Period ITV crime drama Malice Aforethought, based on the novel by Francis Iles, was set in the 1930s where long-suffering village doctor Edmund Bickleigh (Ben Miller) decides to do away with his domineering wife Julia (Barbara Flynn) making it appear to be suicide so that he can marry Madeleine Cranmere (Megan Dodds) an eligible newcomer to the village with whom he becomes obsessed.
There had been a much lower key four part version made by the BBC in 1979, this had starred Hywel Bennett and Cheryl Campbell. Novelist Illes is best remembered for Before The Fact, the novel that formed the basis for Hitchcock’s classic Suspicion.
Cast: Ben Miller as Doctor Edmund Bickleigh; Barbara Flynn as Julia Bickleigh; Niall Buggy as Reverend Hessary Torr; Fiona O’Shaughnessy as Florence; Orla O’Rourke as Gwynfyfryd Rattery; Peter Vaughan as Widdicombe; Phyllis Ryan as Miss Adele Peavey; Ronnie Masterson as Miss Janet Wapworthy; Megan Dodds as Madeleine Cranmere; Joseph Beattie as Denny Bourne; Lucy Brown as Ivy Ridgeway; Gemma Reeves as Beryl; Richard Armitage as William Chatford; Ger Ryan as Constance Torr; Hannah McCabe as Felicity Torr; Tom Kelly as Benjie Torr; Mal Whyte as Mr Painter; Des Braiden as Sir Tamerton Follet; Eileen Colgan as Mrs Painter
Writer: Andrew Payne / Novel: Francis Iles / Music: Stephen McKeon / Script Editors: Imogen Cooper, Esther Springer / Executive Producers: Charles Elton, Rebecca Eaton / Producers: Morgan O’Sullivan, James Flynn, Keith Thompson / Director: David Blair
UK / ITV-1 – Granada / 2×90 minute episodes / Broadcast 10 and 11 April 2005
