Agatha Christie is quite warped, in her own way ...that’s why we love it
RUFUS SEWELL LEADS THE CAST OF THE PALE HORSE – THE LATEST IN A QUINTET OF BRILLIANT AGATHA CHRISTIE TV ADAPTATIONS, PENNED BY WRITER SARAH PHELPS. AND IT’S DIFFERENT TO ITS PREDECESSORS, SAYS THE DUO. GEMMA DUNN FINDS OUT MORE
THINK of Agatha Christie and what springs to mind? Probably elegantly written murder mysteries set during the 1920s or 1930s featuring either Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot as the lead detective. However, the latest of her books to get the small screen treatment is a little different.
Originally published in 1961, it was one of Christie’s later works and was perhaps influenced by the books of another bestselling writer of the period, Dennis Wheatley, who is best known today for penning supernatural tales, often with a hint of the occult. “Written against the backdrop of the Eichmann Trial (Nazi war criminal Adolf ), the escalation of the Cold War and Vietnam, The Pale Horse is a shivery, paranoid story about superstition, love gone wrong, guilt and grief,” explains writer Sarah Phelps of her fifth adaptation of Christie’s work for the BBC. “It’s about what we’re capable of when we’re desperate and what we believe when all the lights go out and we’re alone in the dark.”
So what else do we need to know about the upcoming drama?
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
THE Pale Horse of the title is actually an old village pub where three women who are rumoured to be witches live.
Emmy and Bafta-nominated Rufus Sewell plays the lead role of Mark Easterbrook, an antiques dealer who seemingly has it all: he’s rich, successful and popular, with a beautiful new wife (Kaya Scodelario, star of The Maze Runner and thriller Crawl) and perfect home.
But scratch beneath the surface and Mark – still grief stricken by the loss of his first wife – soon finds his life turned upside down when his name appears on a mysterious list found inside the shoe of a dead woman.
His pursuit to find out why leads him to Much Deeping; an idyllic
English village, but also a place of old tradition, strange beliefs, three suspect witches, curses and spells.
With rumours that the trio of witches (played by Rita Tushingham, Sheila Atim and Kathy Kiera Clarke) played a part in the woman’s death, and with the body count continuing to rise, Mark becomes hell-bent on finding an explanation, eventually fearing for his own life and sanity.
TAKING THE LEAD
FOR Rufus, 52, the two-parter marks his first foray into the twisty world of Christie.
“It was an instant yes!” recalls the Victoria and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel actor, who co-stars alongside Bertie Carvel, Sean Pertwee, and Henry Lloyd-Hughes, among others.
“I’ve always wanted to do an Agatha Christie because I’ve grown up watching them – but this is so different to that, this is not cosy at all!
“It has a viciousness to it, a dry, witty nastiness which appealed to me.
Sarah Phelps
It also has a surprisingly dark turn.”
As for his character, Rufus says: “Mark Easterbrook is a man of his time. He comes from a very comfortable background, is used to wealth and has extremely good taste. He works in high-end antiques and has his own, very large store in a smart part of town. He likes flash motorcars and is a society person and is relatively well known.
“He’s superficially quite fun for me to play because I like the idea of the suits and the cars... But what’s interesting for me in a deeper way is, psychologically, he’s complex and challenging.
“That’s the whole point of the car, the women, the suits, the hair and the cuff links; it’s all an effort because there is a malignancy.
“There’s something about the exteriors of these people, that in order to support that level of luxury there’s an underbelly of brutality to maintain it, in society.
“That seemed to be really reflected in this particular character’s story, and I think it runs through Agatha Christie.”
Rufus Sewell and Kaya Scodelario as Mark and Hermia Easterbrook
DELVING DEEPER
IT’S about lies, paranoia and conspiracy, explains Sarah: “That no matter how rational and tough you think your resilience is to whispers and the little sharp fingernails scratching the back of your neck, you fall prey to it.
“We’re all rational when the lights are on; and where we are at the moment, with the amount of disinformation, how do you hang on to what’s true and decent without descending into hell?” she asks.
“I always think with Christie, what she’s interested in is less really about the murder and the solving of the murder, but really about watching people lie.
“How people lie, the lies they tell themselves and the lies they tell everyone else to keep safe,” she adds. “That’s never going to not be relevant.”
“Christie is quite warped in her own way, that’s why we love it,” Rufus muses.
“It’s like reading something that’s a cross between An Education, The Wicker Man and Jacob’s Ladder,” he says. “
There’s an element to this story that is really quite surprising.
“It reminded me of a phrase (director Alfred) Hitchcock once made about one of his film scripts: ‘It’s a nice, nasty little piece’.”
“What I’ve always loved about Agatha Christie is the misfits she writes; she creates these wonderful, central characters who are both odd and so wonderful.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
WHILE he’s not ruling out diving into this world once more – “I would love to do a cosy one sometime too!” – Rufus’ next release comes in the form of drama, The Father.
He appears opposite Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman and the movie premiered at last month’s Sundance Film Festival.
“It’s a wonderful script about an old man who is kind of losing it, and who is living with his daughter and his daughter’s husband (who I’m playing).”
As for Sarah, is she likely to pursue another Christie novel?
“I always thought I’d like to write a quintet and I’ve done it,” says Sarah, adding that she wouldn’t rule out another adaptation.
“Maybe there would be something else, another way of framing these stories to give them a reason to be? Because being able to say this was a quintet about the 20th century gave it a shape and a focus. And finding another shape and a focus, that’s never hard. I just make things up!
“I do still fancy a bit of (Agatha Christie’s) Endless Night, though, because it’s so mad...”
■ The Pale Horse premieres on BBC1, tomorrow at 9pm.