New Zealand actress Melanie Lynskey has been cast as convicted killer Erin Patterson in a newly announced crime drama exploring the case that gripped Australia, dubbed the “mushroom murders”.
Patterson was found guilty last year of murdering three of her estranged husband’s relatives and attempting to murder a fourth after serving them individual beef Wellingtons laced with poisonous death cap mushrooms. She has appealed her convictions, with a decision on the outcome expected this Friday, October 30.
The Paramount+ limited series, titled Mushroom Murders: There’s More to Unearth, will chart the 97 days between the now-infamous 2023 lunch at Patterson’s Victorian home and her arrest. The victims were Patterson’s estranged in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson. Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, was the only guest to survive the meal.
Simon Patterson, Erin’s estranged husband, had also been invited but decided not to attend the day before. Patterson was convicted following a two-month trial after pleading not guilty. She told the court the poisonous mushrooms had been accidentally included in the meals she served to her four guests.
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Speaking of the announcement at the Paramount+ and Ten upfronts, Lynskey revealed her interest in the project’s potential to probe the complexities of the case. “I’m very excited to be playing Erin Patterson in the new drama series Mushroom Murders,” Lynskey said.
“It offers a compelling and unique perspective on the events that made headlines around the world. Because behind all those headlines, there’s still so much to unearth.”
During Patterson’s trial, Ian Wilkinson described his relationship with her as friendly but distant. He and his wife, Heather, had been “very happy to be invited” to the lunch, he told the court. “I would say our relationship was friendly, amicable. It did not have much depth. We were more like acquaintances. We didn’t see a great deal of each other.”
“She just seemed like a normal person to me,” he added.
The dissonance between the apparent ordinariness of a lunch in a small Victorian town, the elusive question of Patterson’s true motive and the lethal consequences has fuelled widespread public fascination with the case, and will undoubtedly offer fertile ground for a series that seeks to unravel the baffling crime.
Alongside her starring role, Lynskey will also serve as an executive producer on the series. It’s not the first time the 49-year-old actress has portrayed a character in a real-life murder case. Lynskey made her screen debut as Pauline Parker in Peter Jackson’s 1994 Heavenly Creatures, a psychological true-crime drama co-starring Kate Winslet which was based on the 1954 Parker–Hulme murder case in New Zealand. Lynskey is also best known for her roles in Yellowjackets, Two and a Half Men and The Last of Us.
