stationery of murder before evensong

Never underestimate the ice-breaking power of stationery.

-Canon Daniel Clement

Kat and I just finished the tv series Murder Before Evensong, based on the novel of the same name by the Reverend Richard Coles. And boy, did it keep this stationery nerd on the edge of his seat. Set in a rural English village in the 80’s, stationery is seen, used, and discussed throughout the series. It’s even a key point in the plot (but I’ll try to keep spoilers out of this review)!

I enjoyed writing about the stationery in Ludwig so much, I couldn’t resist doing the same for Murder Before Evensong. Let’s get into it!

The Pentel P205

Let’s start off with my biggest complaint with this series. When Daniel first meets DS Vanloo, he compliments him on mechanical the pencil he is using, the Pentel P205. Except…it’s not. It is a similar pencil, but it is decidedly not the P205 ¹.

While the P205 is historically accurate - it was first manufactured sometime in the 1970’s - the shape (especially around the knock and the grip) just doesn’t match up. I have looked up some vintage P205s from the 70’s in case the design changed; but nope, that design hasn’t changed a lick in 50 years.

Upon further review, I’m fairly confident the pencil is a Pentel Graph 500 (PG505), now known as the Pentel Graphlet. It has the black tip at the end of the knock, the clips look similar, as does the knurling. The PG505 was released some time in the 80s (having trouble pinning down an exact year), so it is also historically accurate. I think the money-shot would be if we could see the lead indicator on the knurling in the series. Alas, it is never visible. But even without that confirmation, I’m confident in its ID.

Another possibility was the Alvin Draft/Matic (DM05), but the knocks don’t match up as neatly. This was my first guess, but Kat’s quick research led us to the Graphgear (PG525) and Graphlet (PG505).

It’s mildly frustrating ² for the pencil to be named so specifically, but for the prop to not be accurate. The P205 is still in production and is not difficult to procure…so why was the prop wrong? When Daniel spies Thwaite’s JLC Reverso, Ned is actually wearing a Reverso ³. The Pentel P205 is significantly easier to procure than a Reverso (even a knockoff). But if a PG505 is what you have…you could change the line to say that. It wouldn’t be book-accurate but it would be accurate as to what’s on the screen.

There is another possibility - that Daniel identified the pen incorrectly. I haven’t read the novel, he could have misidentified the pencil and DS Vanloo was using a PG505 but didn’t know or feel like correcting him. In that case, the series would have been accurate to the book. But I can’t know for sure until I get around to reading it ⁴.

The Rest of Daniel’s Stationery

The Canon certainly is a stationery fan, as we can see from his writing desk throughout the series. He covers all the bases at his desk, with a fountain pen, Parker Jotter, and what looks to be a drafting pencil. While the Jotters were manufactured in England for a while, looks like they would have been made in Wisconsin during the time of the novel. Which may have made them more exotic in England? Or by that time they might have solidified themselves as the ballpoint and would have been available anywhere in the world.

The pencil on the desk looks like it also could be a Pentel Graphlet, except a PG509 based on the color of the cap. Which makes it even more confusing that Daniel got the P205 and PG505 mixed up ¯\(ツ)/¯.

Now the fountain pen and ink are quite interesting. The ink is Registrar’s ink, i.e. a very specific blue-black iron-gall ink. I’ve heard of Registrar’s ink before, but didn’t know its history. Registrar’s ink, because of its permanent, waterproof properties, was used for official documents, one of which being entering births and marriages into a church registry. Neat!

Apparently, in the 80’s it also wasn’t widely available to anyone (maybe as a means of protection against forgeries). It was available to church folk, lawyers, and the sort. And it had to be special ordered. The classic options for Registrar’s ink is England’s own Diamine Registrar’s or ESS (Ecclesiastical Stationery Supplies) Registrar’s Ink. But looking at the bottle from which Daniel fills his pen, I would guess he’s using Parker Registrar’s ink, another potentially odd choice to use the ink of a (then) US-based company rather than the I’m sure preferred and more affordable local variety.

There are two fountain pens seen - the one on the desk and the red one Daniel uses to write his sermons. From my research into Registrar’s ink I stumbled across the Parker Registrar’s pen (1 and 2). This is likely the pen on the desk and used in conjunction with the ink.

The red fountain pen was his Father’s, so likely from the 70’s or 60’s. It’s hard to ID it, but it has a snap closure and is a cartridge/converter. Mr. Rene on the Fountain Pen Network identifies it as a Parker Jotter (Fountain Pen variety) and I find his evidence compelling. Maybe it’s part of a matching set with the Jotter ballpoint on his desk - both red.

Anthony’s Stationery

The key item in Anthony’s stationery is his notebook. It’s a classic Traveler’s Notebook style notebook ⁵ - leather cover that can fit multiple notebooks inside, secured by rubber bands. His is chock full of notes, drawings, thoughts and theories. A veritable treasure chest! It’s fun to see Daniel flipping through this notebook throughout the series ⁶.

We can see Anthony was also a Parker Jotter user, there’s one lying about in his office at the Manor house. And he must have had another pen, based on the writing in the notebook - either a rollerball or fountain pen. More likely fountain pen based on the line variation he gets.

DS Vanloo’s Stationery

There’s not too much here, he has the P205/PG505 drafting pencil and he uses that to mark graphite onto a reporter’s style flip notebook. A classic detective setup, I bet the office supply cabinet at every nick is stock full of these notebooks. I wouldn’t trust an English detective using anything else.

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So yeah, there was a lot of stationery in the show and it certainly was fun to do some research into it. I hope this doesn’t come off as too negative with respect to the P205 - I really did enjoy the show and appreciate the level of effort they put into the stationery props. I hope they continue to adapt the Rev’s other novels into the series and that we can see more 80’s stationery!

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