THE WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION

FOLLOWING in THE bloody footprints of last year’s And Then There Were None, this two-parter continues the BBC’S newly minted tradition of serving up an intriguing slice of seasonal Agatha Christie. Toby Jones stars as John Mayhew, a war-ravaged 1920s solicitor tasked with defending a man who stands to inherit the fortune of his recently murdered socialite lover (Kim Cattrall). Yes, there are clichés – a detective literally has the commissioner “crawling up [his] arse” — but the high-wattage cast delivers (especially Andrea Riseborough as an enigmatic chorus girl), director Julian Jarrold conjures a fog-choked gothic atmosphere and the final twist is as black as a lump of coal.