Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Telly addicts

Related: Film discussion forum.

Original poster

Murder is Easy, again?

151 replies

Janinejones · 17/12/2023 11:19

This new one is being plugged hard. Do we really want them to make another 1950s version? It was written before WW2 but I have not seen one set then.
We have 3 recent ones set in the 50s already I think.

OP posts:
SutWytTi · 29/12/2023 09:32

1975wasthebest · 29/12/2023 08:58

But please don't worry about being 'educated', no one can impose an education on you.

Yes, I realise nobody can do this, but in this context I find it annoying when scriptwriters etc try to, for some woke agenda.

Well if you accept no one can 'educate' someone by a TV programme, what's the issue? Your posts are very conflicting.

The 'woke agenda' is reactionary nonsense. 'Political correctness gone mad' they used to say.

Free speech and liberal democracy means we get a range of options on our screens. That's a good thing.

Manicule · 29/12/2023 09:40

DH wanted to watch it so I was happy to give it a go, but tbh my attention wandered fairly early on.

I'm not interested in engaging with any of the 'woke' arguments; for me it’s simply about whether it was a well-made piece of TV. And no, I don’t think it was; it was cartoon Christie.

Early on there were newspaper headlines saying 'end of rationing in sight' - but everyone was dressed up to the nines in pristine clothes at all times, in blazingly bright colours - no make-do-and-mend; no down at heel grey and black. Every interior was perfect; even the pub in the supposedly rough part of the village was like a wine bar.

The two comedy charladies were like something out of Les Dawson. And as for the scenery-chewing acting - good grief. 'Miss Waynflete' was giving it both barrels à la Catherine Tate, and was far, far too young to be emoting about her old maid status. 'Lord Whitfield' had also strayed out of a pantomime. And I’m afraid David Jonsson couldn’t really maintain the accent he'd presumably been asked to give.

It was fine if you wanted to look at recreations of nice 50s clothes and a pretty village setting (although that courtyard with single-storey brick building did look horribly like a garden centre), but a convincing Agatha Christie adaptation? Noooo.

1975wasthebest · 29/12/2023 09:42

Well if you accept no one can 'educate' someone by a TV programme, what's the issue? Your posts are very conflicting.

I was agreeing with your reference to the imposition, which I thought was crystal clear.

SutWytTi · 29/12/2023 09:59

1975wasthebest · 29/12/2023 09:42

Well if you accept no one can 'educate' someone by a TV programme, what's the issue? Your posts are very conflicting.

I was agreeing with your reference to the imposition, which I thought was crystal clear.

No one is trying to impose an education, because it is not possible to impose an education.

They are trying to make a TV programme in the way they want, it's a liberal democracy and we have free speech.

Whatsthestorynow · 29/12/2023 10:13

Exactly @lucysnowe2, for anyone interested & wanting to understand more I highly recommend David Olusoga’s book & TV series!

1975wasthebest · 29/12/2023 10:23

There may have actually been more racism in the 70s than the 50s due to tension around integration plus the whole Enoch Powell thing poisoning the waters...

I doubt it. There wasn’t even anti-discrimination laws that gave some legal for people until 1965.

Citrusandginger · 29/12/2023 11:06

I definitely felt it had a preachy feel. I'm not so much bothered by the presence of black and Asian characters as by the misplaced context. Where were the Polish and Italian communities? It felt like it was written by someone who knew very little of the 1950's post war period.

As mentioned upthread, there were people who had fought in WW1 and 2 alongside other ethnicities and felt warmly towards them, but that doesn't mean racism wasn't widespread. My own grandparents talked fondly of Africans, but in a way we would consider othering today. (DGF had fought in Egypt). DGM had a Gollywog on her bed that was a much loved present from my DGF. My DM had had a Polish boyfriend. These things are and were complex.

And amidst the not yet ended rationing, younger people were earning their own money, and were beginning to travel more. My parents had each been on several European holidays as singletons in the 1950's. The secluded villages AC wrote of in the 1930's were changing by the 50's and so were the attitudes.

By the biggest bugbear of all for me is the clumsy cipher beloved of the BBC of racist / homophobia = bad. Liberal and nice to brown people = good.

1975wasthebest · 29/12/2023 11:10

Legal protection, I meant to say.

Northernnature · 29/12/2023 11:26

I haven't watched this as don't have a TV licence but have read the book which wasn't one of Agathas best. Of course black and other minorities want to be represented on screen, but don't understand what the BBC shoehorn into what are essentially white stories (historical Britain before c. 1950s) rather than telling original stories ie I would like to see drama based on African, Chinese stories etc. It is all very patronising.

SliceOfBread · 29/12/2023 11:43

Odd isn't it.... a number of people online seem to think that the BBC should have "stuck to the book" and not cast a black actor... but ignore the fact the TV adaption (off the top of my head) - had murders in a different order, was set in a different decade, had Luke there for Pinkerton's death, and a bunch of characters are missing... it's almost as if their only objection is one thing. Like I say, odd.

For what's worth - I thought it was a decent adaptation of not one of her best books. Passed a few hours pleasantly enough, but I won't be rushing back to watch it.

StarbucksSmarterSister · 29/12/2023 11:54

By the biggest bugbear of all for me is the clumsy cipher beloved of the BBC of racist / homophobia = bad. Liberal and nice to brown people = good.

But racism and homophobia are bad. And people who have those attitudes are not nice.

1975wasthebest · 29/12/2023 11:57

SliceOfBread · 29/12/2023 11:43

Odd isn't it.... a number of people online seem to think that the BBC should have "stuck to the book" and not cast a black actor... but ignore the fact the TV adaption (off the top of my head) - had murders in a different order, was set in a different decade, had Luke there for Pinkerton's death, and a bunch of characters are missing... it's almost as if their only objection is one thing. Like I say, odd.

For what's worth - I thought it was a decent adaptation of not one of her best books. Passed a few hours pleasantly enough, but I won't be rushing back to watch it.

And how many people watching do you think were familiar with Christie’s story? Hardly anyone so wouldn’t know about the murders etc. It’s one of her lesser known books. I haven’t seen many “they should have stuck to the book” comments, anyway.

greengreengrass25 · 29/12/2023 12:12

IwantToRetire · 29/12/2023 00:32

IMO 'Vera' handles the subject of people of colour well.

Not sure where this obsession about the race of the main character is coming from.

My comment was about the implausibility of the script. ie a lot of Vera makes no more sense than the concept that someone from Nigera waiting to take up a post with the Colonial service would set off for a strange village. ie Vera just happens to know the family connections of every murder victim and so on.

Also, in some ways the script was accurate because many Brits who had worked overseas has a far more enlightened attitude to people of colour than the little Englanders who had never travelled more than a few miles from their birthplace. That was why, in a stupid attempt to show welcome, the Henshall character didn't approach our hero until he had sorted out in his own mind where he originated from so he could greet him in the correct language.

I think what is interesting about all these different interpretations, the common factor is of course class.

I've never seen, all though there may have been one, an interpretation of an Agatha Christie plot where the lead character is working class, and probably has more difficulty getting the chocolate box villagers to even listen to what they have to say!

To be fair though perhaps the "little Englanders" didn't have the opportunities in the 1950s

I'm sure it's the same in many cultures around the world and not just England

Citrusandginger · 29/12/2023 15:19

StarbucksSmarterSister · 29/12/2023 11:54

By the biggest bugbear of all for me is the clumsy cipher beloved of the BBC of racist / homophobia = bad. Liberal and nice to brown people = good.

But racism and homophobia are bad. And people who have those attitudes are not nice.

Except that racist and homophobic attitudes were widespread in the 50s. The lie is in pretending otherwise. A person who displayed prejudices common at the time in the context of an otherwise good character would be more interesting in my view.

FizzingAda · 29/12/2023 15:29

I haven’t read the book or seen other adaptations, so was looking forward to watching an unknown Christie. I was very disappointed, it couldn,t make up it's mind what it wanted to be. It didn't bother me that there was apparently a new take on the story, but the whole colonial and casual racism was laid on with a trowel. The script and dialogue was appalling, the characters were like something out of a Whitehall farce, a sort of Terry Thomas Lord and poor Douglas Henshall hamming it up as Colonel Arf Arf. So very far below the usual excellent BBC adaptations, it was slow and boring, and the ladies holding the Lord down with their brooms - panto.

SutWytTi · 29/12/2023 15:35

Citrusandginger · 29/12/2023 15:19

Except that racist and homophobic attitudes were widespread in the 50s. The lie is in pretending otherwise. A person who displayed prejudices common at the time in the context of an otherwise good character would be more interesting in my view.

Show quote history

You want to see a homophobic and/or racist hero in the BBC's light Christmas drama?

I think that's a hope that will be unfulfilled.

Metallicant · 29/12/2023 15:43

it reminded me of one of those spoof costume drama sketches from a Victoria Wood Christmas special.

Twonewcats · 29/12/2023 15:58

I was obsessed with the Lord's different coloured eyes 😍😍

Twonewcats · 29/12/2023 15:58

Tamzin Outhwaite seems to gurn her way through all her roles now. Weird.

PictureFrameWindow · 29/12/2023 16:12

I liked the colonial angle but the writing was dire and the acting was very am-dram! Disappointing since it was a good cast and the sets and costumes were lovely.

IwantToRetire · 29/12/2023 18:21

I suspect part of the problem is that so many of us tune in to series like this so the tv producers keep putting them on and dont even try to improve standards.

They just think all it needs it faux 50s and english architypes!

fluffiphlox · 29/12/2023 18:25

It was very, very slow.

IwantToRetire · 29/12/2023 18:29

Guardian says good

Telegraph says bad

FT says patchy.

Cantonet · 29/12/2023 18:58

I enjoyed it.
Entertaining Agatha Christie, though possibly not the best one ever.

gothicomedy · 29/12/2023 20:32

I'm a huge Agatha Christie fan and loved her book 'Murder is Easy' but this adaptation is dull and boring. Why to the BBC keep giving oxygen to these tedious and over earnest writers who obviously think Agatha Christie's work is beneath them and supercilliously try to embelish it, simply proving in the process they have none of her creativity and brilliant gift for story telling.

If they're so great why not write their own books and tv series, instead of piggy backing on the work of someone most people consider far more talented and entertaining.