Latest news with #SarahPhelps
BBC News
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
BBC announces Agatha Christie's Endless Night, adapted by Sarah Phelps
The BBC has announced Agatha Christie's Endless Night, a new three-part series produced by Mammoth Screen and Agatha Christie Limited for BBC iPlayer and BBC One, in a co-commission with BritBox International. Sarah Phelps (The Sixth Commandment, A Very British Scandal) returns to adapt the classic mystery novel by the best-selling author of all time. Fifth Season will handle global distribution. It's 1967 and man-of-many-trades Michael Rogers finds himself working as chauffeur for the enigmatic designer du jour Rudolf Santonix, snatching a glimpse into a glamorous world of outrageous wealth that's far from his own upbringing. Transfixed by Santonix's latest project, a beautiful house in the English countryside, Mike dreams of meeting the love of his life and taking up residence. But unbeknownst to Mike, the house that he has set his heart on has a dark past that goes back for centuries. Local legend says that it is haunted by a curse that no one escapes. When Mike meets the sweet-natured Ellie and, by a curious set of circumstances, finds himself moving into the house, the young couple start to realise they should have listened to the warnings. As increasingly strange and chilling events occur, they start to wonder if the curse is real and means to destroy them. Or, that someone is intent on terrifying them to death. A ghost story and a love story, Endless Night is about obsession and the darkness that lurks in us all when we want too much. Endless Night is Sarah Phelps's sixth Agatha Christie adaptation made by Mammoth Screen and Agatha Christie Limited for the BBC, following the acclaimed productions of And Then There Were None, BAFTA-nominated The Witness For The Prosecution, Ordeal By Innocence, The ABC Murders and The Pale Horse. Sarah Phelps, says: 'I'm so excited to be teaming up again with ACL, Mammoth Screen and the BBC for Endless Night. One of Agatha Christie's last novels, this is a chilling story of love, sex, deceit and death, of how far we'll go to get our hearts desire and what we'll do when night falls and the wolves start circling." James Prichard, executive producer for Agatha Christie Limited says: "We are so happy to be continuing our partnership with Mammoth, BBC and Britbox and renewing acquaintance with Sarah Phelps. Endless Night is one of my great grandmother's best stories. It is also one of my father's personal favourites. It is an extraordinary feat of writing, made even more impressive by the age at which she wrote it. I cannot wait to see what Sarah and the team produce." Rebecca Durbin and Damien Timmer, executive producers for Mammoth Screen say: 'In 2015 Sarah Phelps won great acclaim for her adaption of And Then There Were None, which launched a new series of standalone Agatha Christie titles for the BBC, and we're beyond delighted that she's returning to take on Endless Night, Christie's late masterpiece from 1967. Episode 1 of Towards Zero has been watched by 6 million people in the UK since March, and is one of BritBox's biggest launches to date in the US, so we have high hopes this new title will delight Christie fans everywhere!' Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama says: 'We are delighted to team up again with Agatha Christie Limited and Mammoth Screen to announce our next tale from the undisputed Queen of Crime: Endless Night. The phenomenal Sarah Phelps' previous adaptations have thrilled millions and we could not be happier to have her bring this unique and chilling mystery to BBC iPlayer and BBC One.' Robert Schildhouse, President BritBox North America & General Manager, BritBox International, says: 'Our partnership with the BBC, Agatha Christie Limited and Mammoth Screen has delivered three outstanding Agatha Christie adaptations, all of which have been BritBox hits. Towards Zero debuted at #1, with the largest first week absolute viewership and engagement of any premiere on BritBox ever. We're so pleased to continue this collaboration with a fourth addition, Endless Night. As BritBox is the home to the largest collection of Agatha Christie titles in North America, we know our audiences—devotees to crime and mystery—will massively enjoy this series. And Sarah Phelps is the ideal match for adapting the compelling classic. In the hands of such a fearless writer, Endless Night will be unforgettable.' Endless Night (3x60') is produced by Mammoth Screen (part of ITV Studios) and Agatha Christie Limited, and is a co-commission between the BBC and BritBox International. It is adapted by Sarah Phelps. Executive producers are James Prichard for Agatha Christie Limited, Rebecca Durbin and Damien Timmer for Mammoth Screen, Sarah Phelps, Danielle Scott-Haughton for the BBC, and Robert Schildhouse, Jon Farrar and Stephen Nye for BritBox. Filming on Endless Night will take place later this year and casting will be announced in due course. The series will air on BBC iPlayer and BBC One, and on BritBox in the US and Canada. Previous Agatha Christie adaptations are available to stream on BBC iPlayer and on BritBox. Watch Agatha Christie adaptations on BBC iPlayer MF3
The Guardian
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Towards Zero review – Anjelica Huston is at the peak of her powers in this fiendish Agatha Christie
Perhaps Sarah Phelps, the creator of most of the Agatha Christie adaptations to grace our screens recently, is still recovering from writing her heartbreaking masterpiece The Sixth Commandment. Did it emotionally pulverise her as much as it did viewers? Or maybe the Christie fans who hated her departures from tradition finally became too vociferous to ignore. Whatever the reason, the old BBC Christie kit has been taken down from the loft, dusted off and a full return to pre-Phelpsian form made with Towards Zero, adapted by Rachel Bennette and directed by Sam Yates. Gorgeous prewar clothes are draped on gorgeous people topped with bobs or Brylcreem. The gorgeous people gather at a country estate – let's call it Denouement Hall – ruled by an embittered widow, while spivs and suspects gather at a vulgar hotel on an opposite hill. A murder occurs. An inspector investigates. An array of persons, possibilities, motives and countermotives have been assembled by the unerring writer's hand: a love triangle is triangling, a will left half-revised, a family secret is emerging from the shadows, a housekeeper is drugged, a lady's maid is put upon and a new manservant is a shady sort. Even if you're no great fan or an arch traditionalist, you find yourself lingering long enough for your mystery glands to start juicing and suddenly find yourself locked in for the duration. Like any character in her books, you are powerless – Agatha will have you right where she wants you. We open with a celebrity divorce playing out in the papers. Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), dashing tennis star, cad, bounder and potential inheritor of Denouement Hall, is casting off an icy blonde – Audrey, played by Ella Lily Hyland – in favour of a pouting brunette, Kay (Mimi Keene, formerly splendiferous mean girl Ruby Matthews in Sex Education). For reasons that passeth all understanding, the three of them decide it would be a good idea to take a holiday together at Denouement Hall. It is owned and overseen by Lady Tressilian (Anjelica Huston, with all the power at her command), who has been largely Lady Havisham-ing it ever since she watched from her bedroom window as her husband, Sir Matthew Tressilian, sank with his yacht in the local bay 15 years ago. She is not best pleased by Nevile or either of these women – 'a brood of vipers'. Her paid companion Mary (Anjana Vasan) defies Lady T's direct orders and invites Matthew's estranged nephew Thomas (Jack Farthing), with whom she has fallen in love via correspondence, to join the merry gang. She is going to be sorry when it turns out he harbours love for another and a deep desire for some Nevile-based retribution. Lady T calls the family lawyer, Mr Treves (Clarke Peters), to stay as well, to make sure all the vipers' longing-slash-poisonous looks and elaborate smoking of cigarettes by water fountains at twilight don't get out of hand, and to rewrite that there will. He brings with him his orphan ward Sylvia (Grace Doherty), who has been expelled from school for thievery. Sylvia is the first to encounter the inspector. She watches as James Leach (Matthew Rhys), pursued by the black dog of depression, throws himself off a cliff. She raises the alarm and he survives. Will the call thereafter to solve a murder at the big house restore him to himself, or can he not be saved? You are unlikely, in any real sense, to care. But that's OK. That's not what traditional Christie, traditionally done, is there for. Christie is something between a chess game and a crossword puzzle made flesh. The zero of the title refers to the moment the murder was set in train. Can you work out when it was, what Christie is doing, where she's going and what the answer is before the final move, the final clue, the final page? Was it Nevile with a golf club, Mary with PMT, Audrey furious about her lost compact, a vulgar guest from the hotel? I can't play chess or solve crosswords, so I expect to remain baffled, but gently entertained, to the very end. I hope devoted fans enjoy every minute. Sign up to What's On Get the best TV reviews, news and features in your inbox every Monday after newsletter promotion Towards Zero aired on BBC One and is on iPlayer now
Telegraph
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Towards Zero, review: a sexed-up, slang-filled spin on Agatha Christie
Between 2015 and 2020 Sarah Phelps dramatised five stories by Agatha Christie for the BBC. The results were stylish, steamy and lavishly well cast. In Towards Zero (BBC One) the adaptation duties have been handed on to Rachel Bennette, who takes charge of a double murder in a posh pile on the Devon coast, but we remain very much in Phelpsland. As in Ordeal by Innocence and The Pale Horse, this is richly handsome to look at. The gents' threads and, especially, the ladies' fashions (clinging silk gowns, Cruella de Vil furs etc) are the lush fantasies of touched-up magazine spreads. Like Phelps, Bennette has done plenty of rewiring on the original plot. New characters have been slotted in as red herrings and/or plot mules, while others are cast out. The 1944 novel was a valedictory case for Superintendent Battle, a lesser-loved detective in the Agathaverse who has been dumped altogether, leaving his assistant Inspector Leach (Matthew Rhys) to piece together clues on his lonesome. To give Rhys some meat to chew on, Leach has shell-shock and suicidal tendencies that formerly belonged to another character. This being a 2020s reinvention of the 1930s, there are de rigueur anachronisms in casting and in language that will trigger rote Pavlovian groans. The more striking shock is a peremptory oral pleasuring enacted on the main staircase for all to see. In the book such naughtinesses happened between chapters behind closed doors in the reader's imagination. Here, feast your eyes. At the heart of the case is a good question, posed by Leach. 'What on earth are you doing on your ex-husband's honeymoon?' The husband is tennis hottie Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who takes his sultry second wife Kay (Mimi Keene) to his aunt's house yet encourages his sultry first wife Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland) to tag along too. Other characters rather pale next to this preening trio, even the bilious aunt Lady Tressilian. To secure Angelica Huston for the role is a casting coup on a par with John Malkovich's Poirot in The ABC Murders or Kim Cattrall in Witness for the Prosecution. From her eyrie in bed she tosses off bon mots in the mode of a certain dowager countess. 'My dear, a woman can't be her own person.' 'Why have a husband when you can have a lawyer?' Huston's respectable English accent slightly saps her of power and charisma, and she feels somewhat wasted. Clarke Peters is a grizzled treat as the lawyer Treves. To him falls the opening oration that explains the title. 'I like a good detective story,' he says, 'but you know they begin in the wrong place. They begin with the murder.' We must wait until midway into the second episode of three to find whose death is to be solved. Only then does the story work its evidential way back towards the point zero of motive. Thus this Christie feels like a long skip to the centre of an impeccably clipped maze, followed by a long trudge to the exit.
