Onward Christian soldiered
Actor steps in for £2m reshoot
THE team behind Agatha Christie’s Ordeal by Innocence have told of their relief at how the £6million BBC1 drama was saved by a £2million reshoot.
The show was plunged into crisis after actor Ed Westwick, cast in one of the lead roles as Mickey, was accused of rape and sexual assaults now being investigated by LA police.
But Christian Cooke was drafted in to replace him and co-stars agreed to film 42 minutes of the 180-minute drama a second time. Writer Sarah Phelps said the prospect of the threeparter not airing was “shocking”.
She added: “It was like defying gravity and defying physics to be able to get everyone back.
“It was the only choice. It wouldn’t have been right in the circumstances to have used the original footage.”
Anna Chancellor said she had “not a moment’s hesitation” at returning for the 12-day reshoot in January.
The actress, who plays Mickey’s adoptive mum Rachel Argyll – who is also the murder victim – said: “I felt lucky to be involved. I would have done anything.”
On how the cast helped him after he replaced Westwick, right, Christian said: “It didn’t seem as though people had been there before. The cast were welcoming and sensitive towards the fact they wanted it to be a fresh experience for me.”
James Pritchard, of Agatha Christie Ltd, added: “This show is brilliant. A lot of work had gone in and we didn’t want to lose it. It’s as simple as that.”
Meanwhile, Phelps warned anyone expecting a “traditional” version of a Christie mystery is in for a surprise. “I’ve taken clear and quite big liberties with the story but I think I’ve represented the spirit of the novel,” she said. “I wanted to say, ‘You think you know this, but you don’t’.” Pritchard said the author would almost certainly approve, having criticised early stage adaptations of her work for not being “brave” or “radical” enough. Phelps, who also wrote the BBC’s productions of And Then There Were None (2015) and Witness for the Prosecution (2016), confessed she had never watched a Christie adaptation. “They didn’t interest me,” she said. “I’d probably watch MasterChef or Nigella way before I’d watch that.”