Kenneth Branagh, Sarah Phelps and Father John Misty Front Row


Kenneth Branagh, Sarah Phelps and Father John Misty

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Hello, I'm Giles Coren. Tonight on Front Row,

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we wind the clock back to the golden age of crime fiction

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to pay homage to the genre's grande dame, Agatha Christie.

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Coming up on the show, there's A-list murder

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with actor-director Kenneth Branagh and an all-star cast

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in a new film version of Murder On The Orient Express.

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We'll be asking whether Agatha Christie's personal life

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was all it seemed on the surface.

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Nikki Bedi steps into the jury box

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as Witness For The Prosecution - Christie's classic courtroom drama

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is given a unique staging in a famous London landmark.

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And indie rock provocateur Father John Misty

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will be performing live in the studio.

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Hello, I'm Giles Coren,

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and with me in the studio to discuss magnificent moustaches,

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dastardly deeds, and the passion of Agatha Christie

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are screenwriter Sarah Phelps, and Sophie Hannah,

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the author of her own series of Hercule Poirot novels.

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Film first.

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Agatha Christie is the bestselling novelist of all time,

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her books outsold only by Shakespeare and the Bible.

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But Christie wasn't one to stay locked up in a quiet room

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with her typewriter. Many of her novels saw their beginnings

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in her frequent travels around the world.

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And perhaps her most famous was inspired

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by a particularly eventful rail journey.

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I went to find out about the latest big-screen

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manifestation of Christie's work.

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These days, many of us are all too aware

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of the frustrations of a train delay.

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But when Agatha Christie was stranded

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on the famous Orient Express by a violent storm in 1931,

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her thoughts turned, quite literally, to murder.

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Her resulting novel, Murder On The Orient Express,

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has been adapted for the cinema for the first time in over 40 years

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by actor and director Kenneth Branagh.

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A passenger has died.

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He was murdered.

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The murderer is on the train

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with us now.

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And every one of you is a suspect.

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When you were growing up, were you a Christie reader?

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Or did you just come to it for the sake of making the film?

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My mother decided, in her early 50s, she started working

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in a charity shop, she'd sort of retired from full-time work,

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and she kept bringing home the books,

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the second-hand books that would be sort of recycled.

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One of them was Murder On The Orient Express.

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Agatha Christie, she seemed to unleash these primal passions

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that were very, very engaging, if you're interested in drama.

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You're the world-famous detective.

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Hercule Poirot.

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Avenger of the innocent. Is that what they call you in the papers?

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And you are innocent?

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HE CHUCKLES

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You're fun.

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We wanted to embrace Agatha Christie's universe.

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She's a much-travelled woman.

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She sets out spectacular landscapes.

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We wanted to announce our entry

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into an Agatha Christie cinematic world

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before we go on this...this journey that we invite you to...

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..to feel, to feel the linen, sort of hear the champagne popping,

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and once that's established, the performances can be a little

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more contained, and a little more unsettled.

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-POIROT:

-You know, there is something about that tangle of strangers,

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pressed together for days with nothing in common but the need to

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go from one place to another and never see each other again.

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She's done something in Murder On The Orient Express

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where she keeps alive 12, or you might argue 15 characters,

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keeps and audience guessing about who they might be.

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Just orchestrating that number of characters is very

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impressive as a novelist, and then she seems to ignite something

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that goes, I think, at least beyond mere entertainment

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in the sense of simply a drawing room mystery.

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The berth was occupied by Signor Foscarelli.

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Oh, yes, sir. The Italian person.

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Christie's butler was played in 1974 by John Gielgud,

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and has now been revived by the similarly-revered thespian

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Derek Jacobi.

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Got everything?

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Kind of you to enquire, Mr McQueen, but I do not make mistakes.

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It's not the same kind of performance,

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cos Ken didn't want Masterman to be posh.

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And, now, John is, has always been very, very posh.

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So, in that sense, I didn't follow in John's footsteps.

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Jacobi is joined on screen by an astounding cast

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of international A-listers,

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every one of them a suspect,

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including our own Olivia Colman.

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There was one scene where Michelle Pfeiffer...

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I don't know if you've heard of her, Michelle Pfeiffer,

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but she was wearing a dressing gown,

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with a turban, pinched-in waist, she just looked beautiful.

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And I had flannelette up to the neck with a little bow.

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And she went, "You look beautiful."

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-And I went, "Oh,

-BLEEP."

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But the portrayal of Christie's most uniquely styled character,

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Hercule Poirot, was left up to Branagh himself.

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Once the moustache was arrived at, and the clothes and everything,

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I found myself walking, leaning forward,

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that he was a sort of bloodhound.

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It was as if he was on the front of a car or a boat or something.

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But at the same time, in repose, it really felt

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as though he could watch very, very carefully what was going on

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and we could allow for a contemplative part of him

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that maybe didn't exist before.

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But what about when you were directing?

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You didn't take the moustache off, did you?

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I... I did not, no.

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403, take one.

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What I used to do was, if we were doing a scene like this,

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we might talk about, "Giles, this is brilliant,

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"maybe you want to do this or that or da, da, da..."

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Then I'd look in a mirror to just remind myself...

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-BELGIAN ACCENT:

-"Oh, he is there as well."

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And now, I'd come back and be ready to do that.

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My name is Hercule Poirot,

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and I am probably the greatest detective in the world.

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And what about David Suchet?

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What about his shadow?

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Did you have to do something to sort of exorcise that?

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No, just simply tip your hat to a magnificent actor,

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a wonderful, wonderful Poirot. He's just...

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As is Finney, as is Ustinov,

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I understand Orson Welles played it, Charles Laughton played it,

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the very first actor to play Poirot

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was an actor called Austin Trevor from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

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So I felt there was a little circular work was going on, there.

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But, no, with rich material, there is, I think, room for all.

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The murderer is with us.

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On the train.

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Now.

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We all had a really, genuinely, as you said,

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it felt like a big, old-fashioned theatre company.

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Yes, it really did.

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-And a lot of that came from Ken.

-Really... Yes.

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You know, he's remarkable in that.

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Because he keeps a wonderful atmosphere on the set.

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An atmosphere of relaxed tension.

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There's a suggestion towards the end of the film that

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Kenneth Branagh's Death On The Nile may not be a million miles away.

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You're going to have... One of the problems is

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the only contiguous character is you, isn't it?

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All of these wonderful actors you've just had,

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they'll have to go in the next one.

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Well, Judi Dench said, no, she said, "If you ever do another one,

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"we just recast us." She said,

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"Have it like a theatrical repertory company, and we come back,"

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she said, "I'll play a bloke in the next one, if you like.

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What will you do when you run out of the ones in exotic locations,

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of which there aren't many, and get to these ones which take place

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in little country houses in the south-west?

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There's a brilliant one amongst many,

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The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd, which does take place

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in the English countryside,

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but has this sort of titanic kind of passion underneath it

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that I think makes a point that she makes -

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listen, you can be in the Nile, you can be in Mesopotamia, you can

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be on the Orient Express, or you can be, as it were, in Cheam...

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But there's no boat to take you away from yourself, and if yourself

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is some dark and tortured character who may resort to violence, then...

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the truth will out.

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So, you've both seen the film.

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How was it for you, Sarah?

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This was the first Agatha Christie adaptation, apart from my own,

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that I've ever seen the whole way through.

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It's huge, it's a massive, immersive experience,

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and mine are small screen but...

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So it was like readjusting to a totally different thing.

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How about you? Were you immersed in it?

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Oh, yeah.

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I mean, it was incredibly beautiful and luxuriant,

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like Poirot's moustaches.

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And it was a bit controversial in some circles,

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some people thought it wasn't the right kind of moustache,

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but Agatha Christie always made a point of saying

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that Poirot's moustache was meant to be

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over the top and really impressive

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and not an ordinary moustache. So, I loved that.

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And, having seen all the Poirots,

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you know, Albert Finney and David Suchet, and Peter Ustinov,

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and loving them all in different ways,

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I thought Kenneth Branagh was a superb Poirot.

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-So did I, so did I.

-Absolutely wonderful.

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He really felt like a real, proper Poirot.

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Murder On The Orient Express is on in cinemas nationwide,

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and a new paperback version of the novel to tie in with the film

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has just been reissued by HarperCollins.

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Now, Agatha Christie's novels still sell incredibly well.

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But where does her literary reputation stand?

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Some readers complain about what they see as her xenophobia,

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her snobbery, her general fuddy-duddy-ness.

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For a long time, Christie produced a book every year,

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advertised with the slogan, "A Christie for Christmas!"

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which doesn't exactly scream, "challenging literary masterpiece".

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So, do her books still hold up as great mystery fiction?

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So, Christie herself said

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that she was just writing "entertainments".

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Are they more than that or are they just puzzles?

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Well, I don't think words like "only" and "just"

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should be applied to great entertainment.

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There's no "only" or "just" about it.

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That is what novelists should be doing and that's what readers love.

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The books that readers love are the ones that are really entertaining,

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where the story is really compelling and gripping.

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Having said that, I don't think she "only" provided

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great entertainment, I think there are so many layers to her books

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and the proof of this is that if you read them

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over and over again, as I do,

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knowing every detail of the plot, on a line-by-line level,

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they are still witty and sparkling and clear

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and the prose is just brilliant.

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Is it really, though? I mean... Sarah, the prose, is it...?

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Here's the thing.

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Until I read And Then There Were None, which was, literally,

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about three, nearly four years ago,

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to adapt it for the TV, I'd never read a Christie.

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I'd never watched one, I never read one.

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I just thought, "This is not what I like."

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It's not going to be, you know,

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Colonel Mustard with a thing over here and that's over there,

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and there's a body on the floor, but no-one really cares,

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it's just a catalyst for some really clever plotting.

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It's a parlour game.

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And then I read And Then There Were None - it blew me away.

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Its savagery. Its savagery, how remorseless it is.

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And you can read it on one level, it is a really clever plot.

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It's a beautiful locked-room mystery. It's a parlour game.

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But, you can also read it as a portrait of a psychopath,

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as a disquisition into the nature of guilt,

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and it's actually quite subversive.

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And I found it really rocked me how intense it was,

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how nasty it was, how brutal it was. And I loved it.

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Sophie, is the plotting at the expense of character?

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I went back and read Murder On The Orient Express

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for the purposes of watching this film, and I just saw ciphers.

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I didn't see depth in each character.

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No, I would strongly disagree with that.

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So, yes, the plotting is amazing,

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and in terms of space on the page,

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the plotting takes up a lot of space.

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It is very much to the fore,

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the bone structure of the story is very prominent,

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but the characterisation and the depth and the layers,

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and the knowledge and wisdom about human nature, it's all there.

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Now, the reason you might perceive the characters as ciphers,

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at least, initially, is that the three-dimensionalness

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cannot be apparent straightaway,

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because the detective, whether it's Poirot or Miss Marple,

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is encountering these people who are presenting themselves,

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and in the case of the murderer,

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the murderer is presenting him or herself dishonestly,

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so as not to get caught.

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So, it's absolutely essential and inherent to the requirements

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of the genre that they should SEEM to be surface.

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But...

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And then at the end, the third dimension,

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that's when we really know who people are.

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I've only really read the ones where there isn't a sleuth.

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I'm kind of interested in the ones where no-one comes along

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and sort of parcels it up and tells you what happened.

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I like it that there's no-one there to sort it out.

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And I think that what she is is actually tricksy.

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I think that she drops in tiny little clues

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for how you can read character, what you can take from this.

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So, if you want to, you can read it as, this is a plot,

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it's over there, it's over there.

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Oh, my God, that's a twist! Oh, my God, that's clever!

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Or, if you want to, if you... You can really drop a taproot down

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into some tiny little clue and see where that takes you.

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I think that they're... Or maybe that's just the way I read them.

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Maybe that's just the way my appalling mind works,

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-but that's how I read them.

-Well, you both modernise Agatha Christie

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in your own ways. You've written new Poirot novels.

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You've made staggeringly new reappraisals of them for the screen.

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But what's the enduring appeal of her books?

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Because they clearly have it, they still sell enormously.

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Is it just a nostalgia thing?

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The reason Agatha Christie has sold billions

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and is still the most popular bestselling, and I believe,

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the best, crime writer there's ever been is because, you know,

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contrary to some of what you're saying,

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I honestly think she was brilliant on so many levels.

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But the sort of powerful awareness of evil

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and how likely we all are to,

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in some way, be harmed by evil,

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and all those big themes,

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and just sort of insight into the human condition,

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-you cannot beat Agatha Christie.

-I think that.

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And I think it's about what, you know, there's always a sense of,

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you could be sitting next to somebody who is,

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in fact, a murderer. Or, in fact, the beast is you.

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That's what I like about it.

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We don't know what our own capacity is.

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And sometimes when you're reading her, you know,

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again this might be just me and my appalling mind,

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but I think that she seems to be suggesting

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that murder's actually quite a good idea sometimes?

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-Well...

-Which really intrigues me, and...

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The whole thing about nostalgia,

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we like to think about, oh, this safe little past,

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and how nice it all is. It's full of blood and tumult!

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But I also think one of the things that people love about it

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is not the murder, or even the mystery,

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they like watching people lie.

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And if you want more Christie, then Sarah's latest adaptation,

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this time of the thriller Ordeal By Innocence,

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starring Bill Nighy and Anna Chancellor,

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will be shown on BBC One later this year.

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Next, theatre.

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Now, if I asked you to name an Agatha Christie play,

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-you would almost certainly say... CREW:

-The Mousetrap!

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Exactly. Which has been running in London's West End for over 700 years

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and sets new box-office records every day.

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But it was actually her courtroom drama,

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Witness For The Prosecution that first made her

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a star of the theatre when it opened to rave reviews in 1953

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and it remained Christie's proudest achievement as a dramatist.

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64 years later, a new production of Witness For The Prosecution

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has opened on London's Southbank.

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But will this play, set in the 1950s,

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have the same appeal to a modern audience?

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We sent Nikki Bedi to get the verdict.

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I put it to you, as they say in courtroom dramas,

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that a lot of the appeal for Agatha Christie today

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lies in nostalgia,

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in our fondness for a time long gone by and if that's the case,

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then this new production of Witness For The Prosecution

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is off to a flying start because it's taking place here

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in this magnificent building, County Hall in London,

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which doubles for the Old Bailey

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where much of the play's action takes place.

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Wow!

0:15:290:15:30

It's hard not to be impressed

0:15:300:15:32

when you come through these doors as we, the audience,

0:15:320:15:36

take our seats in the actual courtroom,

0:15:360:15:38

or, even better, a place in the jury

0:15:380:15:41

and you can do that if you pay a bit more for the privilege.

0:15:410:15:45

-GAVEL BANGS

-All rise.

0:15:460:15:47

Without giving too much away,

0:15:470:15:49

this is the story of the trial of Leonard Vole,

0:15:490:15:52

a young man accused of murdering a wealthy older woman

0:15:520:15:56

who faces the death penalty if found guilty.

0:15:560:15:59

So will you both, first of all, tell me who you are

0:16:000:16:03

and which characters you play?

0:16:030:16:04

I'm playing Romaine Vole who is Leonard Vole's wife.

0:16:040:16:08

She's the only person who can supply an alibi as to where

0:16:080:16:12

he was the night of the murder.

0:16:120:16:14

I play Leonard Vole who has allegedly murdered an older lady.

0:16:150:16:18

-Ooh!

-We will see.

0:16:180:16:21

Perhaps your memory as to other parts of your story

0:16:220:16:24

is equally untrustworthy.

0:16:240:16:25

You originally told the police that the blood on the jacket

0:16:250:16:28

came from a cut caused by a slip when carving ham.

0:16:280:16:31

-I said so, yes, but it was not true.

-More lies. Why did you lie?

0:16:310:16:35

I said what Leonard told me to say.

0:16:350:16:37

The truth... The truth is that

0:16:370:16:38

Leonard cut himself with the knife to make it seem the blood was his.

0:16:380:16:42

-I did not. I didn't.

-Be quiet.

0:16:420:16:44

And does it feel any different for you

0:16:440:16:46

as the character of Leonard when you're in the courtroom?

0:16:460:16:49

Do you think, as an actor, it lends something more?

0:16:490:16:52

It definitely helps us out because it's such a imposing space

0:16:520:16:56

that it's difficult not to feel intimidated

0:16:560:17:00

when the lights are on you, you've got the judge looking down at you.

0:17:000:17:02

You're very close to the audience - is that ever off-putting?

0:17:020:17:06

We're lucky in the sense that the audience here are so close,

0:17:060:17:09

so much closer than they would be in a West End theatre

0:17:090:17:11

and they can see a lot of things that are going on with the actors.

0:17:110:17:14

The question the jury must ask themselves is were you lying then...

0:17:140:17:18

SHOUTING: ..or are you lying now?!

0:17:180:17:20

I was afraid of Leonard.

0:17:210:17:24

Witness For The Prosecution has been adapted many times over the years,

0:17:250:17:30

but probably the most famous version is Billy Wilder's 1957 film

0:17:300:17:35

starring Charles Laughton and Marlene Dietrich.

0:17:350:17:38

And when the police questioned you about this wretched man

0:17:390:17:42

who believes himself married and loved, you told them?

0:17:420:17:45

I told them what Leonard wanted me to say.

0:17:450:17:47

You told them that he was at home with you at 25 minutes past nine

0:17:470:17:51

and now you say that that was a lie.

0:17:510:17:53

Yes, a lie.

0:17:530:17:55

-So what's this latest production based on?

-We're doing the play.

0:17:550:18:00

There's no adaptation. So we're trying to remain absolutely faithful

0:18:000:18:03

to the play that Agatha wrote in the '50s,

0:18:030:18:05

which is to be celebrated in some ways

0:18:050:18:07

because, I think, so much of her work has been adapted.

0:18:070:18:10

Did you have to think about updating it in any way or is it

0:18:100:18:13

exactly as it was meant to be?

0:18:130:18:15

No, we really placed it in the '50s.

0:18:150:18:17

I mean, she originally wrote it in the '30s, late '20s, early '30s.

0:18:170:18:20

-Late '20s, yeah.

-So she has herself updated it

0:18:200:18:23

and has clearly felt that the subject matter was still resonant,

0:18:230:18:26

just as we have found by doing it today -

0:18:260:18:28

it is still resonant, we're still fascinated by these issues of guilt,

0:18:280:18:33

innocence, and our own subjectivity.

0:18:330:18:35

And there's a twist, isn't there?

0:18:350:18:38

Yes, there's not just one. There's one, two, three, four.

0:18:380:18:42

I think there's four twists.

0:18:420:18:43

And now everyone's going to be trying to second-guess the play

0:18:430:18:46

by thinking, "Oh, this..." By trying to look for the next twist,

0:18:460:18:49

but I promise you, you won't get there.

0:18:490:18:51

So I have been given the privilege and the opportunity to be

0:18:510:18:55

part of the jury and, apparently, they actually swear you in.

0:18:550:18:58

I swear by Almighty God that I will faithfully try the defendant

0:19:000:19:04

and give a true verdict according to the evidence.

0:19:040:19:07

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

0:19:070:19:09

My Lord, members of the jury, I cannot say that this young man,

0:19:100:19:14

the prisoner Leonard Vole, has no case to answer. There is a case.

0:19:140:19:17

You feel absolutely like you are part of the jury.

0:19:170:19:22

The judge turns round and locks eyes with you.

0:19:220:19:26

I felt that I was truly responsible for that man's life.

0:19:260:19:32

Will the foreman of the jury please stand?

0:19:320:19:34

-Members of the jury, are you all agreed upon a verdict?

-We are.

0:19:350:19:40

And do you find the prisoner, Leonard Vole, guilty or not guilty?

0:19:400:19:45

I don't know what to say.

0:19:500:19:51

Agatha Christie's biographer Janet Morgan has joined us

0:19:510:19:53

in the meantime and we'll be speaking to her in a second,

0:19:530:19:56

but first, Sophie, how was that production for you?

0:19:560:19:59

-Being in County Hall, how did it feel?

-Oh, it was amazing,

0:19:590:20:05

and the play is brilliant.

0:20:050:20:07

Agatha Christie adapted it slightly from her original short story

0:20:070:20:11

and I personally prefer the play version to the short story version.

0:20:110:20:15

I think she does something, without giving any spoilers,

0:20:150:20:18

she does something to the story that makes it even better

0:20:180:20:21

and it is an amazing play. It's just brilliant.

0:20:210:20:25

And why does she adapt so well for theatre?

0:20:250:20:28

I mean, there she's adapting herself, but why is it?

0:20:280:20:30

I don't know, because I adapted the short story

0:20:300:20:32

for when I did Witness For The Prosecution.

0:20:320:20:35

I preferred the short story, so later on

0:20:350:20:36

me and Sophie are going to have a fight about that.

0:20:360:20:38

I found it richer and more suggestive

0:20:380:20:41

and more provocative than I found the play when I read it,

0:20:410:20:44

but I've only read the play rather than seen it.

0:20:440:20:46

We'll take it outside later. There may be blood on the floor.

0:20:460:20:48

There's going to be blood. We're going to fight.

0:20:480:20:50

Witness For The Prosecution is on

0:20:500:20:52

at London's County Hall until March 2018.

0:20:520:20:54

Now, Agatha Christie has often been criticised for writing rather

0:20:540:20:59

cliched female characters, dim-witted maids

0:20:590:21:01

and secretaries, mysterious countesses and ditzy flappers,

0:21:010:21:05

but she also created witty, perceptive female detectives

0:21:050:21:07

who not only kept up with the boys but often outran them.

0:21:070:21:11

This mirrored Christie's own unconventional life and personality.

0:21:110:21:14

Despite holding traditional views on marriage and family,

0:21:140:21:17

she was fiercely independent.

0:21:170:21:18

We're joined by her biographer Janet Morgan. Hello, Janet.

0:21:180:21:22

-Now, we have this impression...

-It's wrong.

-It's wrong, is it?

0:21:220:21:27

What's wrong with it?

0:21:270:21:29

She's not just a quaint little old lady bashing away

0:21:290:21:31

at her typewriter in Torquay?

0:21:310:21:33

It's putting her into a sort of collective

0:21:330:21:35

group of women like that, of that era.

0:21:350:21:38

There's a terrific photograph of her roller-skating on the pier

0:21:380:21:42

in Torquay wearing a hat with feathers and long skirts

0:21:420:21:45

and with a whole lot of other girls wearing the same sort of clothes.

0:21:450:21:49

When she... But underneath that carapace

0:21:490:21:52

was somebody who was spirited -

0:21:520:21:55

the granddaughter of two really fierce, forceful grandmothers

0:21:550:21:59

and their witty, amusing, determined friends,

0:21:590:22:03

a mother who took Agatha up in the first aeroplane flight that

0:22:030:22:06

was available in Torquay.

0:22:060:22:08

Although money was a bit scarce, Agatha had a childhood

0:22:080:22:12

when, as she said, you did what you like. She read what she wanted.

0:22:120:22:15

She developed a profession at which she stuck

0:22:150:22:20

and when there were opportunities, like the surfing,

0:22:200:22:23

she always adored sea bathing, when she...

0:22:230:22:25

-Surfing? Tell me... When you say surfing...

-She was standing up.

0:22:250:22:29

-No?!

-It says somewhere she was the first woman to surf standing up.

0:22:290:22:31

How on earth does one know that? Surely, there must have been...

0:22:310:22:34

She was the first woman to say, "Surfers do it standing up."

0:22:340:22:36

-She was in a position to...

-She's the first woman we know

0:22:360:22:39

who surfed standing up called Agatha Christie.

0:22:390:22:41

But she still thought that a woman's place was in the home, didn't she?

0:22:410:22:44

I don't think she did.

0:22:440:22:45

She said when she married her second husband, the archaeologist,

0:22:450:22:49

15 years younger than herself, that she'd be like a faithful dog,

0:22:490:22:55

because she loved dogs, but she would not be a dog on a lead.

0:22:550:22:58

And then there's this exhibition of letters that's on at her former home

0:22:580:23:02

-in South Devon.

-In Greenway.

-What do we learn from these letters?

0:23:020:23:06

Well, many of the letters, I have some here...

0:23:060:23:09

Many of the letters are the sort of letters that perhaps not you,

0:23:090:23:12

but authors like me often feel like writing to their publisher.

0:23:120:23:16

In fact, I rather overdid that in this book.

0:23:160:23:18

"Authors don't just seem to matter and get pushed around.

0:23:180:23:21

"My new book here at the stationer's window.

0:23:210:23:24

"I have no book sent to me, never been told the date of publication."

0:23:240:23:27

Arguments about the cover...

0:23:270:23:29

"..Writing a very angry letter to my agent.

0:23:290:23:32

"I do think you're treating your authors disgracefully."

0:23:320:23:35

Now, of course, she was extremely valuable to her publisher

0:23:350:23:39

and remains so, but this was a personal effusion.

0:23:390:23:44

She minded enormously.

0:23:440:23:46

But this is also fascinating at a time when, still,

0:23:460:23:49

she was encouraged by her family to publish anonymously to begin with,

0:23:490:23:52

when women novelists where a relative rarity, that she

0:23:520:23:55

was that vociferous with her publishers and that demanding.

0:23:550:23:58

Do you think that sort of attitude feeds into her female characters?

0:23:580:24:02

To be perfectly honest,

0:24:020:24:03

before I actually read one of these books, I would've said,

0:24:030:24:06

"Oh, it's ditsy and dumb and dim-witted," but you read it

0:24:060:24:10

and in And Then There Were None, Vera Claythorne is an absolutely

0:24:100:24:13

cold-as-ice child murderer.

0:24:130:24:15

You get totally drawn into her perspective and totally drawn

0:24:150:24:18

into her world and totally drawn into the fact that she doesn't

0:24:180:24:21

actually really mind about the fact that she's killed a kid.

0:24:210:24:25

What she minds is that she's been caught,

0:24:250:24:27

that she's going to have to face the music.

0:24:270:24:29

Sophie, what about the female detectives? How do they strike you?

0:24:290:24:34

Well, I mean, I think it's a bit weird that we're talking

0:24:340:24:37

about her female characters.

0:24:370:24:38

You know, I think she wrote women characters

0:24:380:24:42

just as if they were people, as they are, so anything I would say about

0:24:420:24:47

her female characters, I'd say about her male characters as well.

0:24:470:24:50

I think she wrote brilliant, multi-dimensional characters

0:24:500:24:54

who were capable of great evil,

0:24:540:24:56

great self-deception, also great acts of kindness.

0:24:560:24:59

-She just wrote human characters.

-And what about Miss Marple?

0:24:590:25:04

Miss Marple is a genius creation.

0:25:040:25:07

She appears to be this little sweet old lady,

0:25:070:25:10

but she's actually quite misanthropic.

0:25:100:25:13

She has no illusions about people and what they're capable of

0:25:130:25:16

and she has many conversations with her old lady friends where they

0:25:160:25:19

say things like, "Oh, Jane, you do tend to think the worst of people."

0:25:190:25:23

And she goes, "Yes, well, the worst is usually true, dear."

0:25:230:25:26

So she's absolutely clear...

0:25:260:25:28

Is she the closest thing to an Agatha Christie consciousness

0:25:280:25:30

inside the novels?

0:25:300:25:32

Yes, but I don't think she saw herself

0:25:320:25:34

as manifesting herself in that way through the characters.

0:25:340:25:37

Her plots are puzzles and here are these people who, yes,

0:25:370:25:41

absolutely...she believed in evil, did Agatha Christie,

0:25:410:25:46

as does Miss Marple.

0:25:460:25:47

There is evil, and good can then come in

0:25:470:25:50

and fortunately put everything straight again.

0:25:500:25:53

-Let's hope.

-Thank heavens for that.

0:25:530:25:54

Agatha Christie's personal letters to her longstanding publisher

0:25:540:25:57

Billy Collins are now on permanent display at Christie's former home

0:25:570:26:00

Greenway in Devon and Janet Morgan's biography of Agatha Christie

0:26:000:26:03

has recently been reissued by HarperCollins.

0:26:030:26:06

That's it for our current series of Front Row,

0:26:060:26:08

but we're back with a Turner Prize special on 2nd December.

0:26:080:26:10

Thank you to my guests

0:26:100:26:12

Sophie Hannah, Sarah Phelps, and Janet Morgan.

0:26:120:26:14

If you want information and details about anything

0:26:140:26:16

we've been talking about, do head to our website

0:26:160:26:18

and of course there's arts, news, and reviews

0:26:180:26:20

every weeknight on Radio 4's Front Row at 7.15.

0:26:200:26:23

I leave you with Father John Misty performing

0:26:230:26:26

When The God Of Love Returns There'll Be Hell to Pay

0:26:260:26:28

from his latest album Pure Comedy.

0:26:280:26:31

Good night.

0:26:310:26:32

# When the god of love returns

0:26:440:26:48

# There'll be hell to pay

0:26:500:26:54

# And though the world may be out of excuses

0:26:560:27:01

# I know just what I would say

0:27:010:27:04

# Let the seven trumpets sound

0:27:070:27:12

# As a locust sky grows dark

0:27:130:27:17

# But first let's take you on a quick tour

0:27:200:27:24

# Of your creation's handiwork

0:27:240:27:28

# Barely got through the prisons and stores

0:27:340:27:38

# And the pale horse looks a little sick

0:27:400:27:44

# Says, Jesus, you didn't leave a whole lot for me

0:27:470:27:50

# If this isn't hell already then tell me what the hell is?

0:27:500:27:55

# Oh, and we say it's just human

0:28:010:28:08

# Human nature

0:28:080:28:13

# This is place is savage and unjust

0:28:130:28:17

# We crawled out of the darkness

0:28:210:28:26

# And endured your impatience

0:28:260:28:30

# We're more than willing to adjust

0:28:300:28:34

# And now you've got the gall to judge us

0:28:360:28:43

# We just want light in the dark

0:28:570:29:02

# And some warmth in the cold

0:29:040:29:07

# And to make something out of nothing

0:29:100:29:16

# Sounds like someone else I know. #

0:29:170:29:21

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