Life’s murder for Poldark heart-throb
Star cast in Agatha Christie thriller
Charles Dance, one of a galaxy of stars in a riveting new British adaptation of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, knows exactly why audiences will be drawn to the mystery drama. The 69-year-old actor, also famous for Game Of Thrones, The Imitation Game and The Jewel In The Crown, asserts that, “Christie keeps you guessing until the last possible moment”.
And that gripping whodunit element is no doubt one of the main reasons And Then There Were None is the best-selling crime novel of all time. The 1939 book has sold 100 million copies worldwide. It also topped a poll to find the world’s favourite Christie book.
Widely regarded as the author’s masterpiece, it features an ingenious plot. Christie herself said it was the hardest of all her books to write. Now it has been turned into a television drama, scripted by Sarah Phelps (The Casual Vacancy, Great Expectations). Ten strangers – including an ailing judge, Justice Lawrence Wargrave (Charles), a dodgy mercenary, Philip Lombard (Aidan
Turner, Poldark, The Hobbit Trilogy), a Bible-reading spinster, Miss Emily Brent (Miranda Richardson, Mapp & Lucia, Parade’s End), a decorated war hero, General John MacArthur (Sam Neill) and a troubled Harley Street doctor, Edward Armstrong (Toby Stephens, Black
Sails, Jane Eyre) – leave their daily lives behind as they travel to a remote island off the coast of Devon.
But as the ill-assorted group await the arrival of their hosts – Mr and Mrs U.N. Owen – the weather takes a turn for the worse and the 10 are marooned far from civilisation.
Before you can say “country house murder mystery”, the guests, each battling their conscience, begin to die. They perish one by one, in accordance with the nursery rhyme Ten Little Soldier Boys that is displayed in every room of the house. The rhyme closes with the truly scary words: “...and then there were none”.
Charles weighs up why this is the most popular Agatha Christie mystery of them all.
“She has assembled a group of characters that are all completely three dimensional. Often in these crime genres, you find somewhere along the line there’s some character that is just a bit too two dimensional and not believable.
“But with this group they’ve got such interesting back stories that are all utterly believable, so the whole thing is really rather beautifully rounded. As we’ve said, it doesn’t come to its conclusion until right at the very end.”
Toby, 47, who starred as James Bond villain Gustav Graves in the 2002 movie Die Another
Day, concurs that there is much more depth to these characters than you might expect.
“Initially you look at them and think they’re all just really unpleasant people. But when you get to know them more deeply, the reasons why they are unpleasant people are revealed to the audience. That gives you a certain amount of empathy with the characters and their predicament.”
Sam Neill says his character, General MacArthur, is a man who cannot escape his past.
A patriot, he is haunted by the events of World War I.
“As for so many millions of others, the battles of the First World War took their toll on him,” says Sam.
“There wasn’t anyone that came out of that war undamaged. He is a damaged man. This book is set on the cusp of the Second World War and that must have been very much
on Agatha Christie’s mind when she wrote the book.”
Miranda chips in that audiences today will understand what has led these characters to commit such appalling acts.
“I hope there will be some sympathy, occasionally, for some people – or at least an understanding of why they might do what they do. That seems to be quite a modern thing that we want to analyse.
“There must be a reason why this person is behaving the way they are. It’s not just resident evil.”
Another reason why this story has proved so popular over the years is that it is distinct from most other Christie works.
“This version immediately struck me as different,” Toby observes. “It was much darker, and I found the script really well written and well constructed. It’s a clever piece of plotting; it has a real sense to it, like a mechanism that works in a very satisfying way like a needle in a clock. It isn’t something I would normally associate with Agatha Christie because it’s so dark.”
Fifty-eight-year-old Miranda, well known for
Blackadder and Harry Potter, agrees. “There’s actually hidden, nasty stuff that I think is quite appropriate for a modern audience. We seem to need a bit more.”
For his part, Aidan was drawn by the idea of playing a character who is the polar opposite of the noble Cornish hero Ross Poldark, the part which launched the actor to world fame.
The 33-year-old Irishman reflects that, “Coming from someone like Ross Poldark to Philip Lombard is like going to the other side of the spectrum with characters really.
“So it was a nice change to play somebody who doesn’t really care about anyone but himself.”
Aidan was also hugely impressed by the 1930s set.
“Once you walk on to the set and it’s dressed, it just looks immaculate and beautiful and very much of that time. You feel like you’re in that world.”
The actor was equally impressed with the period costumes.
“We’ve got it wrong now, wearing jeans and boots and all the rest of it, all this low-waisted stuff and T-shirts. There were high-waisted pants I was wearing for a lot of the show, and they’re really comfortable and quite flattering.”
The cast is hopeful that viewers will be glued to their screens, desperately trying to work out whodunit.
Toby confesses that he was foxed by the fiendishly
clever outcome of And Then There Were None. “I had no idea,” he concedes. “I was fooled by it. I didn’t see it coming.”
“Once you walk on to the set and it’s dressed, it just looks immaculate and beautiful and very much of that time. You feel like you’re in that world.” – Aidan Turner