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.

@BlackRibboner no worries! I actually saw the b/w film with Barry Fitzgerald before I read the book. I got a bit of a shock!

@MissJeanLouise I agree, I hate it when they change the murderer, like in 'Body in the Library'. The original was fine as it was with a secret marriage which Miss Marple unearthed by going to Somerset House. Why bring in a lesbian twist? It makes no sense.

I actually do think the lesbian twist in that one was worth the look on Colnel Metchett(?)'s face when he found out. But in general the "Agatha Christie's Marple" is gaaaaah.

It's not just about adding homosexuality or just modernizing it which makes it stupid. How do people feel about Bly Manor- a modern re-telling of Turn of the Screw? That has a pretty gigantic modern lesbian plot, and everybody loved it! It was pretty sweet! It is possible to modernize older works without completely and utterly spoiling it, and yet "Agatha Christie's Marple" spolied it, as did many of the Suchet Poirot ones.

I guess the Cumberbatch adaptations of Sherlock Holmes is another example of a successful "modernization"- although I agree with the commentor who said Jeremy Brett is Holmes supreme and noon has surpassed him.

Shakespeare gets modernized fairly successfully, once in a while, speaking of.

@Mittens030869
Who are the murderers in the adaptation then? In the book it was the son-in-law Mark and Ruby’s cousin Jodie who turned out to be secretly married, and didn’t want Ruby inheriting Conway Jefferson’s money instead of them.

@MissJeanLouise Jodie and Ada (the widowed daughter-in-law) are revealed to be lesbian lovers/murderers in the end.

Honestly that is not as bad as the butterflies in Miss Marples hair arghgh

"The Geraldine McEwan ones had a little flashback of Miss Marple as a young woman in WW1 having a sexual affair with a soldier (officer of course!). It was as if the producer couldn't image an unmarried woman might be a virgin in 1915 and still be interesting and not a weirdo. "

WTAF???!!! I missed that (runs to bleach brain at image of Miss Marple having sex)

The ITV Marples are bloody horrific. And I love their Poirots.

*Josie, not Jodie

@questionzzz
That makes no sense, as Addie was supposed to be the nice, quiet, sensible one while Mark was the money-loving scoundrel! Although tbf she was dangling both the tennis pro (Ramon?) and the faithful Hugo on a string

There are a lot of hints to Poirot's catholicism in the books to be fair and its a big theme in the last Poirot book.

@user1471565182
Absolutely, his Catholicism is referenced quite a bit - it’s a bit of a leap though from making him a Catholic to making him a priest rather than a policeman, which is also referenced frequently.

@MissJeanLouise

The daughter-in-law, Adelaide Jefferson was having a lesbian affair with Ruby's cousin, Josie, which is what led to her being involved with the murder. Quite apart from the change annoying me, it didn't ring true. Mark Gaskell is heavily in debt and a gambler who has a very obvious personal motive for killing Ruby. That's still the case in the adaptation.

@user1471565182 yup- we know he's a Catholic, and a former policeman. Nothin

the theme of the last book which stood out to me was from Othello, with the murderer being a modern-day Iago. Catholicism, not so much.

Yeah they have been messin about with them for years!

Hated the Branagh Orient Express. But then I love all the stars in the Albert Finney one, even though it's great casting all round.

Take a look at one of the posters for the 1965 version of "The ABC Murders" with Tony Randall.

Even though it's not* great casting all around

ITV's evil under the Sun (which i really like) was filmed at the island agatha christie wrote it and based it on. Also the setting for and then there were none.

One criticism of the Joan Hickson ones- I have absolutely no idea what time period they're meant to be set in. Loads of 80s stuff mingling with 30s.

[quote Mittens030869]@MissJeanLouise

The daughter-in-law, Adelaide Jefferson was having a lesbian affair with Ruby's cousin, Josie, which is what led to her being involved with the murder. Quite apart from the change annoying me, it didn't ring true. Mark Gaskell is heavily in debt and a gambler who has a very obvious personal motive for killing Ruby. That's still the case in the adaptation.

[/quote]
Blasphemy! Adelaide is quite different in the book, if I recall right.

Also, hated the Suchet adaptation of "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd". They completely ruined the unreliable narrator motif, and then there was a bizarre scene with Suchet running around throwing punches and being a man of action. :(

I could not endure more than an episode of "The Haunting of Bly Manor" as the kids were way too annoying.

I'm so shallow though as I didn't mind the later Sleeping Murder production as I fancied Aidan McCardle in it. But then John Moulder-Brown is rather beautiful as the husband in the Hickson version

Totally agree OP. And yes to the unnecessary giving Miss Marple a dead soldier fiancé - its made pretty clear in the books that she just wasn't bothered about boyfriends.

One of the things I like about Christie is the motives for the murders are straightforward and (often) pretty plausible - mostly money or gain related, and often linked to the social context of the time - people living in straitened circumstances, dependent on others and wanting to be financially free. Imo they're more plausible than many of the supposedly psychological motives you get in contemporary crime and which seem to get shoved into the modern Christie adaptations - also one of the massive problems with the Sophie Hannah Poirots.

Im sure this is in the book of curtains as well, when he dies he instead of reaching for his Amyl Nitrate goes for his Rosary beads as some sort of payment to God for his crime. Doesnt get more catholic than that. Lots of prattling on about guilt and sin as well.

@onewhitewhisker

Totally agree OP. And yes to the unnecessary giving Miss Marple a dead soldier fiancé - its made pretty clear in the books that she just wasn't bothered about boyfriends.

One of the things I like about Christie is the motives for the murders are straightforward and (often) pretty plausible - mostly money or gain related, and often linked to the social context of the time - people living in straitened circumstances, dependent on others and wanting to be financially free. Imo they're more plausible than many of the supposedly psychological motives you get in contemporary crime and which seem to get shoved into the modern Christie adaptations - also one of the massive problems with the Sophie Hannah Poirots.

So totally agree about Christie's motives. She was so smart and perceptive about how poverty grinds you down. Unlike so many modern crime novels where the murderer keeps a woman confined in his basement for months because his mom was mean to him... or some such.

Have a watch of Suchet playing Robert Maxwell. It was brilliant.

I watched this the other day (sorry if we cant post this stuff please delete if so). Brilliant documentary about AC.

frequentflier yes! Like 'after the funeral' when the murderer has been a paid companion for years and hates it, and is desperate to have her own teashop. Or all the big family ones where they've lost their upper class standard of living to postwar taxation and they're all dependent on one rich relative.

I approached the Sophie Hannah Poirots with some prejudice to be fair because I have only read one of hers, but that one did exemplify this trend. There was a really graphic, gratuitous and imo totally implausible sadistic torture element from a husband towards his wife halfway through. Never really explained then at the end it's all hunky dory.