A Christie For Christmas

(c) ITV

There are many things that constitute a great British Christmas. There's the turkey, stuffing and pigs-in-blankets, the crackers, the beautifully decorated tree, the presents and of course, the television. These days, many families across the UK, and indeed the world, settle down on Christmas day to watch the Queen's speech, or perhaps Doctor Who or the Downton Abbey special. But going back in time, people had something else to look forward to each December.

Mostly every year up until her death in 1976, Agatha Christie released a new crime fiction novel. Some featured her most celebrated detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. But every one was an exciting murder mystery that the public looked forward to. Hercule Poirot's Christmas, The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and 4.50 From Paddington were all classic Christie Christmas tales. This tradition became known as "A Christie For Christmas".

(c) ITV 

These days, the tradition has been continued be adapting Dame Agatha's work for television. Ten years ago, ITV released the first series of their Miss Marple films, starring the wonderful Geraldine McEwan as the elderly sleuth. "The Body in the Library", "The Murder at the Vicarage", "4.50 From Paddington" and "A Murder is Announced" were the first episodes, originally broadcast at Christmas 2004. In more recent years, ITV adapted "Murder on the Orient Express" in 2010 starring David Suchet for the series "Agatha Christie's Poirot", as wells as "Clocks" in 2011. In keeping with the tradition, ITV broadcast the final episode of the Marple series, "Endless Night", starring Julia McKenzie, in December 2013.

Unfortunately, there are no adaptations of Christie's novels or short stories to look forward to this Christmas, so the tradition seems to have been broken. However, on ITV3, the first series of Marple is being shown, so look out for that. Next year, the BBC will be making a three-part adaptation of And Then There Were None which is expected to be broadcast at Christmas 2015. In the meantime, we will have to dust off our copies of the many great DVDs of Agatha's works to watch this Christmas as they do make great viewing for the festive period. And what could be better than reading a Christie novel in front of a roaring fire on Christmas morning?

Wishing all of my followers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, from Agatha Christie Web

Marple: Endless Night Gallery

A collection of images from Marple: Endless Night, broadcast in the US on 28th September (PBS). All images ©ITV. 

In Endless Night, Miss Marple (Julia McKenzie), who is in the village of Kingston Bishop to console her recently widowed friend Marjorie Phillpot (Wendy Craig), meets handsome working-class charmer Mike Rogers (Tom Hughes), who dreams of building a perfect house on the local beauty spot Gypsy's Acre. But the resident gypsy Mrs Esther Lee (Janet Henfry) is not too happy about Mike's plans. When he meets the attractive young American heiress Ellie Goodman (Joanna Vanderham), Mike quickly falls in love. It isn't long before they marry and plan to build the house at Gypsy's Acre, along with the help of Mike's childhood friend Robbie Heyman (Aneurin Barnard).

After Ellie falls from her horse and sprains her ankle, she invites her one true friend Greta Anderson (Birgitte Hjort Sorensen) to stay with her, but Mike is not too happy about her interfering German companion. But when Ellie is found dead, after having apparently fallen from her horse when riding, only Miss Marple can solve the riddle at Gypsy's Acre, but in doing so she must put her own life in very serious danger.

Marple: Endless Night Preview (US)

©ITV - Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple and Wendy Craig as Marjorie Phillpot 

Julia McKenzie takes on the role of Miss Jane Marple for the last time in Endless Night 

The final episode of Agatha Christie's Marple, starring Julia McKenzie as the title sleuth, will be broadcast in the US on 28th September on PBS. Endless Night, based on the novel by Agatha Christie, is the final episode of the series that has run since 2004, when Marple was played by Geraldine McEwan. Endless Night also marks the 23rd episode in the series, and is Julia McKenzie's eleventh outing as the elderly detective.

This film was written by the late Kevin Elyot, who died earlier this year. He was the man responsible for six Marple films and the writer of some classic Poirot films, including Death on the Nile and Curtain: Poirot's Last Case. Endless Night is produced and directed by David Moore, and co-stars Wendy Craig (The Royal), Tom Hughes (The Lady Vanishes, I am Soldier), Joanna Vanderham (The Paradise), Aneurin Barnard (Cilla, Moonfleet) and Tamzin Outhwaite (New Tricks, Foyle's War).

Read more:

Marple Season 7 Preview (US)

©ITV - Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple and Wendy Craig as Marjorie Philpott

Julia McKenzie returns as Miss Jane Marple for her final series of films based on the novels by Agatha Christie. 

Fans of Agatha Christie in the US will be excited to hear that Marple Season 7 will be broadcast on PBS from Sunday 21st to 28th September. Julia McKenzie returns to the role of the inquisitive Miss Marple in her final three films. The first two, A Caribbean Mystery and Greenshaw's Folly, will be broadcast on Sunday 21st and the third, Endless Night, will be shown the following week. Joined by a whole host of stars including Antony Sher, Oliver Ford Davies, Fiona Shaw, Joanna David, Tom Hughes and Tamzin Outhwaite, Julia McKenzie takes Miss Marple on a dark trip from the Caribbean beaches to the sinister villages of the seemingly quiet English countryside.

A Caribbean Mystery  

A Caribbean Mystery finds Miss Marple (Julia McKenzie) far from St Mary Mead in a lavish hotel on the tropical island of St. Honore. However, the Golden Palms resort proves itself to be far from the heavenly retreat it first seemed, when fellow guest Major Palgrave (Oliver Ford Davies) dies shortly after his arrival, following an evening of exotic food, Planter’s Punch, and a specially arranged “Voodoo show”. 

 

Miss Marple alone is unconvinced by the “official” verdict that Palgrave died from a heart attack, and recruits the curmudgeonly business tycoon, Jason Rafiel (Antony Sher), to be her reluctant sidekick. Together they unpick a web of deceit and “dark magic”.

 

Despite Miss Marple’s conviction that another murder is imminent, the local police chief, Inspector Daventry (Anele Matoti), stubbornly refuses to take this sweet-natured spinster seriously.  That is until the brutal deaths of a hotel maid and a second guest. 

 

Suddenly every one of the hotel’s intriguing guests and its owners, Tim (Robert Webb) and Molly Kendall (Charity Wakefield), becomes a suspect, and it is left to Agatha Christie's iconic detective to unravel the truth, and apprehend this paradise island’s dangerous killer.

©ITV - Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple with the cast of 'A Caribbean Mystery'

Cast list:

 

Julia McKenzie - Miss Marple

Robert Webb - Tim Kendall

Charity Wakefield - Molly 

Sir Antony Sher - Mr Rafiel 

Daniel Rigby - Canon Prescott

Warren Brown - Jackson

Montserrat Lombard - Esther Walters

Alastair Mackenzie - Colonel Edward Hillingdon 

Pippa Bennett Warner - Victoria

Charles Mesure - Greg Dyson

Kingsley Ben-Adir - Errol

Hermione Norris - Evelyn Hillingdon

Joe Vaz - Sergeant Weston

Anele Matoti - Inspector Daventry

MyAnna Buring - Lucky Dyson 

Oliver Ford Davies - Major Palgrave

Andrea Dondolo - Mama Zogbe

Jeremy Crutchley - Ian Fleming

Charlie Higson - James Bond

 

Greenshaw's Folly 

 

When Louisa Oxley (Kimberley Nixon), an old family friend, visits Miss Marple on the run one stormy night, our amateur sleuth knows she must help both Louisa and her young son Archie (Bobby Smalldridge) by finding them refuge at the nearby Greenshaw's Folly.

 

Miss Marple secures Louisa a secretarial position at the Folly, a shambolic country pile of her dear friend, the eccentric botanist, Miss Greenshaw (Fiona Shaw), the last in a long family line. However, despite Louisa quickly finding herself with two admirers in the form of gardener Alfred Pollock (Martin Compston) and actor Nat Fletcher (Sam Reid) it soon becomes clear that the labyrinthine Folly isn't quite the safe house Miss Marple had hoped for. 

 

Death soon begins to cast its dark and sinister shadow, firstly over Walter Cracken (Jim Moir), the Folly’s loyal butler, whose demise appears to be an accident after one wee dram too many.

 

But worldly-wise Miss Marple is far less convinced than the brusque Inspector Welch (John Gordon Sinclair). And then when Folly guest Horace Bindler (Rufus Jones) goes missing, a dangerous storm seems to be gathering finally bursting to dramatic effect with the gruesome murder of Miss Greenshaw herself.

 

All are suspects, but none can imagine the secrets, both past and present, which Miss Marple is about to unravel.

 

©ITV - Miss Marple enjoying her Caribbean holiday

 

Cast list:

 

Julia McKenzie - Miss Marple

Kimberley Nixon - Louisa Oxley

Julia Sawalha - Mrs Cresswell

Martin Compston - Alfred Pollock

Sam Reid - Nat Fletcher

John Gordon Sinclair - Inspector Welch

Matt Jay - Willis Cayley

Robert Glenister - Father Brophy

Judy Parfitt - Cicely Beauclerk

Fiona Shaw - Miss Greenshaw

Rufus Jones - Horace Bindler

Jim Moir - Walter Cracken

Oscar Pearce - Philip Oxley

Candida Gubbins - Minnie Tulliver

Joanna David - Grace Ritchie

Bobby Smalldridge - Archie Oxley

 

Endless Night will be broadcast in the US on Sunday 28th September 

 

Jessica Raine cast as Tuppence in new BBC series

The Woman in Black and Call the Midwife actress will play Tuppence in the 2015 BBC series Partners In Crime. 
Earlier this year, it was announced that David Walliams (Big School) would play one half of Tommy and Tuppence in a new BBC series based on Agatha Christie's novels. The six-part series, based on two of Christie's novels, will be broadcast in 2015 to co-inside with the 125th anniversary of the successful crime author's birthday. It has been revealed that actress Jessica Raine will play Tuppence Beresford alongside Walliams as Tommy.

The first three episodes, based on The Secret Adversary, have been written by Zinnie Harris (Spooks) and are directed by Edward Hall (Downton Abbey). Episodes 4-6, based on N or M?, have been adapted by Claire Wilson (Twist). The series is produced by Georgina Lowe (Mr Turner) and executive produced by Hilary Bevan Jones (Esio Trot), David Walliams, Matthew Pritchard and Matthew Read.

Partners In Crime is an adventure series with espionage and humour at its heart. Set in a 1950s Britain rising from the ashes of the Blitz into the grip of a new Cold War, our beekeeping duo stumble into a world of murder, undercover agents and cold war conspiracy.
Tuppence (Jessica Raine) is a woman who sees adventure round every corner, throwing herself head first into every mystery with passion and fervour, determined to get to the truth no matter what it takes, much to the dismay of her more cautious husband Tommy (David Walliams).

David Walliams says: “In bringing these thrilling stories to the screen, it is our ambition for Tommy and Tuppence to finally take their rightful place alongside Poirot and Marple as iconic Agatha Christie characters. I was first drawn to the delicious notion of a married couple solving crimes together, and the more I read of the Tommy and Tuppence novels and short stories, the more I realised they are among Christie’s very best work.”

Mathew Prichard, Chairman of Agatha Christie Ltd, says: “The first Tommy and Tuppence novel was published in 1922 and my grandmother, Agatha Christie, would be thrilled to see her crime-fighting team reinvigorated for the BBC over 90 years on from when she first brought them to life.”

A three-part film based on Agatha Christie's masterpiece And Then There Were None was also commissioned by the BBC in February. This is set for broadcast at Christmas 2015. 

Partners In Crime has begun filming now. The series will be broadcast in late 2015. 

What do you think of Jessica Raine's casting as Tuppence? Tweet me @AChristieWeb  

Related Posts: 

BBC is the home of Agatha Christie on TV



 

Poirot Season 13 - Curtain: Poirot's Last Case Preview (US)

©ITV - David Suchet as Hercule Poirot and Gregory Cox as the Coroner

After twenty five years and sixty nine episodes, the end is here. 

For fans of the hugely successful and long-running series in the US, Hercule Poirot's Last Case is here. David Suchet has now completed all of Agatha Christie's Poirot novels (and most of the short stories). Curtain reunites Poirot with Hastings and Style's Court, the scene of their first murder investigation together. But there is a marked difference in both friends: Hastings is widowed and Poirot is ill. Curtain was adapted by the late Kevin Elyot, produced by David Boulter and directed by Hettie Macdonald.

Poirot Season 13 - The Labours of Hercules Preview

©ITV/Patrick Redmond - Eleanor Tomlinson as Alice Cunningham

David Suchet's penultimate episode as Poirot comes to the US on Monday 18th August 
On Monday 18th August, Poirot: The Labours of Hercules will be available to watch in America on AcornTV. The penultimate episode of the long-running series sees Hercule Poirot in a different light: the great detective is depressed. After failing to save a young woman's life, he goes to the Swiss Alps to cure himself, but finds the killer amongst the hotel guests. Orla Brady stars as Countess Vera Rossakoff, Poirot's old flame, who was previously played by Kika Markham in The Double Clue. The films was adapted from a collection of short stories by Guy Andrews, produced by David Boulter and directed by Andy Wilson.