Death Comes to Pemberley has traversed from the BBC, where it first aired in 2013, over to Netflix to find a whole new raft of fans among the streaming service's global audience.
The period drama meets murder mystery stars a stacked cast of British talent, including Anna Maxwell Martin, Matthew Rhys, Matthew Goode and Jenna Coleman to name but a few, and is set in some of the most lavish manor estates still in working order.
The unofficial sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice starts very much apart from the mode of that classic romance novel. The hook this time is the death of Captain Denny (Tom Canton), a minor Pride and Prejudice character, under highly suspicious circumstances.
From that starting point, the drama only continues to unravel, with seemingly every spanner thrown into the works: an illegitimate baby (fathered by the notorious Mr Wickham, of course), an apparent ghost, the question of who Miss Georgiana shall marry and the looming threat of a noose for whoever is found guilty of murder.
So, after all suspicion fell at the dastardly Wickham's feet, was it indeed he that killed Captain Denny?
Death Comes to Pemberley spoilers follow.
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Although Wickham can be accused of many things, it turns out murder is not actually one of them. In classic whodunnit fashion, the overwhelming suspicion hovering around him was a red herring.
Everything did look sewn up for a moment there: after pub landlady Mrs Piggott testified to seeing Wickham and Denny quarrelling – as well as the tiny detail he had seemingly confessed to the murder straight after Denny was found – Wickham was found guilty and sentenced to hang.
Yet before it was all too late, we finally got a confession from the actual killer. But on seeing the events play out, however, it became clear that it was nothing so straightforward as out-and-out murder.
Elizabeth goes to visit Will Bidwell, who is bedridden with a serious illness but finally confesses to confronting Denny, assuming he was the one who got his sister Louisa pregnant.
"I felt such rage," the dying Will tells Elizabeth. "It was an insult to me, as though I couldn't protect my womenfolk. And I wanted to teach him a lesson."
We then see a flashback of Will hitting Denny with his stick and pursuing him to the gully, where Denny fell and hit his head on what appears to be Darcy senior's gravestone.
Wickham spotted him and, as Will fled, shot after him. "I didn't think it would come to this," a remorseful Will admits.
He signs a full confession, which Elizabeth drives through the night by carriage to take to the gallows and save Wickham from the noose.
Death Comes to Pemberley wraps up with good tidings: Elizabeth tells Darcy they have a baby on the way, Wickham and Lydia flee across the pond, presumably to get into even more scrapes, and the young lawyer Henry Alveston and Georgiana get their happily ever after.
Given this was the general state of marital bliss across the board, perhaps now is the perfect opportunity to talk about whether we could see Elizabeth and Darcy once again…?
Death Comes to Pemberley is available to stream on Netflix.
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Previously Deputy TV Editor at Digital Spy and, before that, a TV Reporter at The Mirror, Rebecca can now be found crafting expert analysis of the TV landscape, when she's not talking on the BBC or Times Radio about everything from the latest season of Bridgerton or The White Lotus to whatever chaos is unfolding in the various Love Island villas. When she's not bingeing a boxset, in-the-wild sightings of Rebecca have included stints on the National TV Awards and BAFTAs red carpets, and post-match video explainers of the reality TV we're all watching.
