Good Agatha Christie adaptations?

[cloudjumper]

I’ve recently watched Ordeal by Innocence (meh) and Towards Zero (awful) - are there any good ones?! Preferably ones that don’t change to actual story too much (I have read almost all of the books, so I know the plots!)….

The David Suchet ones are the best.
And Then There Were None not too bad? though sexed up.

Joan Hickson as Miss Marple. Nobody else comes close.

Yes those too!

The Miss Marple series with Joan Hickson is very good and pretty faithful to the original books. The more recent ones with Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie are good but do tend to stray away from the original plots

The Ustinov Evil Under the Sun is GLORIOUS. Takes a few liberties but nothing earth shattering and Maggie Smith is a complete joy.

Similarly I love the Finney Murder on the Orient Express which is true to the book and I quite like Finney's Poirot.

Avoid Branagh at all costs. There should never be a gunfight on the Orient Express.

Not a fan of all the ones that crowbar Marple or Poirot into non Marple/Poirot stories.

Most of the Suchet ITV ones are great - watched Cat Among the Pigeons with my kids recently and it was really well done.

I also enjoyed the films with Peter Ustinov as Poirot - Death on the Nile and Evil under the Sun are great and absolutely packed with brilliant actors

I quite like Julia McKenzie too.

@JassyRadlett "Even in those days Arlena could always fling her legs in the air higher than anyone else..... and wider....."

Perfection.

I love The Mirror Cracked film, 1980's. Got Elizabeth Taylor in it for added glamour!

I watched it as a little child with my grandma and adored it so it could through rose-tinted nostalgia.

Also Team Joan Hickson.

I liked Sarah Phelps's version of Witness for the Prosecution for the BBC in 2016. Great cast - Toby Jones was marvellously tormented.

I loved The ABC Murders with John Malkovich, but it was very 'psychology of Poirot' so you may not like it :>

The Mirror Crack'd is great, but I was a bit disconcerted by Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple having a fag in the kitchen with Edward Fox as they discuss the murder. She's also surprisingly tall for a little old lady!

Miss Marple is often described as tall though, in the books!

You can't really beat the Joan Hickson adapations - I really like A Caribbean Mystery and Sleeping Murder of those ones.

I thought the Sarah Phelps adaptions were ok in the beginning - ATTWN and Witness for the Prosecution, but didn't like Ordeal by Innocence where she changed the murderer and so haven't seen any more!

That's my absolute bugbear - changing the plot. Why adapt Christie then? Do you think you can do it better?

I think they changed the murderer in more recent adaptation of The Body in the Library and added an unexpected lesbian subplot.

Joan Hickson can't be beaten, but I also enjoy the radio adaptations. Most David Suchets are terrific, and have really beautifully framed scenes. I love Miss Lemon and was really surprised that Hastings doesn't feature in more books ('I say!')

You can’t beat Suchet and Hickson and I’ve rewatched them dozens of times. The recent 2/3-parter adaptations have been completely different from the books and I’m surprised the Christie firm haven’t insisted on an ‘adapted from an Agatha Christie book of the same name’ in the titles instead of letting viewers believe these are the endings AC would have written. Having said that, as stand alone murder mysteries I quite like the new Ordeal by Innocence and Murder is Easy. The Branagh adaptations are dreadful. Agree that the Ustinov Evil under the Sun and Death on the Nile are very good, even though he doesn’t bear any resemblance to Poirot!

The Branagh ones are unintentionally funny for the first few minutes because of his outrageous accent and moustache. After that they are really dull.

The moustache and accent are very Marcel Wave.

The Branagh adaptations are dreadful

They are truely dreadful adaptation and mess widely with the plots but as films I like them - the atmosphere of haunting of venice is good though last murder is just awfully plotted and makes no sense.

Though agree with everyone else ITV David Suchet and Joan Hickson are the best and the classic movies like Ustinov Evil under the Sun and Death on the Nile and Albert Finney murder on the orient express.

I can't think of any modern adaptions that have been memorable and great - even the BBC fairly recent And then there were none - which I should have liked felt lacking and I liked that book.

Which is the story (always forget the title) that involves a woman who thinks she's been there at the house before... wallpaper features in it?

Can’t remember, cornflours and poppies featured, but she was a real pita, treated people appallingly.

@MrsSkylerWhite @Pancakeflipper Sleeping Murder I think?
I can't stand Joan Hickson, neither can my partner or my ex husband. She's good as a sharp minded sleuth though. I used to like the Margaret Rutherford films although I think they were Christie-ish Marple pastiches rather than actual AC books. .

Sleeping Murder?

x-post with CherryRipe1 there.

I do remember as a child finding Joan Hickson as Miss Marple frustrating at times but then warmed to her dotty old woman with a mind like a meat cleaver and now think she the best Miss Marple and everyone else doesn't get it quite right.

Thank you ! It is Sleeping Murder.

Oh Agatha Christie was just marvellous.

One of my grandma's was pretty much illiterate. She learnt to read as an adult reading Agatha Christie books. She had carrier bags full of them in her the wardrobe of her spare bedroom (where I slept when staying over and sneak read the books).

My grandma used some pretty odd terminology - it was from Agatha's world.

Murder on the Orient Express (1974, Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Michael York, Jacqueline Bisset, Richard Widmark, Anthony Perkins, Colin Blakeley, Sean Connery, Vanessa Redgrave etc etc - what a cast!) is wonderful. The score by Richard Rodney Bennett is unsurpassed.

The only one of the recent TV adaptations (I use the word loosely, given the liberties taken in many cases) I've liked was And Then There Were None with Aidan Turner.

Can't beat David Suchet as Poirot or Joan Hickson as Miss Marple, as almost everyone else has said. I couldn't watch the recent ones titled Marple as that title was so utterly wrong that I didn't trust them to get anything else right. They obviously chose a single word title to match Poirot but it just doesn't work. Miss Marple needs her title. Dame Agatha would have been outraged, I feel sure.

Haven’t enjoyed the recent ones, especially Towards Zero.

Really loved And Then There Were None with Charles Dance, lovely scenery as well!