By HILARY FOX Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — The scene: Outside a stately English home, a man and a woman attempt to solve a mystery. What’s unusual about this picture?
They’re using the internet.
In a departure from what could be the logline for many a cozy English mystery before it, “Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence” marks the first time Agatha Christie’s work has been modernized for an English-speaking TV audience. In this six-part drama premiering next year, there are phones, social media and TikTok alongside the usual murky secrets, red herrings and nefarious crimes.
Speaking in late October on the set of the BritBox contemporary series shooting in the U.K., writer and executive producer Phoebe Eclair-Powell says the makers were thrilled to get permission from Christie’s estate and have been careful not to “simplify” solving classic puzzles, like a locked room mystery, with new tech.
“We have used it, but carefully, sparingly, and when we think actually that it’s enhanced the original story that it’s adapted from,” explains Eclair-Powell.
She says that it’s been a “tricky” part of the process, but one they hope Christie herself would approve of.
In Japan, Korea, India and Sweden, there have already been Christie characters living in the modern age, but this is the first contemporary adaptation in the author’s native language.
“Phoebe came to us with a brilliant take on the stories which put them in the modern day and because of the energy & vitality of these characters it felt completely natural to say yes!” Christie’s great-grandson James Prichard, who manages the literary rights to her estate, wrote in an email.
The Associated Press joined stars Antonia Thomas (“The Good Doctor”) and Josh Dylan (“The Buccaneers”) in the library of a 17th century mansion. Thomas is delighted to appear in this modern mystery program, her first as a title character and says fans will enjoy the interpretation because, while it’s “grounded and modern,” she and Dylan are still “capering in a classic Agatha Christie way.”
She also hopes that it’ll attract new viewers who would normally be put off by the period setting of a more traditional Christie crime drama.
Dylan describes the modernization as having a “looseness” and “freshness” that makes the miniseries feel “different.”
Readers of the “Queen of Crime” will recognize Tommy and Tuppence as featuring in short stories and four novels spanning from 1922 to 1973 — their stories were favorites of the author and aged alongside Christie in each appearance, according to her estate.
In this version, Tommy is a crime writer and Tuppence struggles as an actor, so both are amateur sleuths and a will-they-won’t-they vibe permeates their relationship.
Also featuring Imelda Staunton as Tommy’s Aunt Ada, production on “Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence” continues throughout November and the show is expected to air on BritBox in 2026.