Directed by Viviana Andereggen and Brian O’Malley ‘Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue’, in Spanish and English, challenges us with an intelligent plot, humour and an array of interesting characters.

All the passengers on the small plane, bar the stewardess, survive the impact, with the pilot having sent out a cryptic SOS message just as they crashed. Things rapidly begin to unravel as the survivors start getting being picked off one-by-one by a mysterious hooded figure. Is this figure real or a figment of their progressive paranoia? Gradually, more and more terrified, they all suspect each other as they struggle to deal with the challenges of surviving the heat, the lack of food and water and a murderer in their midst. 

Lydia Wilson as Sonja, David Ajala as Zack, Adam Long as Dan and Jan Lee as Amy

There is a young spoilt heiress, Amy (Jan Lee) who has impulsively married Dan Maclean (Adam Long) in Las Vegas. An inscrutable British woman Sonja (Lydia Wilson), Zack Ellis (David Ajala) an insurance investigator, a fitness fanatic Carlos (Peter Gadio) who claims to be a famous masked luchador, a wrestling star and who refuses to stop prepping for his big fight in two days’ time. Finding himself lost in an impenetrable jungle seems not have quite registered with him.

The pilot Octavio’s (Christian Contreras) unlikely survival of being impaled by a tree, is soon settled when, having been operated on (without anaesthetic) by reluctant failed doctor Kevin Anderson (Eric McCormack), he turns out to be the first to be mysteriously murdered during the night.  The scared survivors choose to believe he succumbed to his injuries, but Lisa Davies (a delightfully charismatic Siobhán McSweeney) playing against character as a Maga southern girl married to Travis, (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), has worked in a hospice and knows better. Her performance stands out, although they are all well-matched.

 When Travis is poisoned, and the bodies start to pile up in the dip by the camp, the rest of the gang get more and more paranoid and secretive. When drugs are found in the body of the plane, things gets worse and we get drawn more deeply into the mystery and violence of their nightmare.  

Siobhán McSweeny as Lisa Davies

‘Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue’ is a cross between Agatha Christie and ‘Lost’, and yet the series has developed a flavour all its own.  Creator and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz is an English novelist and screenwriter of mystery and suspense, who created classics like ‘Foyle’s War’ and Magpie Murders for TV, wrote Sherlock Holmes novels (at the request of the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate) and similarly, even created a new James Bond novel (Trigger Mortis 2015). 

Having written a lot for children (the Alex Rider novels about a 14-year-old spy who works for MI6) Horowitz has a unique feel for wild, even incongruous, adventure, that appeals to all. Largely character driven, the plot sees the National Guard manage to locate the downed plan but only recover nine bodies that are taken to the local ‘Los Trios’ military morgue. Then they struggle to find out why they all had to die and locate the missing passenger.

Who is pulling the strings and killing them off?  With flashbacks and focussing on different points of view, including the unexplained activities of Cora de León (Carolina Guerra), who runs the airline, layers are peeled off one-by-one, till the real plot is revealed.

This is a fun watch and a suspenseful whodunnit. The touches of absurdity and humour alleviate the bits of horror as the truth is revealed, leading to its a satisfying conclusion.

Eric McCormack as Kevin Anderson and David Ajala as Zack Ellis

'Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue' 

is available now on  the BBC iPlayer

CREW

Creator and screenwriter: Anthony Horowitz /Directed by Viviana Andereggen and Brian O’Malley / Production: Richard Burrell / Composer: Chris Roe / DOP: James Mather / Editors: Adam Trotman, Nigel Bunyan and Karenjit Sahota / Casting: Gary Davy/ 

CAST

Octavio: Christian Contreras /Kevin Anderson: Eric McCormack / Lisa Davies: Siobhán McSweeney / Travis Davies: Ólafur Darri Ólafsson /Cora de Leon: Carolina Guerra / Zack Ellis: David Ajala / Carlos García Méndez:Peter Gadiot / Amy Maclean: Jan Lee / Dan Maclean: Adam Lond / Sonja Blair: Lydia Wilson /David Malik: Hari Dhillon /Claire Sundiata: Deborah Auorinde (Zack’s wife)

Filmed in Gran Canaria of the Canary Islands, the Gran Canaria Studios, the 'Viera y Clavijo Botanical Gardens' and the Aerodrome of Berriel.