TV… The Linda Blair Cooking Project

#1980s #1990s #2010s #AllPosts

Take a trip with me to the Murder She Wrote themed cookalong…

Joining Jenny for a jolly cook-along with writer and detective Jessica Fletcher and my investigation into an English trifle recipe from her lovely guest star, Linda Blair.

Linda Blair

Murder She Wrote

If I said the blog name Silver Screen Suppers, the more observant – and/or hungry – of you will remember this name from a few of my more recent blogathons. Jenny Hammerton runs this all-star recipe site and often joins me with a tasty, tried and tested recipe with a more random post on the subject concerned. After inviting Jenny to my Angela Lansbury blogathon this year, I learned Jenny was also planning an all-star tribute to this actress.

This is the second cook-along I’ve joined with this lovely blogger. I joined her Columbo (1971-2003) themed one a wee while ago. This year, we were asked to select our own recipe as endorsed by a guest star from Lansbury’s hit show, Murder She Wrote (1984-96). With everyone picking their own choices of recipe and guest star – or vice versa) from a list as long as your arm (as my arm is not as long) of 200+ guest stars.

After much deliberation with Darlin Husband, I plonked for one with our favourite current actress for our Saturday movie nights – the one and only, Linda Blair. With her recipe not for pea soup (as Darlin’ Husband feared) but for an English trifle. Before I don my apron once more with Linda as my trusty companion, there’s a wee outline of the show if you CLICK HERE.

In a nutshell, the episode with Linda Blair is called Murder Takes the Bus, and can be found in series 1 and episode 19, should you be intrigued enough to hunt it down. The episode tells of Jessica Fletcher (Lansbury), our snooping author and detective – and everyone’s favourite auntie (especially as she often saves you from police proceedings if you are on the whodunnit list) – taking a bus from Cabot Cove to a Portland convention with Sheriff Amos Tupper (Tom Bosley), one stormy night.

En route, after stopping at a diner she discovers one of the passengers has been murdered. This was first by strangling and then stabbing with a screwdriver. With the driver and all the passengers as possible suspects. Some have connections with the victim, a one-time bank robber but now on parole, it’s up to Jessica to find the culprit. Linda plays Jane Pascal, a passenger whose husband Steve’s father died during this same robbery one of the suspects.

The episode also stars Michael Constantine as the bus driver, Ben Gibbons (whose daughter also died during the robbery). Other passengers include David Wayne who played Digger on the Dallas (1978-91) TV show). There are also the delights of Rue McClanahan from The Golden Girls (1985-92) as a librarian accompanied by her husband. Just to name a few of those suspects.

Anyway onto Linda Blair’s English Trifle…

This was the first time I’ve made a trifle that doesn’t include individual packets of a jelly mix, sponge, custard powder and whipped cream powder in one wee box (Jenny and the other Brits here will probably know the brand of trifle mix I’m talking about here). So it’s going to be a wee bit of a novelty… so now let’s get cooking…

A full review of this episode will possibly be reviewed at a later date. This is especially after reading that this episode was a homage to Agatha Christie’s book, Murder On The Orient Express (1974). This I discovered as having read some of the blurbs around it, so I’m now more than intrigued about how this episode and storyline will play out.

That is unless I manage to track down that Murder She Wrote cross-over episode with Magnum PI (1980-88), starring both shows’ casts. This cross-over, a two-parter nattily named Magnum on Ice (1986) – as part of the Murder, She Wrote series – and Novel Connection (1986) – as part of the Magnum P. and also has guest stars as diverse as Jessica Walter and Jared Martin (Lusty Dusty, in Dallas, this role is outlined more HERE). It really would be a crime not to…