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Witness for the Prosecution

66 replies

Clawdy · 27/12/2016 09:53

Brilliantly acted, gripping, but I wish there had been more of an Agatha Christie feel to it - the swearing and sex scenes, especially that rather gratuitous Mayhew one, just seemed wrong to me. It reminded me a bit of Rillington Place - wrong Christie!

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VanillaSugarAndChristmasSpice · 27/12/2016 22:23

Whhhaaaat? Is the ending different in the book?

Wtf??

EustaceClarenceScrubb · 27/12/2016 22:26

Blimey it was bleak though, I usually love a good murder mystery but this was just dark and depressing. Most of the AC's I have read have traditional endings where the murderer gets their just deserts and the innocent get off. I was surprised by this twist, an innocent woman sent to the gallows and the murderer gets away with it and inherits the money. Was not expecting that!

LIZS · 27/12/2016 22:26

Apparently she rewrote the ending several times a she wasn't happy with suicide as a resolution.

Northernlurker · 27/12/2016 22:27

The original ending was the vole did it but gets away with it. The ending for the play and other versions is that he did it, gets away with it but is then killed by romaine when she discovers he was having yet another affair. I liked the way that was hinted at but I did not like Janet's execution or Mayhews misery and suicide.

braceybracegirl · 27/12/2016 22:30

In the film it all happens still in the courtroom and romaine stabs and kills Vole as she did all that for him and he was seeing someone else.

RustyBear · 27/12/2016 22:31

The original story, as Agatha Christie first wrote it, had the ending shown tonight (though without all the stuff about the solicitor, and the second trial). But she was apparently not happy about how it ended, so when she adapted it for the stage, she changed the ending, and that was the version used for the Marlene Dietrich film.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 27/12/2016 22:36

It was beautifully acted but far too dark and depressing for this time of year.

VanillaSugarAndChristmasSpice · 27/12/2016 23:09

far too dark and depressing for this time of year

Actually, quite appropriate then, given what a bitch 2016 has been!

CremeEggThief · 27/12/2016 23:18

I thought the second part was better than the first. Some very good acting. Last night's sex scene was horrendous to watch. I feel glad to be celibate after that!

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 27/12/2016 23:35

Was there any warning re the sex scene?

Vanilla It was not what I expected after last year's Then there were none

HopeClearwater · 27/12/2016 23:40

It was very sad but I thought that the writer was clever to have linked it to WW1 the way she did, and really that was the only way the Toby Jones character was going to deal with the way things turned out.
He really is an impressive actor.

VanillaSugarAndHogmanyBlackBun · 27/12/2016 23:42

I burst out laughing at the sex scene because DH has also had a hacking cough. BlushGrin😂😂😂' 😂😂

Sorry. But I said "God, I know how you feel, love" and got some dirty looks from the rest of the family.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 28/12/2016 00:04

I've never been raped but I thought it was a disturbing scene.

Toby Jones is always excellent.

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Clawdy · 28/12/2016 10:23

The second trial with the maid's execution is in none of the original versions, and was a very implausible storyline. Blood on her cuffs, then the drowning of the cat - all easily explained, and any lawyer would have got her off. Just written in to add to Mayhew 's guilt,really.

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Elendon · 28/12/2016 13:02

Christie has always been dark and light. That much is evident is all her books. She never shied away from nastiness, otherwise her books, all about murder, would never have been so popular. So, the lovely Miss Marple, with tea sets and knitting, juxtaposed against brutal murders were always a fascination with me, and her love cut so cruelly short because of WW1. Similarly with Poirot, a life that had it's benefits, but agonies also.

Christie is not the suffocation of twee. She exposed life in all its cruelties.

Elendon · 28/12/2016 13:07

I did a preview of my post and corrected the mistakes. Yet still they appear!

Of course men raped their wives. It continues to happen, despite it now being a crime. It took centuries for this to happen. Do you not think that Christie didn't understand this?

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 28/12/2016 13:34

ElendonThere is no need for the lecture on the history and current incidence of marital rape. You have missed my point.

This was part of the BBC 1's Christmas scheduling. I have spoken to a couple of people in RL about this who felt it was inappropriate given what one expects from BBC1 at this time of year, especially given the panto style of last year's And then there were none with lots of baddies get their just desserts in imaginative ways.

At 10p.m yesterday BBC 2 showed another episode Reece Sheersmith and Steve Pemberton's Inside No 9. It was very dark, they always are.

The Christie piece could have been shown at any time of the year and could also have gone on BBC2.

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Clawdy · 28/12/2016 17:41

I'm sure Christie was aware that marital rape took place, but that doesn't mean she would have included it in her storylines. She wouldn't. Certainly some of her stories were darker than others, but the scenes in this admittedly clever and gripping drama were just not Christie.

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Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 28/12/2016 17:55

I didn't think it was very Agatha Christie either. I enjoyed it but that was largely down to the performances. I don't believe London in 1923 was as foggy and dark as that all the time, and I was baffled that a solicitor, even a fairly unsuccessful one, appeared to be using a beer cellar as an office and living in a house with a front door up a dark alley in a slum area. Just not plausible. I also thought it was far too long and as somebody else has said would have worked better as a 90 minute one off drama.

The original short story is 20 pages long in my 1980s paperback edition, and I hadn't realised till I looked it up on Wikipedia that it was published in 1925 (under the name Traitor Hands), which makes it one of her earliest published stories.

ChadSexington · 28/12/2016 18:29

I did enjoy it, but felt along with others that it just wasn't very Christie. She didn't shy away from the darker things in life, but the police brutality, swearing, brutal sex etc just don't sit right. Even Toby Jones' coughing was really wearing me down by the end of the first episode, I'm glad that cleared up later Grin. It was actually a short story I hadn't read, so I downloaded and read it after and was a,axed they'd stuck to as much of the story as they had. Obviously they were going to have to flesh it out a lot, but agree t would have been better as one episode rather than stretched out to two with so much new material added. The maid's trial and execution was just stupid - plus Christie's servants are never killers, as any fule kno. (Prepared to be proved wrong now...).

ChadSexington · 28/12/2016 18:30

I thought the lady who played Romaine was excellent though.

pklme · 28/12/2016 18:35

Very disturbing! Second half was better than the first half, but the gratuitous dark sex was awful.

RustyBear · 28/12/2016 18:38

especially given the panto style of last year's And then there were none. - what kind of scary-ass pantos do you go to, Lass? Grin

CremeBrusselsSprouts · 28/12/2016 18:40

Didn't like it all & I love the original movie version. Far too dark and just didn't capture the spirit of an Agatha Christie story at all. Didn't watch part 2.

RustyBear · 28/12/2016 19:07

ChadSexington. On a quick trawl through my kindle, I've come up with these people in servant-type roles who turned out to be criminals (not always murderers)
Thee seems to be a tendency towards the 'not quite a servant' type of private employee, like private secretaries & companions, rather than the 'skivvy'
Housekeeper-companion x4
Married couple (cook/manservant)
Private Secretary x5
Cook
Manservant x2
Chauffeur
Governess
A valet & a chambermaid
A lady's maid x2
A housemaid