What did Charles do in Magpie Murders and will he return for Marble Hall Murders?
Here's a recap of what happened to Charles during season 2 of the clever crime drama
The Magpie Murders TV series is a huge hit with fans around the world. Based on the bestselling book series by Anthony Horowitz, the clever and compelling show has finally returned for its third, and sadly final, outing.
In 2022, audiences were delighted to find the perfectly cast Lesley Manville taking on the role of Susan Ryeland, a book editor turned sleuth, as the first book in the series was adapted for our screens.
The sequel, Moonflower Murders, followed in 2024 and now the trilogy concludes with Marble Hall Murders. Airing on BBC One from September 26, the six new episodes follow Susan as she's hired to work on a new Atticus Pünd (Tim McMullan) novel.
Led into another murder mystery, revolving around the death of a beloved children’s author, Susan shockingly finds that she is a suspect in the case unfolding.
But before sitting down to enjoy the latest series, viewers have been wondering about Charles Clover. As a few years have passed since the events of Magpie Murders, we're offering a recap of what Charles did during season 1 of the show, and what this means for a possible return in Marble Hall Murders.
What did Charles do?
During Magpie Murders, Charles Clover pushed Alan Conway (Conleth Hill) to his death from a tower and tried to cover it up.
Alan was widely disliked, and the finger could have been pointed at many people for his death - Susan spends the series piecing together what happened to him and who was responsible for the murder.
The author behind the Atticus Pünd detective novels, Alan had loathed writing the series, but they were a huge commercial success and the only way he was able to stay wealthy.
He felt mounting resentment that his ambitions to write more "important" literature were hindered by being financially trapped into penning the commercially successful novels he despised.
Finding out that he's dying of cancer, Alan decided to execute a plan that would weaponise his book series, ensuring the first letter of his first eight book titles spelled out "AN ANAGRAM".
The final clue was the name of his famous detective, with "Atticus Pünd" being an anagram for "A STUPID C***." As an insult to his publisher and readers, Alan planned to appear on TV before his death to reveal the hidden message in his books.
However, his plan was scuppered when Charles found out about it. Charles was the founder of Cloverleaf Books, the publishing house behind Atticus Pünd. Having spent 11 years building the business, he had big plans to sell it retire.
With CloverLeaf Books about to be bought out by a multinational publisher, Alan's big and public reveal of the anagram would destroy the company's reputation and stop the buyout going ahead.
Driving to Alan's country home, Abbey Grange to confront him, Charles ended up pushing Alan from a tower at his mansion before staging his crime to make it appear that Alan took his own life.
He took the last chapter of Alan's final Atticus Pünd novel after the murder and hid it in his office. Inside that last chapter, the fictional detective, terminally ill like Alan, wrote a note explaining his decision to end his life - Alan had written this by hand.
Charles also had a genuine apology note that Alan had previously sent him following some drunken bad behaviour at a dinner party.
Charles then created the fake suicide note by combining Alan's handwritten version of the goodbye note from Atticus and layering it with the other handwritten dinner party apology, to create what appeared to be Alan's genuine suicide declaration.
He then took the typed copy to hide the fact he'd stolen the letter and re-written it word-for-word - anyone who found it would immediately know the suicide note was fake.
His plan was to persuade the ghost writer tasked with finishing Magpie Murders to change the title from Magpie Murders to "The Magpie Murders" so that Alan's anagram wouldn't work.
Despite his efforts, Susan later uncovers the hidden insult when looking into Alan's death. She realises just what Charles would've lost if fans of the novels had also worked it out.
Confronting Charles at the Cloverleaf Books office, her suspicions are cemented when she finds the book's missing final chapter hidden a locked drawer in Charles' office.
In the manuscript, Susan finds Atticus Pünd was dying and wrote a farewell letter, and his words were the exact ones Charles used to forge the suicide note.
When Charles finds out he's been caught, he knocks Susan unconscious and sets fire to the office building with her inside.
She is saved by her partner, Andreas Patakis and Charles is sent to prison for his crimes.
Is Charles in Marble Hall Murders?
Yes, Charles does reprise his role in Marble Hall Murders, but does so while still behind bars.
In the new series, central character Eliot Crace is connected to Charles through past business dealings with his family, particularly his grandmother Miriam.
Privy to many Crace family secrets, Susan is forced to visit Charles in prison to ask for his help when she realises Atticus Pünd's novel mirrors the family's real-life murky reality.
Charles' wife Elaine is back in Susan's life, and she feels ready to head to the prison to come face-to-face with him as she's reconnected with somebody so close to him.
Not to spoil the plot for those tuning in, but Susan's visit to Charles is a dark moment as she sees how broken he is by being incarcerated.
With pent up anger and nothing to fill his time with, Charles has been plotting revenge on those who wronged him and saw him go to prison, using someone on the outside to help him orchestrate his plans.
Susan is left in real danger as Charles' plan plays out while the race to find the truth behind the Crace family secrets is on.
Marble Hall Murders airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from September 26.
