Agatha Christie
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Happy Birthday Agatha Christie
Today is the Dame’s birthday. Agatha Christie was born 135 years ago today and her legacy remains as vibrant and relevant as ever. Not only are we waiting for The Seven Dials Mystery to be released on Netflix (hopefully later this year), but there is a new theatre production of Death on the Nile to look forward to. Agatha may have died as long ago as 1976, but the Queen of Crime is, quite literally everywhere. Television The much anticipated adaptation of The Seven Dials Mystery that has been produced by Netflix does not have a release date yet, but is set to start starring Mia McKenna-Bruce, Helena Bonham Carter and Martin…
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Agatha Christie’s Lost Play
Sometime in the mid 1920’s, long before the heady days of ‘And then there were none‘ and ‘The Mousetrap‘, Agatha Christie wrote her first play. It was called ‘The Lie’, and it was far more in the strain of Mary Westmacott than the Queen of Crime. It was also more than a little autobiographical. In the mid 1920’s, Agatha’s personal life was in disarray. Her marriage to Archie was collapsing, due to his affair with Nancy Neele, the younger woman, who he had bonded with over their shared love of golf. Agatha was desperate to save her marriage to Archie, and this turmoil and heartache is clearly echoed in ‘The…
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Travels with Agatha with Sir David Suchet
As an avid Agatha Christie fan, I have to say that the Channel 4 series, Travels with Agatha with Sir David Suchet, is one that I have been looking forward to for a long time. Currently showing on More 4 each Wednesday, the series is both an biographical look at Agatha’s World tour that took in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada in 1922, and is also a travelogue, trying to recreate the tour by visiting the same places that Agatha visited then. Sir David Suchet Having Sir David Suchet present this programme is an absolute masterstroke. Of course, he will forever be associated with Agatha through his masterful,…
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The Rats At The Grange Playhouse
Most people know that Agatha Christie wrote a number of plays, Murder on the Nile and Witness for the Prosecution being amongst the most famous. But Agatha also wrote many other lesser known vehicles including a twisty, nasty, one act play called The Rats. This is the play that the Grange Players of Walsall submitted to the recent AETF Awards, where it was awarded the best one-act play in Birmingham! They are now bringing the show to The Grange Stage for two nights only and I was able to attend the very first show. (incidentally my first visit to The Grange Playhouse, but it won’t be my last.) I was…
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Murder On The Nile At The Crescent Theatre
Murder on the Nile is almost Death on the Nile. Almost, but not quite. For a start, there’s no Poirot. Agatha Christie, fed up with the early film and theatre portrayals of her little Belgium detective as a strapping six footer in need of a love interest, replaced Poirot with the kindly but very astute Cannon Pennefather. Linnet, the beautiful, incredibly spoilt heiress, is now Kay, still married to Simon, but now a Mostyn rather than a Doyle. Other characters have disappeared altogether, and have been replaced/merged for a more streamline cast. So, Murder on the Nile is almost Death on the Nile, the same but somehow different. Yet, as…
