Introducing the new Agatha Christie BBC adaptation The Pale Horse
BBC1, SUNDAY 9 FEBRUARY, 9PM
If you’ve been wondering what happened to the relatively recent, but much cherished, tradition of a big Agatha Christie drama adapted by TV screenwriter extraordinaire Sarah Phelps and shown around the festive season on BBC1, well, here it is… better late than never. So far, Phelps has given us her takes on And Then There Were None, The Witness For The Prosecution, Ordeal By Innocence and The ABC Murders. Now, this new two-parter is adapted from Christie’s 1961 novel of the same name, and is set in that year, against a backdrop of the Cold War, when paranoia and guilt pervade.
THE LIST
The brilliant plot revolves around a list of names found in the shoe of a dead woman called Jessie Davies (Madeleine Bowyer). One of the names is Mark Easterbrook (Rufus
Sewell), a rich, suave, high-society chap with a beautiful new wife (Kaya Scodelario) and lavish home. But he’s a man with secrets, who’s still mourning the death of his first wife Delphine (Georgina Campbell). Easterbrook undertakes his own amateur investigation to try to find out what the dead woman’s list is all about, while actual detective Lejeune (Sean Pertwee) is trying to piece together the connection between the men on the list.
MUCH DEEPING
It turns out all roads lead to a village brilliantly named Much Deeping, a place where Easterbrook’s first wife visited on the day of her death, and where a trio of self-identified witches live in the local pub, who seem to be connected to the late Jessie Davis. It’s also a place where strange occult rituals abound, and peculiar locals get up to all sorts of weird, superstitious stuff. Is witchcraft involved in these deaths, and what connects the names on the list? It all comes together in typically twisted, startling and ingenious style. It’s another awesome Agatha Christie triumph for Phelps. HHHHH Boyd Hilton