A Killing in Cork

"A Killing in Cork" is the second episode set of "Murder, She Wrote" that is set in Ireland. However, none of the cast actually were in Ireland and the episode was filmed in Hollywood...though it did feel much like Ireland!

Around the same time Jessica arrives in Ireland, an abrasive guy, Andrew (Anthony Robinson), arrives. Andrew is nasty and you KNOW sooner or later he'll be the murder victim. But when an innocent man is jailed for the killing, Jessica, naturally, works to prove his innocence and find the real killer.

This is an enjoyable and well written episode...even without it actually being filmed in Ireland. Reasonably original and worth seeing.

By the way, I wonder is some of the reason they set a couple episodes (so far) in Ireland might be because Angela Lansbury did live there for a time.

This episode marks the final performance by Brandon Brady, who began his television and film acting career in 1956.

Fiona Delaney Griffith (Fionnula Flanagan) has lost husband, Robert Griffith, from a fall from Saint Broderick's Church bell tower steeple, in Kilcleer, County Cork, earlier this year, in March.

And now her young adult son, Sean Griffith (Gordon Currie), must become the "man of the house," and operate Robert's textile manufacturing business, along with Dennis Moylan (Dakin Matthews), who has worked at Robert's side for many years.

Patrick Griffith (Cyril O'Reilly), Fiona's elder son, has disappeared from Kilcleer some ten years ago and hasn't been in contact with Fiona nor Sean after Robert had disowned him and cut him from the will and any claim to the textile factory.

Siobhan Kennedy (Wendy Benson-Landes), Fiona's young housekeeper, on the other hand, has recently been in contact with Patrick, as they have sparked a secret romantic interest in each other somewhere along the way.

Ambrose Griffith (Andrew Robinson), an American cousin of Robert's, arrives in Kilcleer, along with his young wife, Emily Griffith (Bridgette Wilson), their chauffeur, Eric (Michael Connors), whom Emily secretly romances, and Duffy (Paul Ivy), whom Ambrose secretly hires to keep an eye on Emily and Eric.

Ambrose not only demands his share of the Griffith inheritance, but also plans to relocate the textile factory to the far-away Irish community of Shimough, against the wishes and steadfast will of Sean Griffith, but with the cooperation of Dennis Moylan.

When Fiona Delaney Griffith's dear old friend Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) arrives in Ireland after a visit to London, Siobhan Kennedy chauffeurs Jessica into Kilcleer, and offers a ride to William Mahaffy (Donnelly Rhodes), whom many address as "Billy," who hikes a rural route into the community on an injured leg.

Jessica has not seen her dear old friend for three years and plans to spend the week catching up with the Griffith family, as well as in researching MacGill family history at the church and memorial park at Saint Broderick's, with the cooperation of its pastor, Father Timothy (Gerald S. O'Loughlin).

At the memorial park, Jessica's presence seems to disturb Una O'Reilly (Udana Power), an eccentric local, who chants an Irish myth, as she decorates Robert Griffith's headstone with white and yellow wild flowers, without realizing the presence of Jessica.

Jessica mentions her chance encounter with Una O'Reilly, as Fiona receives her and Father Timothy for dinner, for Fiona has authored four volumes regarding Irish mythology and explains Una's reference to a Gancanna Leprechaun, who is invariably illustrated holding a pipe.

With Ambrose Griffith and Emily also in attendance for the gathering at Fiona's, Fiona, Sean, Father Timothy and Jessica are stunned as Patrick Griffith suddenly returns to the fold after a ten-year-hiatus. Siobhan has foreknowledge of Patrick's general whereabouts, but now he immediately confronts an adamant Ambrose, insisting that the factory not be moved from Kilcleer.

Ambrose later confronts Emily with Duffy's surveillance photographs taken of Emily with Eric and demands an uncontested divorce with no settlement provisions for Emily.

But, the next evening, as Fiona and Siobhan gather with Jessica and Father Timothy as spectators for an Irish folk dance contest, church bells peel at Saint Broderick's at 10:04 PM, four hours after the church would otherwise have been locked.

Father Timothy suggests that Jessica accompany him to the bell tower, where they discover a body, the victim of strangulation. (Una O'Reilly had been peeking into the bell tower window at 10:00, as she had on the March night of Robert's fall, but from the exterior shots, the bell tower windows reach high above the rooftop, so this angle appears a production goof.)

Sergeant Terence Boyle (Mark Rolston) investigates the murder, as does Jessica, who deduces that the suspect whom Terence arrests is innocent, based upon an investigation of her own.

Jessica also pieces together the theory that Robert, too, has been murdered by the same perpetrator, and that he had a past with Una, and that Fiona had a past with Billy, who had been in a coma in 1963, when Fiona had abruptly decided to marry Robert, many years before "A Killing in Cork."

The cast is rounded out by Narrator (Brandon Brady), Barman (Lee Magnuson), and Shopkeeper (Mark Leahy).

This also represents the first appearance by Michael Connors, and the most recent appearance to date each by Udana Power, Mark Leahy, as well as the first of two "MSW" appearances each for Wendy Benson-Landes, Andrew Robinson, the second of two for Mark Leahy, the first of three for Paul Ivy, the second of three each for Dakin Matthews and Cyril O'Reilly, the third of three for Donnelly Rhodes, the second of four for Fionnula Flanagan, the third of four for Mark Rolston, and the fourth of four "MSW's" for Gerald S. O'Loughlin.

It's a shame we can't chat with each other on IMDb. It's a single voice platform - wink.

However, is this the one time Fletcher has ever mentioned her mother?

Jessica is in Cork visiting her friend Fiona, and researching her family's history, here visits coincides with an American businessman, who's buying out a family run woollen mill.

It's a pretty good mystery, some of the window dressing doesn't quite work, but the mystery itself is strong.

It's one of those where you just know who's going to get bumped off, he may as well have had a sign on him saying murder victim.

There's no denying The Irish theme, it opens with an Irish jig, there are panpipes playing the whole way through, talk of leprechauns and a nymph, sadly the only thing that details it, are the accents. I spotted some Canadian Irish mixes and some American Irish mixes. Fionnula Flanagan may not be the only Irish person here, but perhaps the only Irish sounding principal character.

The stock footage looks pretty good, and mixes in quite well, but there is no mistaking the land of Ireland, it's a pity they didn't actually film in Cork.

Despite some of the shocking accents, it's actually an excellent episode.

7/10.

I'm watching this episode of Murder She Wrote and the first time the "crazy lady" popped up from behind the tombstone I recognized the plot. It was a black and white movie that shared the plot elements of a death at a church timed by ringing of a bell, a crazy lady who pops up in various places, family drama about moving a business to another town, etc. But I can't remember what the movie was and who the detective was.