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MOVE OVER MISS MARPLE!
A new mystery inspired by the life of Agatha Christie has the novelist turning sleuth when a murderer strikes in the desert...
Celebrated crime writer Agatha Christie has travelled to the deserts of Iraq to escape the pain of her recent divorce and seek inspiration for her writing career. Instead what she finds are love and a murder mystery to solve.
This 90-minute drama on Channel 5, Agatha And The Curse Of Ishtar, takes real events from Agatha’s life and weaves them into a fictional crime story in which Agatha herself, rather than her creations Poirot and Miss Marple, becomes the detective.
The crime could have come straight from the pages of a Christie whodunnit: in the 1920s, young archaeologist Max Mallowan opens an ancient tomb, only to see among the artefacts his benefactor Patrick Mulholland, who’s suffered fatal injuries. Max himself is then shot and wounded by a mystery assailant. Later, gathered together in a mansion, an eclectic group of people – including Max’s mentor Leonard Woolley, Woolley’s wife Katharine and the dig’s security chief Ezekiel – are unaware they’re under suspicion.
The story is the brainchild of writer Tom Dalton, who explains, ‘Agatha Christie really did go to a British archaeological dig in Iraq and she really did meet her second husband Max while she was there. It’s the crime story that has been imagined.’ This is Tom’s second Christie drama, after last year’s successful Agatha And The
Truth Of Murder, which imagined what happened during another real-life event when the author went missing for ten days in 1926 after her first husband, Archie, asked her for a divorce. A third instalment is planned, which will be set years later during the Blitz.
In the new drama, Agatha arrives at the dig to find Max half dead and ranting about Ishtar, a
Mesopotamian goddess associated with sex, desire and power. ‘Agatha travels to Iraq to escape her heartbreak and fame, and to re-invent herself as a romantic writer,’ says Lyndsey Marshal, who takes the starring role. ‘She isn’t looking for love or for inspiration for her next whodunnit!’
But she finds both. The body count rises while the relationship
GRAND DESIGN The drama wass hot in Malta and the team used a magnificent 18th-century mansion there as the home of Leonard Woolley, who really did play host to Agatha and Max while they were in Iraq.
between Agatha and rookie archaeologist Max, 14 years her junior, starts to blossom. (In real life, the couple married and were together for 46 years until Agatha’s death in 1976.)
‘We do know that Mallowan was ill at the time they first met, and we’ve used that one piece of information – represented as a gunshot wound in our film – as the starting point for their relationship,’ explains
Tom. ‘What happened after that – this is at the heart of our story.’
Tom is acutely aware of the illustrious footsteps he’s walking in with these mysteries. ‘And that does bring some pressure,’ he says. ‘I feel slightly more on top than I did first time round but it’s still nerve-racking!’ ■ James Peachey Agatha And The Curse Of Ishtar, tomorrow, 9pm, Channel 5.