As with any classic whodunnit, viewers may often find themselves trying to work out from the very start who the culprit may be, especially once the murder has occurred – but things weren't so simple in the first instalment of Agatha Christie's Towards Zero.
Ad
The new three-part series follows divorced couple Nevile and Audrey Strange as they decide to spend the summer together, but tensions run high when Nevile's new wife Kay arrives.
This is Agatha Christie after all and soon there is a murder, but as viewers will know, that didn't happen in tonight's episode and there was good reason for it.
During a recent Q&A, director Sam Yates explained: "It’s a 'who's going to do it?' that becomes a whodunnit, so before anyone's died, you're thinking, 'Who could murder?' and hopefully you're looking at everyone, feeling that everyone has a motive, and then later on in the series, it clicks into perhaps a more familiar whodunnit mode."
The cast of Agatha Christie's Towards Zero. BBC
There are a wealth of characters in Towards Zero and as with any murder mystery, everyone seemingly has a motive, with viewers being introduced to the likes of Lady Tressilian (Anjelica Huston), Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), Audrey Strange (Ella Lily Hyland) and Kay Elliot (Mimi Keene), among others.
And for James Prichard, executive producer for Agatha Christie Ltd and Christie's great grandson, it was important to get the tone of the murder across seriously to audiences,
"I learned a lot from the films we did with Sarah Phelps, who wrote four or five of these adaptations – she came to the books not really knowing Agatha Christie and she sensed that there was a seriousness to them, and there's a darkness to them," said Prichard at the Q&A.
He continued: "If I have one thing that I feel we have done over the last 10 years, it is get that sense of seriousness with Agatha Christie back again.
Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Nevile Strange and Ella Lily Hyland as Audrey Strange. Mammoth Screen/James Pardon
"I think you can tell from all the people [involved in Towards Zero] – and all the people in shows and the films and the plays that we've done recently – that serious people are taking Agatha Christie seriously again."
As with any murder, it is serious, but in this series there is the balance of humour and "serious things".
"The murders aren’t bloody or gory, she didn't believe in that, but they matter, and I think that also makes a difference," Prichard explained.
"You know, at some point someone's going to die in this, and it's going to matter, and the person who did it shouldn't have. You don't get away with murder in Agatha Christie – or there's one book where you do, but that is the exception."
Katelyn Mensah is the Senior Entertainment Writer for Radio Times, covering all major entertainment programmes, reality TV shows and the latest hard-hitting documentaries. She previously worked at The Tab, with a focus on reality TV and showbiz news and has obtained a BA (Hons) in Journalism.
Morgan Jeffery is the Digital Editor for Radio Times, overseeing all editorial output across the brand's digital platforms. He was previously TV Editor at Digital Spy and has featured as a TV expert on BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 5 Live and Sky Atlantic.
