“When I came to read And Then There Were None I was startled and shocked to find that they were in fact brutal. Writer and producer Sarah Phelps hadn’t read any Agatha Christie novels before setting out to make the three-parter, and was surprised by what she found: Ordeal by Innocence Filming Locations: Entirely on LocationĪnd Then There Were None set the tone for a new wave of country house mysteries which cut out the teatime cosiness of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. (If anything, it’s more despairing than the novel, because it eliminates the postscript in which the killer’s confession is found.Witness for the Prosecution Filming Locations: 1920s London comes to Liverpool Christie’s book, right through to the nihilistic ending. It also stays relatively faithful to the events and tone of Ms. Once the gathering of the victims has been completed, however, and the murderer goes to work, the series settles into a satisfyingly eerie groove. The close-ups of slabs of meat being hacked apart for dinner and a few forced performances from otherwise reliable actors (especially Anna Maxwell Martin as the servant Ethel Rogers) smack of concept getting in the way of common sense. Rowling - and directed by Craig Viveiros, “None” overdoes the self-conscious creepiness at first. Written by Sarah Phelps - whose other mini-series include “The Crimson Field” and the adaptation of “ The Casual Vacancy” by J. Christie’s cozy mysteries may nod vigorously, wondering why they’re watching an artsy, darkly humorous psychological horror story instead of a comforting whodunit.
When one of the 10 asks, “Is there something a tad off here?,” fans of Ms. The recent four-hour BBC mini-series adapted from the book (and being shown on Lifetime starting on Sunday night) takes the strangeness of “And Then There Were None” and runs with it. It’s a mystery without a detective, no Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple to make sense of things - just 10 people trapped on an island, being murdered one by one per the instructions of a macabre nursery rhyme. “And Then There Were None” - the alternate name of the 1939 Agatha Christie novel “Ten Little _” - stands out among her work for more than its startlingly racist original title.
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