Why oh why do TV script writers think they can improve on Agatha Christie's plots?

[questionzzz]

I absolutely hate the rewrites and plot embellishments that the newer TV scripts have done with the Agatha Christie books! It's not that they are just bizarre and unnecessary, they also have a weird ideological twist? which the original never had.
Eg just finished (re)watching "Agatha Christie's Marple: Why didn't They ask Evans". The original doesn't even have Miss Marple, ok fine, I get why they introduced her. But then, there' some completely random stuff about how the murderer, (lovers in the original) were brother and sister, long lost to their mother back in China, where the sister was sold as a "comfort woman", and now they are back plotting to kill the mother... huh? But why? why are you doing this? Most of the Poirot ones with David Suchet also have these completely random and bizarre ideological additions.

On a side note, absolutely obsessed with the 1980s shows with Joan Hickson (again)- she looks a bit like my grandma, loving the fashion, the gentle muted colours and body language.

I can't watch anyone else as Miss Marple apart from Joan Hickson. She is perfect, and the tv series was just so good I don't think it can be bettered.

Having said that, I do have a soft spot for the Elizabeth Taylor film of The Mirror Crack'd - but I don't even think of Angela Lansbury as being Miss Marple in that - she's just Angela Lansbury really.

@ChrissyPlummer, I hadn't heard that before and actually makes me feel a bit better about a show that I felt I wasted two hours of my life on about twenty years ago. A little bit of resentment gone - thank you very much

ABC Murders with John M was one of the biggest TV disappointments I’ve ever had!

I remember being so excited to sit down with my family to watch it on Christmas Day.

It was so dark and slow, and the ending in terms of ‘whodunnit’ was very unsatisfactory.

The character was nothing like Poirot either, just some new broody moody detective, and the priest revelation was a bit ‘so what?’

Oh, I feel I have found my people! This always drives me utterly mad - but I can (and do) watch the good adaptations ad nauseum. As much as I love Suchet, my very favourite is the Ustinov version of Evil Under The Sun. I really could sit there and quote along with it, and love every second.
I detested the Pale Horse recently - that's one of my very favourite books, has such a good plot and was totally butchered.

@BlackRibboner

I once saw an adaption of And Then There Were None that should have been renamed And Then There Were Two Who Lived Happily Ever After. Blasphemous!

I've seen that. It misses the whole point.

The worst one for me is what they did with ‘Murder is Easy’. Just why? For one thing, Miss Marple wasn’t included in the book (though she appears in a couple’s of other ones where she didn’t appear in the book).

Other ones I think they’ve changed too much are ‘the 4:50 from Paddington’ and ‘Nemesis’.

And I agree that Joan Hickson was much better than Julia MacKenzie (though she is good) and Geraldine McEwan.

As for the Poirot stories, I think they’ve gone too far with trying to bring Hastings and Japp into books that they weren’t in originally.

@onemouseplace

I can't watch anyone else as Miss Marple apart from Joan Hickson. She is perfect, and the tv series was just so good I don't think it can be bettered.

Having said that, I do have a soft spot for the Elizabeth Taylor film of The Mirror Crack'd - but I don't even think of Angela Lansbury as being Miss Marple in that - she's just Angela Lansbury really.

Same. I've tried to watch the new ones but they're bollocks. Geraldine McEwan is nobody's idea of Miss Marple. Joan Hickson will never be bettered and likewise David Suchet and Poirot. I don't know why they have to fuck with stuff.

* I hate that The Body in the Library had lesbian lovers as the baddies in the most recent remake! Pretty sure I don't remember that in the book!*

It certainly wasn’t. It was the son-in-law who was involved in the murder. He was much more likely as a killer in that he was so heavily in debt. The daughter-in-law was a much more sympathetic character and it really didn’t work, her being a murderer.

I like that so many established actors like being in them. I did have to do a double take in A Murder is Announced, tho - Ariadne Oliver from Poirot turns up as Leticia Blacklock in a Marple!

I watched all the tv versions millions of times before I started reading the books. I think this was a good way of doing it- the plots are often unrecognisable so I can never remember who the killer is!

I really enjoyed the BBC version of And Then There Were None (at least partly because of Aidan Turner...) but I’ve found the other recent ones a bit disappointing.

Agree. The reason it is a lot easier to remake an existing script into something different. Also people know the original usually, and the alternative version will get a lot more publicity.

How can anyone ever mention the portrayal of Miss Marple and not put Margaret Rutherford right up there at the top of the list ????

After that David Suchet is THE Poirot. Don't get what a PP meant about his previous life as a priest. He was in the Belgian police.
Like wise. Joan Hickson is brilliant. The later ones are far to glamorous for the early 50's. And they completely changed the storylines. Jeremy Brett is the only Sherlock Holmes. Won't t watch any other version.

@IgiveupallthenamesIwantedareg0

How can anyone ever mention the portrayal of Miss Marple and not put Margaret Rutherford right up there at the top of the list ????

Because Margaret Rutherford is the opposite of the Miss Marple described in the books? Tall and robust looking, not small and frail; and nowhere near old enough.

Oh yes, Margaret Rutherford, I’d forgotten about her! She is my ideal Miss Marple with Joan Hickson a close second. Not so keen on the others.

Joanna Lumley is just so wrong for Playing Dolly Bantry. Made my teeth itch. And the less in story line is ridiculous.

I've wondered this and have found recent BBC and ITV adaptations unwatchable.

I think the recent BBC one I saw was using name recognition to get viewers rather than trying to tell the Agatha Christie story - I think that was the Plae horse - last years And Then There Were None I don't remember being as bad.

I also agree David Suchet and Joan Hickson being the best actors in the roles though I too love Peter Ustinov in Murder on the NIle.

I was suprised how much I loved Kenneth Branagh recent Murder on the Orient Express - so I'm looking forward to his Murder on the NIle.

@HijabiVenus but that is the whole point of my rant! People already know and love these stories- that's why they want to see these TV shows, not to get some coke-fueled bizarro alternative plot!

Honestly, I am least conspiracy-minded nut ever, but I can't help believing these adaptations have merely become an vehicle for pushing certain ideologies and agendas by media conglomerates. Very unsubtly at that. As in- Women Are Glamourous. Foreigners are Bad (Mostly). Religion is Good. Homosexuality is Funny and Charming.

I class them all as 'comfort watching', along with Midsomer Murders. You know them off by heart, but it's soothing not to be too
'challenged' by a programme. Also the dialogue is clear and doesn't need subtitles, unlike many dramas.

Just thought I’d mention that Radio 4 Extra has “Murder on the Orient Express” serialised this week, with John Moffat as Hercule Poirot. He’s the radio equivalent of David Suchet, IMO😁

Great listening on IPlayer when you’re doing chores!

I remember watching the peter Ustinov one back in the day with my parents... maybe I'll give it another go.

The Sleeping Murder adaptation with Julia Mackenzie was awful on so many different levels- not the least the "sinister Indian" trope and that the second wife / first wife/victim were all the same and show girl with a past life as a thief???

The Joan Hickson one was perfect.

Sleeping Murder was one of the more genuinely scary Christie ones- the grey wrinkled monkey paws hands... and the incest subtext...

@IgiveupallthenamesIwantedareg0

How can anyone ever mention the portrayal of Miss Marple and not put Margaret Rutherford right up there at the top of the list ????

I seen her in the role and didn't like her as much as Joan Hickson - who seemed more like character in the books - oftne came acorss as vaugh dotty old woman but with mind like a meat cleaver.

I though in BBC nemesis Joan Hickson portal was spot on.

Ooh yes, Sleeping Murder was nasty, really creepy. I can’t remember who played the brother in the Joan Hickson overdub, but he was sinister....

*version not overdub.

Isn't this often the case when reading a work of fiction - the reader has her/her own visualisation of what a character looks like ? Okay, if the author has described a character as tall, dark and handsome it would be difficult to visualise the character a Quasomodo, but is "tall, dark and handsome" Brad Pitt, Sean Connery, John Wayne or or or.........
The dramatisation of a book for film is often disappointing if you know the book before seeing the film, but many films inspire people to read the book and many are then surprised at how good and more detailed the book actually is.