With the fourth “Curious Caterer” mystery set to premiere on April 26, 2024, Hallmark star Nikki DeLoach says love is in the air — at long last.
Fans are “finally going to get the romance they’ve been hoping for,” DeLoach said on a recent episode of the “Love and Lattes” podcast.
She and co-star Andrew Walker have been well aware that since the mystery franchise debuted in early 2022, many sleuthers have been pining for their characters to give in to the chemistry between them. In multiple interviews leading up to the latest installment, “Curious Caterer: Foiled Plans,” both stars have shared that sparks will finally fly between caterer Goldy Berry and detective Tom Schultz, and why it took so long.
Nikki DeLoach Teases That There Won’t Just Be Romance for Goldy and Tom
HallmarkAndrew Walker, Nikki DeLoach, and Jaycie Dotin in “Curious Caterer: Foiled Plans”
Advance teasers and photos of the fourth “Curious Caterer” movie show the characters dressed in medieval wardrobes because the mystery is set at a medieval ball that Goldy is catering inside a castle, DeLoach recently explained to TV Insider.
“For (movie) number four, we wanted to take them out of their world,” she said. “Take them out of the police station and Goldy’s house and everything and put them in a fun environment. We really wanted to do something kind of like ‘Clue’ where everybody gets locked in a building and there are so many red herrings.”
And because there’s a murderer somewhere in the castle, DeLoach told TV Insider, “Everyone that she loves the most is in this building, so that means that everyone’s lives are being threatened essentially. That’s why the stakes for this one are really heightened.”
Also heightened, she has said, are the romantic feelings developing between Goldy and Tom. On the “Love and Lattes” podcast, DeLoach said that while making the third installment, she’d told the filmmakers that fans were not going to be satisfied with their characters remaining just friends, given the obvious chemistry between them. But the writers wanted a slow burn, letting the romantic tension build between the characters, she said.
When “Curious Caterer: Fatal Vows” aired in October, fans’ social media reactions backed up her hunch, and DeLoach let the writers and producers know.
“I said to them, going into four, ‘Listen, we’re gonna have to move this romance forward and we need to give the audience what they are tuning in for,” she explained on the podcast. “And I totally believe that we did it. It was really…the ending is perfect. It is exactly what I wanted it to be what Andrew wanted it to be.”
Walker echoed DeLoach’s sentiments during a recent appearance on the “Swing My Heart” podcast.
“Hopefully people saw that there was romance developing,” Walker said. “Probably not as quickly as what viewers had hoped it would be. But yes, you can absolutely expect this love story to move forward.”
Interestingly, DeLoach told TV Insider, they won’t be the only ones swept off their feet, because the castle’s setting made for “a very romantic environment.”
She explained, “They’re dressed in costume. The castle is gorgeous. There’s an air in the room of romance and anything can happen. We wanted that to be infused into all the characters, so all of them find romance, specifically in this movie.”
Nikki DeLoach & Andrew Walker Love Working Together & Listening to Their Fans
HallmarkNikki DeLoach and Andrew Walker in “Curious Caterer: Foiled Plans”
DeLoach and Walker have a very special friendship that goes back to their first meeting in 2016. on the set of Hallmark’s “A Dream of Christmas.” They told People in 2020 that the instantly hit it off, bonding over everything from parenting young boys to having a similar work ethic. They’re also both very tuned into their loyal and vocal Hallmark fans.
“You ask the audience to go with you on a journey,” DeLoach said on the “Love and Lattes” podcast. “And you also have to listen to them when they want more of something, right? And our network is actually really good at that — they’re really good at listening. They’re really good at appreciating and respecting our audience.”
That’s why, she said, the cast and crew work so hard to deliver quality content and strong stories. For instance, filming at a castle and incorporating so much action was far from easy, DeLoach said, but the setting made the movie that much richer.
“It was a really heavy lift,” she said. “But everybody came together and everybody showed up with everything that they had. And I think we we made a really fun movie and I hope everybody loves it.”
“Nikki and I, we do our preparation and work together to try to bring the fans something (special),” Walker said on the “Swing My Heart” podcast, “to continue to improve on what we’ve built and what we’ve been given the fans for years. We just kind of try to, you know, enhance that in every way possible.”
Following a marathon of the first three “Curious Caterer” movies, the new “Curious Caterer: Foiled Plans” premieres on Hallmark Mystery on April 26 at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
Encore presentations are scheduled for April 28 at 7 p.m. Eastern time, May 1 at 7 p.m. Eastern time, May 4 at 9 p.m. Eastern time, and May 17 at 7 p.m. Eastern time.
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