Matt & Mollie kick off Novel Idea with a brilliantly ill-advised challenge: write a novel together, one chapter at a time, with no planning, alternating weekly. Steffan Powell joins as narrator, referee and professional reader-out-louder, steering them away from Mollie’s romcom instincts and Matt’s action fantasies and into what “everybody loves”: murder.

A coin toss crowns Matt as Chapter One author, and he introduces us to Detective Ian Chalk at Willow Manor, where the wealthy Augustus Smythe has supposedly died in a freak accident involving a paper shredder and a tie. Chalk’s dramatic “will reveal” goes wrong when the document he triumphantly retrieves from a grandfather clock turns out to be a parish newsletter celebrating the housekeeper Mrs Paisley’s record-breaking tomato. Enter Chalk’s new partner, D.I. Brie Rockfort, who produces the real will — painstakingly pieced back together after being shredded — and raises the stakes with a bombshell: Augustus Smythe may not have died accidentally after all. The chapter ends with the household summoned to the study, now an official crime scene, as Mollie prepares to take over Chapter Two with a major plot point, a character deep-dive, and a scene of conflict.

Matt and Mollie are writing a novel… together. They alternate chapters in a bid to create a gripping murder mystery. The catch? They have completely different ideas about what the book should be.

Hosted by Matt Edmondson and Mollie King, with ever-patient narrator and referee Steffan Powell, each has just one week to continue the story — reacting, escalating, derailing and occasionally rescuing the plot from the other. Steffan reads the chapters aloud and tries to keep the whole thing vaguely coherent.

What starts as a simple premise becomes a competitive, unpredictable battle of twists, cliffhangers and creative one-upmanship.

Part comedy show, part audiobook, part social experiment — and by the end, there’s a complete original novel, written in real time.

Welcome to the story.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mollie takes over Chapter Two and wastes no time giving Matt exactly what he asked for: less meandering, more dialogue, and a sharper sense of scandal. We rejoin the guests at Willow Manor huddled around the body of Augustus Smythe, as D.I. Brie Roquefort attempts to seize control of the room and formally declares that Smythe was murdered — to the horror of everyone who realises they’re now trapped in the house and (even worse) might miss the Bake Off final.

Mollie introduces two new suspects with big personalities: Antoinette Du Beke, a dramatic French ballroom instructor, and Raffaella Ladal, a glamour-loving tennis obsessive in a sequin dress. Tensions immediately flare as Mrs Paisley publicly accuses Antoinette of trying to “waltz” her way into Smythe’s life, while Antoinette fires back with a key revelation: Mrs Paisley wasn’t just hiding things in the grandfather clock — she bought Smythe the shredder.

The chapter then rewinds to the morning of the dinner party to flesh out Smythe’s backstory: a young, handsome “Gosling of Gloucestershire” struggling with the upkeep of Willow Manor and a messy love life. We learn his great obsession was Raffaella — his tennis doubles partner and the object of his affection — before Mollie lands a final, soap-operatic twist: Raffaella was having an affair with Smythe… and she’s married to another resident of Willow Manor, Lord Ladal. With motives multiplying, Chalk mysteriously absent, and two suspects still unrevealed, Steffan sets Matt his next writing brief: an interrogation, a surprise, and the introduction of a new character.

Matt and Mollie are writing a novel… together. They alternate chapters in a bid to create a gripping murder mystery. The catch? They have completely different ideas about what the book should be.

Hosted by Matt Edmondson and Mollie King, with ever-patient narrator and referee Steffan Powell, each has just one week to continue the story — reacting, escalating, derailing and occasionally rescuing the plot from the other. Steffan reads the chapters aloud and tries to keep the whole thing vaguely coherent.

What starts as a simple premise becomes a competitive, unpredictable battle of twists, cliffhangers and creative one-upmanship.

Part comedy show, part audiobook, part social experiment — and by the end, there’s a complete original novel, written in real time.

Welcome to the story.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matt takes back the pen for Chapter Three and promises to steer the story back on course. We return to Willow Manor moments after Mollie’s dramatic revelations, where the guests are still gathered around the mysterious death of Augustus Smythe and tensions in the house are beginning to rise.

Detective Ian Chalk finally re-enters the story — and it quickly becomes clear that more has been going on behind the scenes than anyone realised. As Chalk and D.I. Brie Rockfort begin to take control of the investigation, new information emerges about Smythe’s life, his finances, and his relationships with the people in the room. With every revelation, the motives of the Willow Manor residents start to look increasingly suspicious.

Matt also introduces more of the household — completing the picture of the “Willow Manor Six” — while the detectives push the investigation forward and uncover clues suggesting Smythe may have been planning something drastic before his death.

By the end of the chapter, tensions are high, secrets are bubbling to the surface, and one final discovery promises to change everything… just as the detectives prepare to reveal what might be the most important clue yet.

Matt and Mollie are writing a novel… together. They alternate chapters in a bid to create a gripping murder mystery. The catch? They have completely different ideas about what the book should be.

Hosted by Matt Edmondson and Mollie King, with ever-patient narrator and referee Steffan Powell, each has just one week to continue the story — reacting, escalating, derailing and occasionally rescuing the plot from the other. Steffan reads the chapters aloud and tries to keep the whole thing vaguely coherent.

What starts as a simple premise becomes a competitive, unpredictable battle of twists, cliffhangers and creative one-upmanship.

Part comedy show, part audiobook, part social experiment — and by the end, there’s a complete original novel, written in real time.

Welcome to the story.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.