer Cake, Gangster No. 1, Rome, Oliver! and many other films. He is probably best known to horror genre fans as the deranged Dr...
(He Died A Death) - Amanda DonohoeAmanda DonohoeAmanda Donohoe is an English film and television actress. She is known for her 1980s relationship with popstar Adam Ant and her later work on television — including L.A. Law and Emmerdale — and her roles in successful movies including Liar, Liar.-Early life:Donohoe was born in London, the daughter...
(OverkillOverkill (Murder Most Horrid episode)"Overkill" is an episode of the British comedy television series Murder Most Horrid. It was written by Steven Moffat, who had worked with director Bob Spiers on Press Gang and Joking Apart.-Plot:...
) - Minnie DriverMinnie DriverMinnie Driver is an English actress and singer-songwriter. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, as well as for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her work in the television series The Riches.- Early life...
(Confess) - James FleetJames FleetJames Edward Fleet is an English actor. He is most famous for his roles as the bumbling and well-meaning Tom in the 1994 British romantic comedy film Four Weddings and a Funeral, and the dim-witted Hugo Horton in the BBC situation comedy television series The Vicar of Dibley.-Personal life:Fleet...
(We All Hate Granny) - Dexter FletcherDexter FletcherDexter Fletcher is an English actor. He is best known for his role in Guy Ritchie film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels as well as television roles in such shows as the dramedy Hotel Babylon, the critically acclaimed HBO series Band of Brothers and earlier in his career, the children's show...
(Murder at Tea Time) - Jamie ForemanJamie ForemanJamie Foreman is an English actor best known for his roles as Duke in Layer Cake and Bill Sikes in Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist . He played opposite Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke in Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth and also featured in Elizabeth , Gangster No. 1 and Sleepy Hollow...
(Whoopi Stone) - Brigit ForsythBrigit ForsythBrigit Forsyth is a British actress, who is best known for her roles as Thelma Ferris in the BBC comedy Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and Helen Yeldham in the hit ITV drama/modern-day western Boon....
(A Life or Death Operation) - John FortuneJohn FortuneJohn Fortune is a British satirist, comedian writer and actor, best known for his work with John Bird and Rory Bremner on the TV series Bremner, Bird and Fortune. He was educated at Bristol Cathedral School and King's College, Cambridge, where he was to meet and form a lasting friendship with John...
(A Severe Case of Death) - Sean Gallagher (Lady Luck)
- Graeme GardenGraeme GardenDavid Graeme Garden OBE is a Scottish author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, who first became known as a member of The Goodies.-Early life and beginnings in comedy:...
(Confessions of a Murderer) - David HarewoodDavid HarewoodDavid Harewood is a British actor.-Biography:David Harewood was born and grew up in the Small Heath area of Birmingham, England, where he attended St. Benedict's Junior School and Washwood Heath Comprehensive School. As a schoolboy, he excelled at all sports—from sprinting to basketball to rugby...
(Murder at Tea Time) - Nigel HaversNigel HaversNigel Allan Havers is an English actor. He is probably best known for his BAFTA-nominated role as Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film Chariots of Fire, and for his role as Dr. Tom Latimer in the British TV comedy series Don't Wait Up...
(Girl Friday) - Liam HessLiam HessLiam Hess is a British actor.He is most famous for playing Louis Fairhead in the prime-time BBC TV show Casualty...
(Going Solo) - Sean HughesSean Hughes (comedian)Sean Hughes is a British-Irish stand-up comedian, writer and actor.-Career:Hughes was born in London, but spent most of his youth in Firhouse, Dublin...
(Elvis, Jesus and Zack) - Philip JacksonPhilip Jackson (actor)Philip Jackson is an English actor, known for his many television and film roles, most notably as Chief Inspector Japp in the television series Poirot and as Abbot Hugo, one of the recurring adversaries in the cult 1980s series Robin of Sherwood. Jackson was born in Retford, Nottinghamshire...
(Mangez Merveillac, Confessions of a Murderer) - Martin Jarvis (The Girl from Ipanema)
- Janette KrankieThe KrankiesThe Krankies are a Scottish comedy duo that enjoyed success as a cabaret act in the 1970s and on television in the 1980s, featuring in their own television shows and releasing their own music single. They entered semi-retirement in 1992, but they have regularly appeared in pantomime since.The duo...
(Elvis, Jesus and Zack) - Sarah LancashireSarah LancashireSarah Lancashire is an English actress, probably best recognised for her role as Raquel Watts in Coronation Street. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1986.-Television:...
(Going Solo) - Chris LanghamChris LanghamChristopher "Chris" Langham is an English writer, actor and comedian. He is most famous for playing MP Hugh Abbot in BBC Four sitcom The Thick of It and as presenter Roy Mallard in People Like Us, first on BBC Radio 4 and later on its transfer to television on BBC Two, where Mallard is almost...
(Elvis, Jesus and Zack) - Hugh LaurieHugh LaurieJames Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...
(The Body Politic) - Helen LedererHelen LedererHelen Lederer is a Welsh comedienne, writer and actress who emerged as part of the alternative comedy boom at the beginning of the 1980s.-Career:...
(Dying Live) - Roger Lloyd PackRoger Lloyd PackRoger Lloyd-Pack is an English actor known for his roles in the TV shows The Vicar of Dibley, Only Fools and Horses and The Old Guys.-Career:...
(Confess) - Mark McGannMark McGannMark McGann is an English actor, director and musician.- Acting career :McGann first appeared on stage in 1981 in the production Lennon at the Everyman Theatre and the London Astoria where he portrayed John Lennon, role which won him the first of his two Olivier Award nominations for best actor in...
(Smashing Bird) - Kevin McNallyKevin McNallyKevin McNally is an English actor who has worked in theatre and radio extensively as well as in film and television.-Life and career:...
(He Died A Death, Mangez Merveillac) - Geraldine McNultyGeraldine McNultyGeraldine McNulty is a British stage and television actress.She has played the character of Mrs Raven in My Hero, and had guest appearances in Neverwhere, Gimme Gimme Gimme, The Vicar of Dibley, The Smoking Room and The Catherine Tate Show...
(Murder at Tea Time, Girl Friday, Dinner at Tiffany's) - Ben MillerBen MillerBennet Evan "Ben" Miller is an English comedian, actor and director. He is perhaps best known as one half of comedy double act Armstrong and Miller, along with Alexander Armstrong. Together the pair wrote and starred in Channel 4 sketch show Armstrong and Miller, and the more recent BBC television...
(He Died A Death) - Stephen MooreStephen Moore (actor)Stephen Moore is an English actor, known for his work on British television since the 1980s. He is known for his appearances in Rock Follies and other TV series such as The Last Place on Earth, the children's series The Queen's Nose and the drama Mersey Beat and the British TV comedy series Solo,...
(He Died A Death) - Sophie OkonedoSophie OkonedoSophie Okonedo, OBE is a British actress, who has starred both in successful British and American productions. In 1991, she made her acting debut in the British critically acclaimed coming-of-age drama, Young Soul Rebels...
(Dead on Time) - Andy ParsonsAndy ParsonsAndy Parsons is an English comedian and writer, who regularly appears on Mock the Week. With comedy partner Henry Naylor, he has written and presented nine seasons of Parsons and Naylor’s Pull-Out Sections for BBC Radio 2.-Early life:...
(Murder at Tea Time) - Bill Paterson (The Case of the Missing)
- Clarke PetersClarke PetersClarke Peters is an American actor, singer, writer and director best known for his role as Detective Lester Freamon on the HBO drama The Wire.-Early life:...
(Mangez Merveillac) - Paul ReynoldsPaul Reynolds (actor)Paul Reynolds is an English actor. He attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School, made his start as a child actor in a variety of small parts, but is perhaps most recognised for his role as Thatcherite Colin Mathews in Press Gang, "Kevin" in Ghostbusters of East Finchley and as Sammy Dobbs the...
(Elvis, Jesus and Zack) - Clive RussellClive RussellClive Russell is a British actor.Clive was born in Reeth, England and brought up in Fife, Scotland.He is a familiar face on British television and has appeared in numerous television series including Boys From the Black Stuff ,Hope And Glory, Neverwhere, Great Expectations, The Mists of Avalon,...
(Confess) - Colin SalmonColin SalmonColin Salmon is a British actor best known for playing the character Charles Robinson in three James Bond films.-Personal life:...
(OverkillOverkill (Murder Most Horrid episode)"Overkill" is an episode of the British comedy television series Murder Most Horrid. It was written by Steven Moffat, who had worked with director Bob Spiers on Press Gang and Joking Apart.-Plot:...
) - Joanna ScanlanJoanna ScanlanJoanna Scanlan is a Welsh actress and television writer, best known for her roles in various British comedy series, such as The Thick of It, Doctors and Nurses, Getting On and Little Britain.-Getting On:...
(Frozen) - Peter SerafinowiczPeter SerafinowiczPeter Szymon Serafinowicz is an English actor, comedian, writer, composer, voice artist and occasional director.-Early life:Serafinowicz was born in Liverpool, England. He attended Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic Primary School and St Francis Xavier Secondary School...
(Dinner at Tiffany's) - Tony SlatteryTony SlatteryAnthony Declan James "Tony" Slattery is an English actor and comedian who has appeared on British television regularly since the mid 1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4 improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? As a film actor, both comedic and serious, his credits include The...
(He Died A Death) - Timothy SpallTimothy SpallTimothy Leonard Spall, OBE is an English character actor and occasional presenter.-Early life:Spall, the third of four sons, was born in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. , was a hairdresser, and his father, Joseph L. Spall, was a postal worker...
(The Case of the Missing) - John Thomson (Dying Live)
- Harriet ThorpeHarriet Thorpe-TV:She was in the mid-to-late 1990s British television sitcom The Brittas Empire, playing Carole Parkinson, the receptionist who was prone to depression and fits of emotion who permanently kept her children with her, in drawers under her desk and would sometimes be seen feeding them or washing...
(He Died A Death, Mrs. Hat and Mrs. Red) - Pip TorrensPip TorrensPip Torrens is an English actor.He was born in Bromley, Kent, England. He studied English Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge...
(Elvis, Jesus and Zack) - Peter VaughanPeter VaughanPeter Vaughan is an English character actor, known for many supporting roles in a variety of British film and television productions. He has worked extensively on the stage, becoming known for roles such as police inspectors, Soviet agents and similar parts...
(OverkillOverkill (Murder Most Horrid episode)"Overkill" is an episode of the British comedy television series Murder Most Horrid. It was written by Steven Moffat, who had worked with director Bob Spiers on Press Gang and Joking Apart.-Plot:...
) - Danny WebbDanny Webb (actor)Danny Webb is a British television and film actor. He may be best known for his role as the prisoner Morse in Alien 3. He has appeared in many famous British television programmes including The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Emmerdale Farm, Our Friends in the North, A Touch of Frost, Agatha...
(Dead on Time) - Timothy WestTimothy WestTimothy Lancaster West, CBE is an English film, stage and television actor.-Career:West's craggy looks ensured a career as a character actor rather than a leading man. He began his career as an Assistant Stage Manager at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956, and followed this with several seasons of...
(A Severe Case of Death) - Victoria WicksVictoria WicksVictoria Wicks is a British actress best known for her television work playing Sally Smedley in Drop the Dead Donkey, Mrs Gideon in The Mighty Boosh, Harriet Lawes, the Head of Roundview College in Skins, and for her work with Howard Barker's theatre company, The Wrestling School...
(We All Hate Granny) - Ray WinstoneRay WinstoneRaymond Andrew "Ray" Winstone is an English film and television actor. He is mostly known for his "tough guy" roles, beginning with that of Carlin in the 1979 film Scum and as Will Scarlet in the cult television adventure series Robin of Sherwood. He has also become well known as a voice over...
(Smashing Bird) - Jake WoodJake WoodJake Dylan Wood is an English actor, best known in his homeland for playing Max Branning on "EastEnders" and in the United States as the current voice of the GEICO gecko.-Biography:...
(Elvis, Jesus and Zack)
Murders
French usually played the murderer or the murder victim in each episode. The murders ranged from the straightforward to the bizarre, with the murder weapon shown on a pedestal during the end credits. The murders (and French's character's part in them) are listed below.- The Case of the Missing - French plays neither the murderer or the victim. The murder in this episode is committed by a group of Freemasons. French plays a WPC Softly, a traffic police officer who is mysteriously put in charge of the murder case by the head of the Freemasons in the area, The Burrough Commander. After eliminating all the suspects (who are very blatantly involved in the murder, although are all freemasons), Softly finally accuses herself of the crime, because she is the only person without an alibi.
- The Girl from Ipanema - French plays apparently neither the murderer nor the murder victim. In the episode, she finds out she is working for the man who owns the mine which is destroying her village and after witnessing him kill his wife, she seduces him over a period of time and finally marries him. In her letter back to her father in Brazil, she reveals that her husband was acting crazily on their wedding night, wanting to go skinny dippingSkinny dippingNude swimming, colloquially called skinny dipping, is a term used to describe swimming naked.-Etymology:The term skinny dip, first recorded in English in the 1950s, includes the somewhat archaic word skinny, known since 1573, meaning "having to do with skin", as it exposed the naked...
while drunk, but in fact it was she herself who had talked him into doing it, after she had neglected to tell him that she had "forgotten" to re-fill the pool. In this sense she is the murderer. - He Died a Death - French plays apparently neither murderer nor murder victim, though she does at one point confess to having shot her fellow actor Tony Sparkle (played by Tony SlatteryTony SlatteryAnthony Declan James "Tony" Slattery is an English actor and comedian who has appeared on British television regularly since the mid 1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4 improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? As a film actor, both comedic and serious, his credits include The...
), while in a play in which his character is shot. - A Determined Woman - French plays the MURDERER. She lashes out at her dim-witted husband and strikes him with a spanner, as his increasingly strange behaviour (brought about by the fact that he has been unwittingly speaking to a future version of her who has travelled back in time) has driven her to breaking point.
- Murder at Tea Time - French plays the MURDER VICTIM. She is suffocated when the cap of a washing-up liquid bottle is placed over the end of her air tube while her face is in plaster.
- Mrs. Hat and Mrs. Red - French plays the MURDER VICTIM, and potentially the MURDERER. She plays two women who look identical. When both of French's characters face off, with Mrs Red's husband in the middle, one of them is murdered. It is never made explicit who actually committed the murder, though it is heavily implied that both Ms Hatcliffe and Mr Redfern are responsible.
- OverkillOverkill (Murder Most Horrid episode)"Overkill" is an episode of the British comedy television series Murder Most Horrid. It was written by Steven Moffat, who had worked with director Bob Spiers on Press Gang and Joking Apart.-Plot:...
- French plays the MURDERER. She shoots several security men with a shotgun, kills two people with poisoned darts, one person with a metal arrow and one person with cyanide and scorpion venom before being blown up herself (by accident). An assassin (played by Amanda DonohoeAmanda DonohoeAmanda Donohoe is an English film and television actress. She is known for her 1980s relationship with popstar Adam Ant and her later work on television — including L.A. Law and Emmerdale — and her roles in successful movies including Liar, Liar.-Early life:Donohoe was born in London, the daughter...
) also shoots her mark (played by Peter VaughanPeter VaughanPeter Vaughan is an English character actor, known for many supporting roles in a variety of British film and television productions. He has worked extensively on the stage, becoming known for roles such as police inspectors, Soviet agents and similar parts...
) before accidentally hanging herself. - Lady Luck - French plays the MURDERER. She stabs her husband in the back with a letter opener. Though we do not see the murder on screen, her responsibility for this murder is implied.
- A Severe Case of Death - French plays the MURDERER. She serves her blackmailer port laced with poison.
- We All Hate Granny - French appears to be the MURDERER. She leaves the gas supply running in her daughter and son-in-law's house overnight, causing it to explode when they wake up and her daughter lights a cigarette. However, her culpability is only implied, the couple in question having tried to murder her numerous times by this point, and the 'murder' appearing to be a very plausible accident. It is also implied that she poisoned her abusive late husband.
- Mangez Merveillac - French appears to be the MURDER VICTIM. She is cooked as part of a village feast and served to tourists, though a post-credits sequence shows she has survived and that this was a ruse designed to bring more tourists and Hollywood interest to the village.
- Smashing Bird - French plays the MURDERER in the sense that she deliberately sets up a situation where the four gang members who murdered her boyfriend (played by Ray WinstoneRay WinstoneRaymond Andrew "Ray" Winstone is an English film and television actor. He is mostly known for his "tough guy" roles, beginning with that of Carlin in the 1979 film Scum and as Will Scarlet in the cult television adventure series Robin of Sherwood. He has also become well known as a voice over...
) all shoot each other while aiming for her head. - Girl Friday - French plays the MURDERER. She throttles her boss's wife immediately after he hits his wife with a heavy trophy in a fit of rage. She lets him believe that he is responsible for the death (which may have occurred anyway).
- A Life or Death Operation - French plays the MURDERER, though the man she ultimately kills is not the person she had planned to murder (having already failed to kill her intended victim by driving over her and giving her a lethal injection). She smothers her victim with a pillow while he is in intensive care, believing him to be her intended victim.
- Dying Live - French plays the MURDERER. She gasses the entire Panadorian government (and a TV presenter) during a live broadcast in which a charismatic rebel leader (later to become her husband) was to be executed.
- The Body Politic - French plays the MURDERER. She accidentally kills a policeman with a stray crossbow arrow and stabs another man with an arrow in self-defence. A third man dies by falling down a flight of stairs while advancing on her. The catalyst for the deaths is the discovery of bodies under her house from murders that occurred twelve years earlier.
- Confess - French plays neither murderer nor murder victim. The murder in the episode turns out to have been committed by her police colleague (played by Minnie DriverMinnie DriverMinnie Driver is an English actress and singer-songwriter. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, as well as for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her work in the television series The Riches.- Early life...
), who shot another police colleague (who was also her lover). - Dead on Time - French plays neither murderer nor murder victim, though she spends the entire episode trying to set up the murder of a housewife by her husband. In the event, the husband is killed in an accident.
- Frozen - French plays the MURDERER. She initially believes she has crushed a refrigerator repairman to death when trying to make love to him, and only realises that he survived this ordeal after he has spent the night in her deep freeze (and, obviously, frozen to death).
- Going Solo - French plays the MURDERER. She drowns her fellow yachtswoman as they are being rescued from their capsized boat. Though we do not see the murder on screen, her responsibility is implied.
- Whoopi Stone - French plays the MURDERER. She shoots a gangster while working undercover to win his trust, and later teams up with the remaining gangsters and arranges the deaths of the senior policemen who involved her in the operation.
- Confessions of a Murderer - French plays the MURDERER. She hits a detective on the head with a mallet, causing him to fall off the top of the mountain they have just climbed.
- Elvis, Jesus and Zack - French plays neither murderer nor murder victim. No murder takes place in the episode, the idea being that when a celebrity is widely reported as dead, the media myth becomes self-perpetuating. As French's character starts the rumours that lead to the 'death' of a rock star (played by Sean Hughes), she is effectively the 'murderer' in this context.
- Dinner at Tiffany's - French plays the MURDERER. She poisons three colleagues (though the first two are accidental): one with a sandwich, one with a cup of tea (who then falls out of a window as a result and hangs herself on her very long plait) and the third (her intended target) with her sports drink. She suffocates a fourth victim (the object of her desire, who has spurned her affections and fired her) by smothering her with an extremely thick, creamy chocolate cake.
Awards
- Murder Most Horrid won the 1994 British Comedy AwardBritish Comedy AwardsThe British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...
for Best TV Comedy Drama
Video
Two videos of the series were released by the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in 1996, through BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
/Talkback
Talkback Productions
Talkback Productions was formed in 1981 by Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. The company is one of the UK’s leading production companies and part of the RTL Group, a major European broadcast and content company....
(the former of which became 2|entertain). Both were released on 7 May 1996, the first containing three episodes from series one and the second, three episodes from series two. These two series were not repeated on British television as often as the later series, and as a result, episodes not featured on the videos released by the BBC (The Case of the Missing, He Died A Death, Mrs. Hat and Mrs. Red, A Severe Case of Death, We All Hate Granny and Smashing Bird) have proven fairly difficult to view.
- Murder Most Horrid: The Girl from Ipanema/A Determined Woman/Murder at Tea-Time (BBCV5854) EAN: 5032680800767
- Murder Most Horrid: Overkill/Lady Luck/Mangez Merveillac (BBCV5855) EAN: 5014503585525
DVD (Region 2)
- Murder Most Horrid: Volume 1 was released by Fremantle Media on the 10 March 2008.