Creating the look of dual timelines for Moonflower Murders

TVBEurope investigates the work of colourist Dan Coles on the latest season of the BBCs crime series

By Jenny Priestley

Published: January 8, 2025 Updated: January 9, 2025

TVBEurope investigates the work of colourist Dan Coles on the latest season of the BBC's crime series

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Moonflower Murders, from the makers of Magpie Murders, debuted on BBC One and iPlayer at the end of 2024.

The series stars Lesley Manville as book editor turned sleuth Susan Ryeland and Timothy McMullan as famous literary detective Atticus P nd.

Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville) and Atticus P nd (Timothy McMullan). All images courtesy BBC. Post production for the series was carried out by London-based UNIT Film & TV, which worked on the series for six months.

Colourist Dan Coles began working on Moonflower Murders during pre-production, he tells TVBEurope, discussing the look of the show with director of photography Paul Robertson. We then got together after the shoot for a remote grading session to establish our look for the series.

A few key scenes were selected for us to look at we graded them together to create the different worlds and the look for Moonflower Murders was established.

The producers wanted to create a naturalistic feel for the modern-day scenes, with a large part of the show set in Crete. We specifically pushed the saturation and contrast to enhance the intensity and beauty of the island, explains Coles. We then had a very slightly muted colour palette to portray our period world. Contrast and colour were both still rich, but with a slightly more filmic feel, adding shape and depth across the board to help emphasise key story points.

Coles had two days to grade each episode and used Baselight to achieve the look he wanted. He says the weather and sky continuity was his biggest challenge on the show, but he enjoyed working on the show's two timelines.

The grade is always crucial to create a seamlessness for the viewer's experience, he adds. Having two completely different worlds that sit together well aesthetically, but most importantly work together well narratively meant the grade was pivotal. Peter Robertson's cinematography was stunning and it was a pleasure to enhance and help with the final layer of storytelling for this drama.

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