BEHIND-THE-SCENES SECRETS
When Leo kissed Rachel’s dead body a final farewell, actress Anna Chancellor admits she was stifling laughter.
She says: “Bill Nighy had to kiss my corpse, which really made me laugh. I was being carried downstairs on a stretcher. I was hanging on to the stretcher as these poor ex-policemen were carrying me, and I was a bit heavy for them.
“I was shooting off it and hanging on. Then at the bottom, I had to take an in-breath of air as Bill takes off my shroud and kisses me. I felt hysterical. I thought, ‘If I start laughing now while Bill is kissing me, I’m never going to stop laughing’.”
Ella Purnell, who plays Hester, studied the piano for her role. She says: “I had to learn Chopin’s Nocturne No 4 or 5. I used to play piano when I was a kid but hadn’t played for ages, so sitting at a piano wasn’t completely alien to me, but you do forget just how hard it is.
“It took me three months to learn five bars. It was really tough but really nice to do and I’ve slowly got back into my piano.” Executive producer James Prichard is Agatha Christie’s great-grandson.