Mark Gatiss has delighted in detective fiction since childhood, going on to co-create Sherlock with Steven Moffat and pen episodes of the David Suchet Poirot. Now he has his own crime-solver to explore: antiquarian bookshop owner Gabriel Book.
In a clear case of nominative determinism, Book’s bookshop is called “Book’s”, and from there he solves crimes largely through an encyclopaedic knowledge harvested from… books.
It sounds like a dream TV job, filming on an idyllic Caribbean island known for its golden beaches, waterfalls and rum distilleries. As Death in Paradise executive producer Tim Key says: “It’s the job for which people have the least sympathy in the world, quite rightly. It’s a lovely place to work, but it is hard work. It’s not all cocktails and sunsets.”
British tennis icon Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Wilderness) made headlines with a scandalous divorce from Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland, Fifteen-Love). Now, the two have decided to keep the rumour mill turning by spending a summer together at the coastal estate of Nevile’s aunt, Lady Tressilian (Anjelica Huston, The Addams Family). To make things even messier, Nevile’s new wife, Kay Elliott (Mimi Keene, Sex Education) is also there.
How to Have Sex star Mia McKenna Bruce will take the role of classic Agatha Christie character Bundle Brent in The Seven Dials Mystery, alongside Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman.
Lady Eileen ‘Bundle’ Brent is the unassuming amateur investigator at the heart of two of Christie’s murder mysteries, They Do it With Chimneys and The Seven Dials Mystery.
Adapted from Christie’s 1944 novel of the same name, Towards Zero sees a deadly love triangle form at a coastal mansion after childhood sweethearts Nevile Strange (Jackson-Cohen, Haunting of Hill House) and Audrey (Lily Hyland, Black Doves) decide they need a divorce. Unfortunately for the two of them, Nevile is a tennis superstar, and this sends them into the 1936 version of tabloid scandal.
Together with Chibnall’s screenwriting, Suzanne Mackie (The Crown) will executive produce the series with Good Omens’ Chris Sussman. Chris Sweeney (The Tourist, Back to Life) will direct.
There is no word on how closely the team will adapt the book, as recent adaptions of Agatha Christie’s work have opted to update the material for modern audiences.
As a long-time fan of Christie, Carr is off to discover the places that inspired one of the best-selling novelists of all time.
His journey will celebrate Christie’s novels that are uniquely British in a way that is hard to find in modern Britain today.
Full of adventures, glamour, twists and turns, Carr escaped into Christie’s novels while growing up in Northampton in the 1980s.
The two-part thriller follows Mark Easterbrook (Rufus Sewell) as he investigates a mysterious list of names discovered in a dead woman’s shoe.
Easterbrook’s search for answers leads him to the unusual village of Much Deeping and The Pale Horse, the home to a group of suspected witches.
Rumours have circulated the town that the witches are responsible for the disappearances of wealthy relatives using dark magic yet Easterbrook remains adamant that there are rational explanations to solve these mysteries.
The story – first published in 1961 – will be adapted for TV by the writer Sarah Phelps, who has previously adapted Christie’s novels, And Then There Were None and The Witness For The Prosecution.
“The Pale Horse is a shivery, paranoid story about superstition, love gone wrong, guilt and grief. It’s about what we’re capable of when we’re desperate and what we believe when all the lights go out and we’re alone in the dark," says Sarah Phelps, who also serves as an executive producer.
Filming is set to begin in June, with John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich, In The Line Of Fire, Dangerous Liaisons) leading an all-star cast as Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot.
