Harry Potter star to play clergyman in Evensong murder mystery

15 September 2025, 12:57

The new murder mystery series will be released later in the Autumn

Harry Potter star Matthew Lewis will lead the new crime drama Murder Before Evensong, based on Reverend Richard Coles’ novel.

Lewis, who played Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films, plays the Rector of Champton Canon Daniel Clement, who lives with his widowed mother and finds himself entangled in a murder investigation.

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Channel 5 has said the show is “much anticipated”, and the synopsis for Murder Before Evensong states: “Daniel shares Champton rectory with his widowed mother Audrey – and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda.

“When Daniel announces a plan to modernise the church, the parish is suddenly divided. And then a body is found dead at the back of the church.

“As the police move in and the bodies start piling up, Daniel is the only one who can try and keep his fractured community together… and catch a killer.”

Watch the trailer for Murder Before Evensong

Evensong is a traditional Anglican church service of Evening Prayer, consisting of readings, prayers, and psalms and canticles like the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, sung by a choir. It is held around sunset to offer a time for peaceful reflection at the end of the day – the perfect serene setting for a murder mystery.

The six-part series will be released on Channel 5 later this autumn and also stars Amit Shah (Happy Valley, Mr Bates vs The Post Office) as Neil Vanloo.

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As well as the eight Harry Potter films, Lewis has appeared in another Channel 5 series, All Creatures Great and Small and Romesh Ranganathan’s BBC sitcom Avoidance.

The original novel is the first book in Reverend Coles’ Canon Clement Mystery series and was an instant number one Sunday Times bestseller.

Richard Coles shared an image from the show and fans expressed their excitement.

“I cannot wait!” one person wrote. “Parts of the book had me laughing out loud, parts of the book struck such a chord, and then, of course, parts of the book’s mystery!”

Another commented: “I love Richard Coles, he’s such a fascinating man and so interesting to listen to. I haven’t read the book but I can’t wait for his new series to start, I think it will be brilliant.”