Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

Related: TV discussion forum.

1 2 3

Related: TV discussion forum.

Films

Agatha Christie: Time for a rest?

56 replies

Celiamary · 11/02/2022 15:08

Kenneth B having another go with the silly moustache.
Did I see that Emma Thomson is doing a new version of "Why didn't they ask Evans?"
Why? Do they think it is easy money? TV repeats will be a nice little top up for the pension.
They will all be entirely off the pace, long lingering shots of 'clever' interiors and artfully positioned props.
Stop it.

OP posts:

Thanks

Share

Report

Crackercrazy · 13/02/2022 22:44

I totally agree. Some of the recent adaptations have been atrocious - I haven’t seen the KB films as I love the originals and assume it’s style over substance (just my opinion!). You’ve only got to look at KB’s ridiculous moustache.

The BBC adaptations were so far removed from the actual plots, they might as well have had different characters and called it something else. It absolutely is cashing in on Christie’s reputation. Her grandson has basically sold out.

Thanks

Redwinestillfine · 13/02/2022 22:46

I' glad there's more being made. They stopped for a while.

Thanks

Crackercrazy · 13/02/2022 22:47

Having said that, I would be open to new versions that faithfully stick to the plots! But you just know it’s not going to be the case.

Thanks

AlexaShutUp · 13/02/2022 22:52

I guess they keep making them because they think that there are plenty of people who are willing to pay to watch them. Like so many other films tbh.

If you're not interested, then you don't have to watch.

Thanks

longwayoff · 13/02/2022 22:54

Hear hear, enough of the Agathas please. I don't know why they're considered to be so attractive, maybe it's because they're fairly simple narratives with a twist at the end? Although this year BBC? made A Pale Horse, with Rufus Sewell, which hadn't been done before and was thus a novelty. She wrote so much. Why yet another Orient Express? It's been done to death, excuse pun.

Thanks

Celiamary · 14/02/2022 11:23

@Crackercrazy & others
I can accept the insertion of Miss Marple as a way of telling the story.
Last night "Sleeping Murder" on tv, was close to original (I think).
But one of them had a single woman and a suitor in a tweed suit and driving a Morris Minor Traveller.
What was the story that stuffed into the plot Phil Davis with a nice accent as a psychiatrist?

OP posts:

Thanks

balalake · 14/02/2022 13:16

Valid point OP, I'm not going to watch any.

Thanks

workshy44 · 14/02/2022 14:15

I don't know why they keep re making the same ones, they were not even her best books. There are 80 odd books and all the ever make is a repeat of Death on the Nile or Murder on the Orient Express !!

Thanks

KookaburraSits · 14/02/2022 14:20

I wish they'd adapt Dorothy L Sayers. I know the BBC did some over 30 years ago, but I'd love to see Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane brought to life again.
I wish they wouldn't just do animations of the same books and again and again when there's so much other material to mine.

Thanks

Comefromaway · 14/02/2022 14:25

Cat Amongst the Pigeons was one of my favourites. That and some of the early Miss Marple like Body in the Library.

Thanks

Toddlerteaplease · 14/02/2022 14:27

I refused to watch them on the principal that David Suchet is poirot. And I won't watch any other version of Sherlock Holmes, than Jeremy Brett.

Thanks

Comefromaway · 14/02/2022 14:28

@Toddlerteaplease

I refused to watch them on the principal that David Suchet is poirot. And I won't watch any other version of Sherlock Holmes, than Jeremy Brett.

And Joan Hickson IS Miss Marple.

Thanks

Toddlerteaplease · 14/02/2022 14:29

@KookaburraSits

I wish they'd adapt Dorothy L Sayers. I know the BBC did some over 30 years ago, but I'd love to see Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane brought to life again.
I wish they wouldn't just do animations of the same books and again and again when there's so much other material to mine.

Yes. That would be awesome. Especially the Jill Paton Walsh books.

Thanks

Toddlerteaplease · 14/02/2022 14:29

@Comefromaway absolutely!!

Thanks

Toddlerteaplease · 14/02/2022 14:30

And Edward Petherbridhge Harriet Walters are Peter and Harriet.

Thanks

taxi4ballet · 14/02/2022 14:33

I shall have to watch the new Death on the Nile one because my friend is in it

wouldn't bother otherwise

Thanks

KookaburraSits · 14/02/2022 14:37

@Toddlerteaplease

And Edward Petherbridhge Harriet Walters are Peter and Harriet.

Yes! Strong Poison, Have His Carcase, and Gaudy Night are on YouTube. They're just wonderful.

Thanks

longwayoff · 14/02/2022 15:51

On you tube?!!!! O thank you Kookaburra

Thanks

KookaburraSits · 14/02/2022 17:05

@longwayoff

On you tube?!!!! O thank you Kookaburra

You're welcome!

Thanks

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/02/2022 17:17

Joan Hickson IS Miss Marple, agreed. Also: Miss Marple is MISS Marple, not Marple.

I hope the BBC never has a crack at a new style approach to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which is my favourite and her masterpiece.

Why anybody would ever think they could improve on the 1974 Murder of the Orient Express baffles me.

See also: the Coen Brothers (whose work I mostly adore) having a crack at remaking The Ladykillers.

Thanks

longwayoff · 14/02/2022 17:25

That sounds worrying Gaspode how bad is it? That - the original - is one of my favourites. Is it worth a look?

Thanks

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/02/2022 17:27

It was quite a few years ago. They transposed it to the US and Tom Hanks took on the Alec Guinness role. I love him, but he didn't work.

Thanks

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/02/2022 17:28

Sorry, it didn't work.Tom worked hard!

Thanks

EmpressaurusWitchDoesntBurn · 14/02/2022 17:31

@Toddlerteaplease

And Edward Petherbridhge Harriet Walters are Peter and Harriet.

Exactly. I only wish Edward Petherbridge had starred in all the adaptations - Ian Carmichael never worked as Lord Peter.

Thanks

Celiamary · 14/02/2022 17:56

Some of the J Paton-Walsh ones have been on radio. Ian Carmichael seemed OK in that.
The death of Gerald, so Peter becomes becomes the Duke. Bunter's marriage is another.
Did anyone find Edward Petherbridge made Peter not a strong enough personality. Wimsey was never diffident.

Campion also deserves an update. But a problem there (I think) is the attitudes, servants and so on, of the late 1920s

OP posts:

Thanks

Flip

1 2 3

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.