There aren’t many shows as comforting, as compelling, as damnably good-natured as Murder, She Wrote. There has never been, and never will be again, anyone like Jessica Fletcher. Over 12 seasons and 264 episodes of award-winning, critically acclaimed television, a widowed English teacher-turned-crime novelist became one of the greatest fictional sleuths of all time.
Let’s start with the woman at the centre of it all: Angela Lansbury. You may know her as Miss Price from Bedknobs and Broomsticks, or as the singing teapot in Beauty and the Beast. But before Murder, She Wrote rolled around, Lansbury was not a global household name.
All of that changed when Murder, She Wrote’s feature-length pilot, The Murder of Sherlock Holmes, aired in 1984. This sweet, succinct episode introduces us to Jessica Fletcher, a part-time teacher who lives alone at 698 Candlewood Lane, in the fictional town of Cabot Cove, Maine.
Her nephew Grady, who works in publishing, phones to let her know that he secretly gave her crime novel manuscript to his boss, who loved it. Soon Jessica has a major publishing deal and is whisked off to New York on a whirlwind press tour. But when a murder occurs at a swanky soiree she has been dragged to, we – and Jessica herself – discover that she has a mind like a steel trap, her intuition compelling her to solve the case.
Jessica, it turns out, has twin superpowers: a genius-level intellect for crime solving and an innate kindness. Her manners, empathy and her stubborn willingness to see the good in people batters down even the staunchest, prickliest opposition in her path. As a plot device, it’s brilliant; Jessica can charm her way in anywhere.
Without a badge, her presence at crime scenes can be a little bewildering but, by the time the second episode rolls around, we’re treated to a time-jump: she is already several years into her writing career with a slew of bestsellers behind her, which means JB Fletcher is now something of a celebrity. Gatekeepers between her and a crime scene are either starstruck, charmed or scolded (in a grandmotherly way) into letting her take a quick look-see at the tragedy in question. And once she’s in, she’s in. The case is afoot.
Cabot Cove, Jessica’s sunshine-and-doily-drenched Gotham, is a fascinating place. BBC Radio 4 once declared it the murder capital of the world, with its 3,560 residents being subjected to an average of 5.3 murders every year between 1984 and 1996. That makes this sleepy seaside hamlet about 50 times deadlier than Honduras. No wonder Jessica is such a dab hand at murder mysteries – her home town is neck-deep in death. Cabot Cove’s graveyard must be overflowing.
Murder, She Wrote was wholesome beyond measure but it also took some big swings. In its third season it staged a wild, ambitious crossover with Magnum PI. In Magnum, our titular detective (Tom Selleck) works for, and lives at the estate of, the elusive author Robin Masters. When some of his house guests are almost killed, Masters brings in someone he trusts to assist: Jessica Fletcher. Jessica and Magnum initially butt heads but eventually end up working together – and if it’s wrong to yearn for two characters to fall in love this much then, frankly, I don’t want to be right.
There was even the infamous virtual reality episode, where Jessica finds herself writing the script for a VR game, A Murder at Hastings Rock. The lead developer is Michael Burke (Kevin Sorbo, formerly TV’s Hercules and now Hollywood’s rightwing pariah). When the head of the company ends up dead in a VR booth, Michael is blamed and Jessica – goofy goggles and all – has to solve the murder. If it were anyone else but Jessica Fletcher, we’d have bailed. But with Murder, She Wrote, it’s hard not to shrug and join in, no matter how bizarre the ride.
Lansbury died in 2022 at the age of 96 but there’s something eternally vital about Jessica Fletcher. There’s also something deeply edifying about having an older woman play the hero, let alone a hero whose age and gender rank among her greatest assets. And though the show finished back in the 90s, perhaps Jessica Fletcher is still in Cabot Cove, solving murders and pumping out bestsellers. After all, if there was anyone who could charm the grim reaper himself into backing off, it’d be her.
• Murder, She Wrote is available to stream on Foxtel Now in Australia, and Peacock and Apple TV+ in the US. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
