RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER is now available to watch on terrestrial television in the UK. Season One has been broadcasting on Sunday nights at 8pm on UKTV’s drama channel, U&Drama and can be watched on catch up here.
Based on Sally Andrew’s hugely popular Tannie Maria series, RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER is centred on Tannie Maria, a food and advice columnist who becomes embroiled in a murder investigation with her best friend Jessie. RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER is a co-production from Acorn TV, Multichoice and Cape Town-based production company Both Worlds Pictures, in co-operation with Global Screen. The series is produced by Both Worlds Pictures’ founder Thierry Cassuto, in collaboration with Paris-based Paradoxa. European distributor Global Scale recently announced RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER Season Two as part of its drama lineup that will be launched to buyers at TV market Mipcom.
Starring Maria Kennedy (OUTLANDER), Tony Kgoroge (INVICTUS) and Kylie Fisher, the first series was selected for the Berlinale ‘Series Markets Selects’ in February 2022 and began broadcast in South Africa on M-Net in March 2022 to fantastic reviews. The series was nominated for three awards at the 2023 South African Film & Television Awards (Best Supporting Actress in a TV Drama, Best Achievement in Editing in a TV Drama, and Best Achievement in Directing in a TV Drama), Best Writing for a Television Series at the 2023 WGSA Muse Awards, Best Cinematography at the 2023 Venice TV Awards, and was also shortlisted for a Rose d’Or Award. Acorn TV hold distribution rights to the series for the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, while Multichoice holds rights for Africa. Following the pick-up by Japan’s Mystery Channel, the first season has now sold in 94 countries. You can watch the trailer here.
RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER has been renewed for a second season and eight 45-minute episodes began filming in South Africa in April 2024. Season two of RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER will take up where the first season left off – following the events of the second book in the series, THE SATANIC MECHANIC.
The Tannie Maria series titles are all bestsellers in South Africa – regularly in the Top 5, with THE MILK TART MURDERS shooting straight to the top of the combined fiction and non-fiction charts on publication in March 2022. It also won the 2023 Nielsen SA Book Award for Fiction.
Sally is now working on the fifth book in the series. Penguin SA published the Tannie Maria Cookbook in April 2024.
About Sally Andrew
Sally Andrew divides her time between Muizenberg on the Cape Town coast and a nature reserve near Ladismith in the Klein Karoo, South Africa, where she lives with her artist partner and various wildlife (including a giant eland and a secretive leopard). Sally has published a number of non-fiction books on adult and environmental education.
Her first novel, RECIPES FOR LOVE & MURDER: A Tannie Maria Mystery was a Kirkus Best Book of 2015, A Wall Street Journal Best Mystery Book 2015, The Bookseller Fiction editor’s Choice 2015 and A Good Housekeeping Book of the Month.
Praise for RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER TV show
‘Gentle… the TV series offers the same mix of human drama, gorgeous landscape, local colour and mouth-watering cooking, quietly threaded through with the more serious issues of domestic abuse, racial inequality and the legacies of apartheid… Despite the murders and simmering racial undertones, the show keeps its warm, humorous tone through the quiet, grounded character of Maria, with her empathetic, practical advice – and recipes – in response to the letters she receives.’ – Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times
‘A quirky, colourful murder mystery set in the South African outback.’ – Christopher Vourlias, Variety
‘Mild comic, romantic and criminal misadventures in a picturesque setting… a one-of-a-kind heroine.’ – Mile McCahill, Variety
‘The highly watchable Maria Doyle Kennedy takes the lead in this very fun and quirky crime series, which is based on the book of the same name by Sally Andrew. Tannie Maria (Doyle Kennedy) is a recipe-creator-turned-advice-columnist who gets caught up in a murder mystery based on one of the letters she receives for her column. Teaming up with an investigative journalist to get to the bottom of the case, the pair clash with local police as they run amok across crime scenes.’ – Jenna Guillaume, Flicks, ‘7 TV shows arriving in September that we’re excited for’
‘Though there is some darkness to the series, as well as social seriousness, it’s kept cozy by its very much post-apartheid, classically eccentric community and the sweetness of its characters. There is a bit of flirtation, and unexpressed longing. And there is food – Maria’s effective love advice always includes a recipe – which we see prepared, step by step.’ – Los Angeles Times
‘RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER is a delight… There's plenty of humor and wit, and the mystery elements fairly snap along.’ – Janet Mullaney, Telly Visions
Visit Sally’s website