The not-as-old-as-she-is-in-the-book Judith Potts has a settled life, a mostly solitary routine of crossword setting (albeit with too many black squares), drinking whisky and skinny-dipping in the Thames in the evening. That would seem to be enough for her, until during a night-time swim, she hears an altercation at a neighbour’s house – and a gunshot.

The police find nothing suspicious, but determined to find out what happened, Judith finds her neighbour’s body in the garden with a bullet-hole in his forehead. Enlisting the help of Suzie, a dog-walker, and Becks, the vicar’s wife, Judith decides that if the police can’t find the killer, she will have to do it. And she’s certain she knows who did it – apart from the fact that the suspect has a cast-iron alibi.

Yes, apart from the obvious edit, that’s my introduction for the novel Mrs Potts’ Murder Club And Her Dead Neighbour* by Death In Paradise creator Rob Thorogood, a novel that I loved and awarded the Grand Puzzly for 2020. Was that prestigious award mentioned on the poster for this dramatization? For seem reason, no, it was not, but after recovering from this trauma, I decided that I’d be forgiving and give the show a go anyway.

It premiered on the UK freeview channel Drama, but if you want to watch it with fewer adverts and, certainly on my TV, a much clearer picture, then it’s on the UKTV Play app for free and with fewer adverts. It’s two 90 minute episodes (if you don’t count the adverts) which means that the book can be done without any noticeably cuts to the plot.

The casting of the lead characters is impeccably. Yes, Samantha Bond is younger and thinner than Judith in the books, but it’s Samantha Bond, for goodness sake, she’s amazing. She hits every beat perfectly, both the serious parts and the comedy aspects. The scene where she infiltrates the police briefing is priceless, but the prize goes for the denouement, a mixture of confidence and fear as the killer is confronted. She adds an extra level that is rare in this sort of TV show.

Full credit too for Jo Martin as Suzi, Cara Horgan as Becks and Natalie Dew as DS Malik, all note-perfect, with the rest of the cast providing the goods as well. The only niggle here is that I did think a couple of the actors playing suspects looked a bit too similar to each other – my eyes and brain are getting old, so one of them could have grown a moustache or something…

All in all, I thought, as you might guess, this was excellent. Even knowing the solution from the book, I was gripped by this. Absolutely top notch drama that took full advantage of the longer running time to tell a story – a bit of a shame that it ended up being hidden away on the Drama channel. But hopefully, now that everyone’s got a smart TV, they can find this and give it a go.

Looking forward to more from the series.

*That’s the German title. Catchy, isn’t it?