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Los Angeles Times
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
An AI Agatha Christie? The bestselling novelist of all time deserves better than that
There are very few recorded interviews with Dame Agatha Christie, the world's bestselling novelist and generally acknowledged doyenne of crime, for one simple reason: She hated speaking in public. She often described herself as cripplingly shy — she agonized for days when a celebration for the 10th anniversary of her play 'The Mousetrap' required her to give a speech — and she remained morbidly press-adverse after the media swarm that followed her famous 11-day disappearance. (Though in defense of the press, what could one expect when a notable crime writer goes missing for almost two weeks in the midst of a shattering divorce and then, when found, refuses to explain what had happened?) In her autobiography, and through her literary avatar Ariadne Oliver, Christie often described taking great pains to avoid speaking in front of people and she (and Mrs. Oliver) particularly hated being asked questions about her writing. 'I never know what to say,' Mrs. Oliver would wail, echoing sentiments expressed by Christie herself. So when BBC Maestro announced, at the end of April, that it was launching a digital class in which an AI-resurrected Christie would offer lessons in writing, it was difficult not to be outraged. Never mind the whole 'I see dead people'-ness of it all; here was a woman who was on record, multiple times and often at great length, about how much she loathed having to talk about how she did what she did in front of a bunch of people. The creators of the series clearly anticipated such outrage. The prologue to the course features BBC Maestro Chief Executive Michael Levine and Christie's great-grandson James Prichard, chairman and CEO of Agatha Christie Ltd., explaining the care put into the series. The script, we are assured, is rigorously based on Christie's own words; the actor (Vivien Keene) was chosen after a year-and-a-half search; and the set (a library that houses a model of Christie's own typewriter), the costume (a tweed suit accented by pearls, a brooch and duplicates of Christie's engagement and wedding rings) and the hair are models of authenticity. More important, the course has the family's full support. 'At the heart of this project was my father who knew Agatha Christie better than any person living,' Prichard says. 'At times he was astounded by how similar to his grandmother this version was. And my view,' he adds with a mildly challenging air, 'is that if he can enjoy this project, we can all enjoy it.' Challenge accepted. Keeping in mind Christie's fascination with disguise and advanced technology, as well as a passage in her autobiography in which she wishes a friend with more confidence could step in as a substitute during author interviews, I put my fears aside and ponied up $89 for the two-and-a-half-hour class. Which is so respectful I found myself, at more than a few points in the 12 sections, wanting to scream. We meet Keene's Christie behind a desk, and there she stays, smiling and nodding as she walks us through her thoughts on her craft (including, in the introduction, her aversion to offering them). Christie's autobiography is a doorstop. Thoughts about writing, her characters and her career run through it, but they rarely take up more than two consecutive pages. Christie historian Mark Aldridge has done a remarkable job of mining it, as well as other writings, to create a genuine tutorial with an admirable script. Yes, Christie offers the typical anodyne advice — write what you know and the type of book you enjoy reading — but she also gets very granular. A murder mystery is best at 50,000 words, the murderer and important clues must be introduced very early on, settings should be described thoroughly but economically ('sometimes a map works best') and one must never give into an editor who spells cocoa as 'coco.' In portions that include 'characters,' 'plots,' 'settings' and 'clues,' Christie assesses some of her work. She came to think that her first book, 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles,' was over-stuffed with plot, but remained irritated by those who claimed that the twist in 'The Murder of Roger Ackroyd' was a cheat. She wished she had introduced Hercule Poirot as a younger man, and was very happy to ditch Hastings for a while. She discusses the importance of observation in everyday life, describing, among other things, how an encounter in front of a shop window led to one of her Parker Pyne stories, as well as the usefulness of isolated settings ('snow can also weigh down telephone wires') and second (or third) murders. In the opening minutes, it's kind of neat to see what looks very much like a midlife Christie, smiling and talking in her very British way (the voice is not precise but close enough). Still, there is no getting away from the fact that this is a two-and-a-half-hour lecture, delivered by a woman sitting behind a desk who, with the exception of a very few hand gestures, never moves. The camera moves, shooting her from this angle and that, and occasionally roving over various covers of Christie's books. But Christie's body remains as still as the late Queen Elizabeth II delivering her Christmas address. I began to feel quite concerned for Keene — just how long were these takes? She delivers a vocally expressive performance and gives the digitally recreated face the necessary intelligence, wit and kindliness. The face itself looked fine — a bit glowy at times and immobile around the eyes — but its novelty quickly wore off. I would have happily traded what is essentially a parlor trick for a Christie who would get up and walk around a bit. Have a cup of tea, flip through a notebook. I realize that it is a course, and one I did not have to go through in one sitting. But as the first hour slid into the second, I found myself longing for someone, Aldridge perhaps, to mine Christie's exquisite autobiography more broadly and create an entire one-woman play. An evening with Agatha, free of AI, in which Christie could reminisce about her extraordinary life, from her glorious Victorian childhood to her later years as an archaeologist. Though known as the creator of the manor-house murder story, Christie was, as her books indicate, a voracious world traveler, learning how to surf before surfing was a thing, and dealing with adventures and misadventures (including a 14-hour honeymoon trek by camel and a hideous case of bed bugs on the Orient Express) that would give even the most intrepid travel influencer pause. She lived through two world wars, experienced wildly unexpected success and deep personal loss. She endured a heartbreaking divorce and a nervous breakdown, while raising a daughter and writing books, only to rally again and find love again in the most unexpected place. She wasn't a saint — her work occasionally includes the racist, antisemitic and classist tropes of its time — but she avowed fascism as often as her more political contemporaries and believed, as she says in the course, that she lived in contract with her readers for whom she had the utmost respect. She was a celebrity who never behaved as a celebrity, an artist who never admitted to art (and wrote her books on any steady surface, including orange crates and washstands), a novelist like no other who also wrote the longest-running play in history and whose work continues to sell while being adapted in film and television. Her contribution to the culture is literally incalculable. So surely she deserves more than a course that makes news mainly because of its use of dreaded AI. She's Agatha-freaking-Christie. Give her a movie, a miniseries, a play. Give her an actor who worries less about the face and more about the words, and the life that inspired them.
Time Out
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
And Then There Were None
Hold on to your alibis, dear readers. Hot on the heels of the recent national tour of The Mousetrap, another classic from Agatha Christie's playbook of murder mystery mayhem lands on the stage at Sydney's Theatre Royal. *** Time Out Melbourne reviewed And Then There Were None when it played at the Comedy Theatre in February. Read on for that three-star review: Somewhere off the coast of Devon is a dreary little island with high cliffs, higher tides and no way to escape. It's Soldier Island: a lovely place to put your feet up, take a dip, meet nine strangers and watch as you all get slowly picked off one-by-one. This is the wickedly thrilling premise of Agatha Christie's 1939 classic And Then There Were None. A favourite among Christie fans (and Christie herself), it arrives in a production that once again proves that the master of the whodunnit can still thrill us nearly 100 years on. Yet, this revival from director Robyn Nevin – her second of Christie's following 2023's The Mousetrap – rests on the laurels of its author too often, offering a passable but ultimately thin restaging that I think might signal the end of the recent resurgence of British classics in our theatres. It's 1939. Ten people have been invited to Soldier Island under suspicious pretences. They have little in common apart from the skeletons in their closets. For much of the show's bloated first act, we're watching this motley crew of potential victims introduce themselves to each other. Christie is famous for her ability to construct a complete impression of a person in one short phrase. But here, these characters have a tendency to over-explain themselves, and it can get a bit tedious. You can feel Nevin trying to amplify comedic beats or attempt more creative blocking to avoid this exposition-heavy first half from getting too stale. For this, she has an incredibly talented cast at her disposal. As the ex-soldier Philip Lombard, Tom Stokes keeps things moving with witty jabs and arrogant take downs that strike the perfect balance between Hugh Grant-style arrogance and charisma. His sparring matches with the entitled Cambridge student Anthony Marston (Jack Bannister) and condescending love for the dowdy cop William Blore (Peter O'Brien) inject a much-needed liveliness to these on-stage relationships. Eden Falk is perfect as the authoritative Dr. Armstrong; and Grant Piro is suitably frenetic as the panicked servant, Rogers. Meanwhile, Jennifer Flowers lends a much-needed gravitas to the crocheting traditionalist, Emily Brent. Watching her butt heads with the strong-willed Vera Claythorne (Mia Morrissey) over ideas of feminine modesty stands out as one of those breathtaking moments when you feel an audience suddenly in awe of Christie's enduring relevance. But while her humour comes easily to this cast, the deeper themes that elevate her novel are given short shrift. This is one of Christie's most psychological thrillers. We're watching people unravel at the hands of their guilt and fallibility, as much as the threat of their demise. Without Miss Marple or Detective Poirot, our investigation is weighted with a near-existential hopelessness. Nicholas Hammond doesn't quite land the tragedy of the absent-minded General Mackenzie, Anthony Phelan seems more comfortable performing Sir Lawrence Wargrave's stoicism than his anger, and Morrissey doesn't have enough of a handle on the complex twists and turns in Vera's mental state. Set and costume designer Dale Ferguson situates us in the play's interwar context beautifully by dressing the cast in a well-chosen mix of high-waisted pants, three-piece suits and silk blazers. Their navy blues, beiges and egg-shell whites are brought out by Trudy Dalgleish 's preference for bright white washes and sunny tones in her lighting design. But I wish more was done to amplify the horrors of the show's final act. Occasional glimpses of severe lighting, and ominous shadows are ultimately too tepid to contribute much to any overall atmosphere, leaving us with an emotional climax that feels frustratingly stale. Reviewing an Agatha Christie play can sometimes feel like you're critiquing a Christmas classic. This is hallowed ground, and familiar to many. Some might call it unfair to expect so much. It's a museum piece; a time capsule that should be evaluated as an intriguing glimpse into our past. In recent years, this idea has become the bankable logic that has driven many of the revivals seen in Melbourne's larger venues. Nevin's production of The Mousetrap is one example. But 2024 also saw revivals of A Woman in Black, Gaslight and the annual A Christmas Carol carve out a little West End corner in our nation's stages. Economically, this trend makes sense. These aren't spectacle-heavy productions that require big budgets, and they still have enough cultural clout to ensure good ticket sales. Producers of plays don't have a pool of jukebox musicals or film adaptations to choose from like their musical counterparts. If they want to bring a play to one of our larger venues, it seems they have two options: an Arthur Miller revival or a classic British thriller. With this production of And Then There Were None you can feel this trend nearing its end. It's not that we expect modern takes of these slices of theatrical history. But we can tell when fidelity is used as a crouch to avoid doing more with them. Reverence doesn't need to be an excuse for laziness. This is Christie's best novel, but for all its thrilling twists and still enlivening themes, you won't come out of this show thinking it's her best play. I came out of it feeling nothing but the sense that an opportunity to do something more with it had ultimately been wasted.
Canberra Times
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Canberra Times
Four seasons in London: what to do in the city come rain, chill or shine
HOW: If the quirky Tate Modern doesn't tickle your fancy, how about the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square? Masterpieces by Michelangelo, van Gogh, Monet and other legends are displayed here, while next door's National Portrait Gallery reopened in June 2023 after a facelift. As well as kings and queens, you'll see pioneering women (Emmeline Pankhurst, Mary Quant, Malala Yousafzai) and inspiring Davids (Bowie, Beckham, Hockney). Head to nearby Chinatown for dim sum or have afternoon tea, with dainty sandwiches, scones and cakes, at Fortnum & Mason, London's oldest department store. Shop a bit here - or on Bond Street and Oxford Street, both lined with big brands - then enjoy a pint and people-watching at a storied Soho pub like The Dog and Duck (a former hangout of George Orwell). Catch a play at one of the West End's myriad theatres - perhaps Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, the world's longest-running show - or pamper yourself at The Londoner. This 350-room "super-boutique" hotel has a swish spa, an upscale Japanese izakaya and a chic-casual French restaurant overlooking Leicester Square, the always vibrant heart of London's West End.
Perth Now
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Agatha Christie 'brought to life' for writing course
Aspiring writers are being offered vital clues on writing from Agatha Christie, with a little help from artificial intelligence. The BBC and the late best-selling author's estate have teamed up to create Agatha Christie Writing, an online course using her own words delivered by the woman herself. Brought to life by actor Vivien Keen and visual effect artists, the course will use AI-enhanced technology, images and restored audio recordings to recreate Christie's words and teachings to make it feel as if she is delivering them directly. "As a lifelong fan of Agatha Christie, bringing this course to life has been a dream come true, and I am immensely proud of it," said Michael Levine, chief executive of BBC Maestro, which runs online courses and developed Agatha Christie Writing with BBC Studios, the writer's estate and a team of experts. He said the course invites all Christie fans to "learn through her own words, exactly how she does it; her background, her inspirations, her craft and the lessons she learned along the way". The course has been created by a team of experts from Christie's who have reconstructed her philosophy on writing, drawing her insights on story structure, cast creation, plot twists, red herrings and the art of suspense from her work and archival interviews. The writer's great-grandson James Prichard, the chairman and chief executive of Agatha Christie Limited, said: "The team of academics and researchers that BBC Maestro has assembled have extracted from a number of her writings an extraordinary array of her views and opinions on how to write." Christie's books have sold more than 200 billion copies and include 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections. Her works also include as The Mousetrap, the world's longest-running stage play which has run in London's West End since 1952 with its only break coming during the COVID-19 pandemic. She died in 1976 aged 85 but her crime fiction continues to be produced for television and movies.
Times of Oman
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times of Oman
Agatha Christie brought to life by AI for writing course
London: Aspiring writers are being offered vital clues on writing from Agatha Christie, with a little help from artificial intelligence (AI). The British public broadcaster BBC and the late best-selling author's estate have teamed up to create Agatha Christie Writing, an online course using her own words delivered by the woman herself. Brought to life by actress Vivien Keen and visual effect artists, the course will use AI-enhanced technology, images and restored audio recordings to recreate Christie's words and teachings to make it feel as if she is delivering them directly. The course has been created by a team of experts from Christie's who have reconstructed her philosophy on writing, drawing her insights on story structure, cast creation, plot twists, red herrings and the art of suspense from her work and archival interviews. Christie's books have sold more than 200 billion copies and include 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections. Her works also include as "The Mousetrap," the world's longest-running stage play which has run in London's West End since 1952 with its only break coming during the Covid pandemic. She died in 1976 aged 85 but her crime fiction continues to be produced for television and movies.
