Guest Post: Behind the Scenes of an Agatha Christie Film Review by Teresa Peschel

    Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from the author for blog posting purposes on this blog. No compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it. All opinions are my own

AGATHA CHRISTIE,SHE WATCHED by Teresa Peschel 

April 6 - May 15, 2026 Virtual Book Tour

Bill and I — I insist on giving him co-credit because I wouldn’t have my two review books without him, and it was his idea, anyway — fell into the Agatha Christie film project. We were never systematic about watching the films in order by TV series nor did we watch them in sets such as all the versions of A

Caribbean Mystery (there are four). We didn’t follow Agatha’s own chronology, beginning with The Mysterious Affair at Styles which was her first published writing of any kind back in 1920.

There are three adaptations of that novel. Nor did we systematically watch all the episodes from the TV Poirot (over 100!) followed by all the Marples (not nearly as many). We began with Crooked House (2017) because the library had a copy on display. We followed it up with ITV’s The Secret of Chimneys (2010) because Bill was annotating that novel and wanted to review it. I reviewed both films for our website. 

Since the library’s DVD of Chimneys had several more of ITV’s Miss Marple efforts, we watched them and I reviewed them. When I began writing my reviews, my research consisted of reading the novel or short story. How closely did the film follow the text? I was a purist then, especially about names. Why would a scriptwriter change Agatha’s names? There was no reason for this.

Later, I discovered that sometimes there is a legitimate reason, such as relocating the story in time and setting. The Japanese adaptation of 2015’s Appointment with Death (retitled Promise of Death) is set in postwar Japan. The names, settings, interior set designs, and wardrobe had to change. Cultural aspects such as tengu and Shinto shrines were added to suit the film for a Japanese audience. Yet that film is utterly faithful to Agatha’s novel. It’s far more faithful and much better told than David Suchet’s efforts in his version of Appointment which you’d expect to be the gold standard.

As I became more familiar with Agatha’s stories, I understood better what goes into making a film. I went deeper in my research. For Partners in Crime (1983), I not only read each Tommy & Tuppence short story each episode was based on, I learned about the once-popular mystery writers that Agatha parodied with each story. Most of those writers are completely forgotten today. But to review each TV episode properly, I had to consider was it faithful to her text and had the scriptwriter kept

the story faithful to the original writer she parodied? For each review, I discussed the original writer, their style of writing, and why you, dear reader, might want to dig them out of the library’s

dustiest shelves.

As we watched film after film and I read (or reread) story after story, I began to learn that Agatha didn’t just write contemporaries. She paid very close attention to countless tiny details. For example, in the short story “Magnolia Blossoms” (1926), filmed for The Agatha Christie Hour (1982), she mentions

a fancy French dressmaker named Caillot. There was no couture house by that name during the 1920s but there was Callot Soeurs, a French house run by a set of sisters. That’s probably who she

was thinking of, and the TV show’s costume designer put our heroine in an outstanding knockoff of a real Callot Soeurs’ gown. 

When the TV series Poirot reset 50 years of Poirot stories between 1935 to 1937, I had to learn not only what Agatha had in mind but did the script translate those pertinent details into the TV show’s new era. A prime example is Third Girl. Agatha published that novel in 1966. A contemporary, it’s laced with

references to London’s Swinging Sixties, hip working girl roommates, louche artists, and copious drug use. Could those 1966 concepts be translated to 1936? They could indeed! It turns out that 1936 working girls also shared apartments, lived fast and loose when they could get away with it, and pursued unsuitable young men.

Seeing several adaptations of the same material opened my eyes to how a change in one percolated into subsequent adaptations. The first adaptation of A Caribbean Mystery (1983), written by Sue Grafton, enlarged Mr. Rafiel’s secretary’s part to show the power of gossip. She also changed Mr. Rafiel’s

secretary’s name for no discernable reason. Those changes showed up in later version.

It's been a fascinating journey. 

When I started, I didn’t know the depths of Agatha’s writing ability. Now, I do!

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Come back on the 20th for our review of Teresa's books about Agatha's films!