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Airdate: The Seven Dials Mystery, Sparkling Cyanide

Plus The Secret Adversary, Partners in Crime on Acorn TV.

Four Agatha Christie mysteries, The Secret Adversary, Partners in Crime, The Seven Dials Mystery and Sparkling Cyanide screen on Acorn TV this month.

Monday 11 January

Spirited dialogue, posh Roaring Twenties style and devious mysteries abound as Francesca Annis (Jane Eyre, Marple) and James Warwick (Doctor Who, Murder She Wrote) star in Agatha Christie’s tales of crime-solving couple Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. The feature-length prequel, The Secret Adversary, introduces the detective duo while Partners in Crime finds Tommy and Tuppence newly married and turning pro, as they launch their International Detective Agency. A master and mistress of disguise with a reputation amongst bellboys everywhere for being the worst tippers in town, they undertake a vast array of cases from missing persons and haunted houses, through smuggling, thievery, connivance, skullduggery and, of course, murder.

Monday, 18 January

In The Seven Dials Mystery, a lavish weekend party in a venerable old house promises to be
frightfully jolly. Punting and pranks top the agenda until one morning a late sleeper doesn’t wake up at all. Another death, whispers of a secret society called the Seven Dials and stolen state secrets thicken the plot. Feisty Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent (Cheryl Campbell, Midsomer Murders, Foyle’s War) runs her roadster right into the middle of the mystery and teams up with the charming “man about town” Jimmy Thesiger (James Warwick) to find the fiends. Full of sly Christie wit, this ingenious mystery also features Sir John Gielgud (Arthur, Murder on the Orient Express) in top form as Bundle’s distracted but indulgent father.

In the contemporary 2003 adaptation of Sparkling Cyanide, Agatha Christie’s classic mystery
novel is updated and relocated to a glamorous world of London socialites and secret agents.
Directed by Tristram Powell (Foyle’s War), it stars Pauline Collins (Upstairs, Downstairs, Doctor
Who, The Time of their Lives) and Oliver Ford Davies (Sense and Sensibility, Rosemary & Thyme,
Marple) as two unique and compelling investigators who take us through to the highest
corridors of power.

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