- 6 days ago
Ten strangers are lured to an island near the Devon coast in Southern England.
It's 1939 and Europe teeters on the brink of war. Ten strangers are invited to Soldier Island, an isolated rock near the Devon coast in southern England. Cut off from the mainland, with their generous hosts Mr and Mrs U.N. Owen mysteriously absent, they are each accused of a terrible crime. As members of the party start to die one by one, the survivors realize that one of them is a killer and start to turn on each other.
Stars: Maeve Dermody, Charles Dance, Burn Gorman
Agatha Christie's darkest thriller
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3581932/
tt3581932
It's 1939 and Europe teeters on the brink of war. Ten strangers are invited to Soldier Island, an isolated rock near the Devon coast in southern England. Cut off from the mainland, with their generous hosts Mr and Mrs U.N. Owen mysteriously absent, they are each accused of a terrible crime. As members of the party start to die one by one, the survivors realize that one of them is a killer and start to turn on each other.
Stars: Maeve Dermody, Charles Dance, Burn Gorman
Agatha Christie's darkest thriller
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3581932/
tt3581932
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FunTranscript
00:06Well, this is a really interesting thing, as I said before.
00:10I mean, she's this extraordinary powerhouse.
00:13This extraordinary...
00:15The amount of work is absolutely phenomenal.
00:20And like I said, I didn't really know her work.
00:24I thought I knew Agatha Christie,
00:27but when I read And Then There Were None,
00:29I realised that I didn't know her at all.
00:33And there was an extraordinary mind at work,
00:35a very clever, dark, tough mind.
00:42And I think that rather than thinking of Miss Marple and English villages
00:46and there's a camp wit and there's a delight and there's a balance,
00:49actually, I wonder if it's time to really reappraise
00:54perhaps in a larger literary tradition
00:56and to actually think about And Then There Were None
00:58as being a really modernist novel.
01:01Yes, it's contained within a plot and it's a really ludic plot,
01:05it's a game, but actually within it
01:06there are some really, really tough questions.
01:09I felt very strongly...
01:10Well, so there was quite a lot of...
01:13I went in to sort of pitch to Matthew Pritchard,
01:16who's Agatha Christie's grandson,
01:17and to Hilary Strong, who is the head of Agatha Christie Ltd.
01:23my vision, as it were.
01:26I know that sounds incredibly poncy, but that's what they call it.
01:29And I felt very, very strongly that because I'd never read any Agatha Christie before
01:35and I've got friends who are mad keen devotees and have read everything
01:39and they think I'm a complete heretic and want to throw stones at me.
01:43But what really shocked me is you think you know Agatha Christie,
01:47you think you know it because you're aware of Poirot,
01:49you're aware of Marple in it, you're aware of all those great kind of film versions
01:54of Peter Eustonoff as Poirot and the great stars of, you know,
01:58the 70s and 80s doing Death on the Nile
02:00and they're really good fun and there's a campery to them.
02:04So I thought I knew what Agatha Christie was, but, and then there were none,
02:10completely blew me out of the water.
02:12So when I went in and I said what I would like to do with the novel,
02:19I was very clear that I wanted it to be set at the absolute time in which she'd written it
02:26and she wrote it in 1939.
02:29And that really struck me because it felt like that it was a book about its times
02:35without being about its times.
02:37It is the genre of like murder, mystery and everything else,
02:40but it absolutely redefines it and transcends it both at the same time.
02:45And I felt very strongly that it's 1939, it's the summer, you know,
02:49she wrote it in 1939, it was published in 1939.
02:53And here are these ten people on an island at the end of the world in the summer of 1939.
03:00We, we are a couple of weeks away from the Second World War.
03:06And this is all about, they're all products, all of these people,
03:11they're all products of the First World War, if you like.
03:14And here they are, with all the things that they've done, and the end of their world is arriving.
03:21No one's going to come and save them, no idiosyncratic little Belgian detective,
03:26no sharp-eyed English spinster, no one is going to come and save the day.
03:31They are alone with judgement for the things that they've done.
03:37And it absolutely felt like a book about its time,
03:43a book about being at this point in the 20th century.
03:47And I was incredibly sort of shocked by its brutality,
03:52and felt that when I came to adapt it, it would absolutely be set in that place.
03:58It would absolutely be an island, so that you can't see the mainland.
04:02You'd be absolutely alone, because I think that's what she's written a book about it,
04:05that you're alone with the things you've done, and judgement is coming.
04:09And it's going to be brutal, because they are in 1939,
04:13and in two weeks' time, the Second World War, World War II will be declared,
04:17and it will be brutal.
04:19That's what I kind of went in with.
04:21In some senses, and then there were none, is almost the most unique Agatha Christie.
04:27I mean, for one or two obvious reasons, it doesn't have Poirot in it,
04:32it doesn't have Miss Marple in it.
04:34So it's on dangerous ground here, but it's almost the only Agatha Christie
04:40that doesn't have a proper detective.
04:43As the story wends its way through, it solves itself at the end, almost.
04:49So it doesn't have a detective.
04:51So in that way, it's unique.
04:53I also think it's unique in that the sort of background and the motives
04:57and the whole story is probably much darker than most of my grandmother's stories,
05:07certainly than the partners in crime stories that we've just been seeing on television.
05:14And, you know, she was very proud of the story.
05:18It was technically very difficult to write, but I think when you see it,
05:23you probably won't believe that because it sort of all unfolds from one part to the next
05:29in a fairly sort of logical way.
05:31As there were none has evolved over the last 50 odd years, it has acquired a couple of different endings.
05:41And the ending that is in this particular adaptation is the one that was in the original book.
05:48So we're not talking about deviation from the original story very much, if at all.
05:52And indeed there are some bits of it that are even more explicit in the film
06:00because there are various sort of flashbacks which, although they're covered in the story,
06:07in the book, in the film, you see some of them.
06:10So that's something that is sort of quite original and unique.
06:16People often ask me sort of how these books got written.
06:20And then there were none was one of the stories, as she called them,
06:26that I think my grandmother was most proud of.
06:28And it wasn't, I think, one of those stories that just tripped off the pen
06:34because it is quite unique and very complicated to make it work
06:43so that it's even remotely credible.
06:45And, you know, whereas in quite a lot of other books,
06:48she sort of started with a solution and maybe a murderer
06:52and worked slightly backwards and then started from the beginning in a certain situation
06:57and virtually meet in the middle.
06:59I think this one she had to piece together far more.
07:04It took far longer and it was far more intricate
07:09because, obviously, you know, you can't leave any loose ends lying about.
07:16And there has to be, at the end, a credible and believable situation,
07:23not only intellectually but physically.
07:27So I think it was a particularly difficult technical detective story to write.
07:33And I think she was very proud that she actually managed to achieve it.
07:37And not only achieve it as a book and what we're going to see now as a television film,
07:45but also, of course, as a play, even if the play had a slightly different ending.
07:49But she not only managed to fool the reader, so to speak, on the written page,
07:54but also in front of her in a theatre, which I think was even more difficult.
08:01Agatha Christie's writing synonymous with the time she wrote, really.
08:06So it's murder mystery territory and she's one of the greatest murder mystery writers.
08:10So this is probably her most famous book.
08:15So it's great to be doing it again after many years of doing it from the original.
08:19I have, I think, most people have read Agatha Christie when they're growing up.
08:25I kind of think, probably the world over, it's part of your...
08:31They're just very easy to read and they're also pretty dark and scary.
08:37So I do remember, I was a big fan of hers, actually.
08:42I can't remember if I'd read and then there were none before, actually.
08:46I always remember the murder of Roger Ackroyd and things like that.
08:51But, I mean, she has a big place, you know, within the nation.
08:55But not just the UK, I mean, the world over.
08:59I don't know if, you know, in other nations, you know, when they're learning English and that kind of thing.
09:07It's just like, they are a good, easy read.
09:10And, but they're really complex as well.
09:14And she just had an amazing knack of that.
09:16And when you think, you know, that this was being written by a female and published in 1939
09:24and had so many layers to it and was so dark.
09:29I think she was probably a real character herself, which I like the idea of.
09:34You know, everyone's read Agatha Christie and what I love is the fact that you say I'm doing an Agatha
09:40Christie
09:40and everybody goes unanimously, oh, I love Agatha Christie.
09:44I've never heard anyone say, oh, I hate Agatha Christie, actually.
09:47I think she's a real character and she's a real character within our culture, really.
09:55And children read her still.
09:57My son's just read her, you know, at 12 years old.
10:01And in fact, she read this novel before I was even approached about the project.
10:08She was an extraordinary woman, really.
10:12Banging out, you know, story after story with brilliant characters and brilliant storytelling.
10:20It was really a huge feat.
10:21Yes, when I was younger, I mean, I think my Christie reading days were when I was sort of late
10:28adolescence or 16, 15, 16.
10:31I read a lot of them.
10:33But weirdly, I didn't read this one.
10:35I missed this one.
10:36If you're British, you kind of, you, Agatha Christie is so formative.
10:42If you, you know, if you read books and you watch TV, I mean, she permeates all kinds of different
10:51areas, you know.
10:53And also has become sort of pastiched and, you know, so you can't help but be aware of her and
11:00her influence.
11:02Yeah, no, I've read a lot of Agatha Christie.
11:04I got into her sort of late in life.
11:09I mean, I've seen lots of the movies and things like that, but I'd never read her.
11:14And I'm quite a crime novel aficionado, but tended to be sort of American writers.
11:22But my favourite writer, Michelle Wellerbeck, who has absolutely nothing in common with Agatha Christie.
11:29The books couldn't be more different, but he always, he mentions her in a lot of his novels and he
11:37rates her as his favourite writer and things, which is kind of surprising.
11:41But I think that's just a thing of a great writer recognising, you know, the skills of another great writer.
11:53And in a way, I mean, I think, you know, it's easy to dismiss a lot of the Christie stuff
12:01because, you know, you've got all these sort of cliches like the butler, the butler did it.
12:06And I'm not saying the butler did do it, but, you know, all those sort of things.
12:10But and there are a lot of tropes and cliches that you recognise now.
12:17But but a bit like Hitchcock, they only exist because she created them in a way.
12:22I mean, she created the murder mystery.
12:27I mean, you know, certainly, you know, people like Conan Doyle and things were around before.
12:31But but I think that the modern murder mystery detective genre, as we know it really, she she is the
12:43godmother of that.
12:45Yes, I'm familiar with the, you know, a few incarnations of that.
12:50And then there were none.
12:52But the the book I read, you know, a couple of years ago, and as a result of seeing, you
13:00know, being involved in this project, I've been sort of looking up to see what the differences are.
13:03Because there's, you know, as you know, people have changed, changed it over the years.
13:08But this one is is actually very different and hopefully will remain in people's minds for a very long time.
13:16Well, I think all of us are aware of Agatha Christie's, you know, influence on, if not the murder mystery,
13:27then the, you know, crime novel and plays and films.
13:32With a particular type of Englishness about it, her heroines and her heroes are often, you know, like Miss Marple
13:42and, you know, Poirot, very complicated, but also quite normal people.
13:49You know, you know, Miss Marple could be the old granny on the street, as it were.
13:54In terms of her influence, I think that, you know, coming to a script written by Sarah Phelps, you know,
14:02is actually a fresh, you know, imagining of Christie's works.
14:07And yet still, you know, adhering to her extremely complex and diabolical, in some senses, plots.
14:16What I've got to remember about this when I'm doing it is that this is a terrible, murderous plot where
14:26lots and lots of people die in very gruesome ways.
14:29And at the end of the day, I think the difference with this adaption is that some of that darkness
14:35really comes through, you know, that's what appealed to me about it anyway.
14:39I think her place is right up at the top of a very long list of good English writers.
14:48That's what we're good at. I mean, we have a literary heritage in this country, deservedly so.
14:55And Agatha Christie's name is way up there, way up.
15:00It is curious. There's such a long-standing fascination that the English have and English writers with mysteries and murder
15:14mysteries and toa.
15:16I hadn't read the book. I didn't know the book in the past. I only knew of the title and
15:24also various non-PC permutations of that title,
15:28which seemed to have nothing to do with Agatha Christie because I believe it was always known as And Then
15:34There Were None.
15:39So what I did was read the book, even though we're playing the script, which is a marvellous script by
15:46Sarah Phelps, but it's always a nice thing to do.
15:50Because I wasn't so familiar, apart from what everybody knows from watching television, which is not the same as reading
15:59the books,
16:00I suppose I have got that skewed idea that's just like guilty pleasure and sit down and there will be
16:08a resolution of something,
16:11a story with a resolution, which is pretty satisfying. Anyway, you know, beginning, a middle and an end.
16:17And I think, I think I always think of her portrait. It's a very particular photograph of her in her
16:23pearls and her hair done just so.
16:25And I suppose it's a bit like Miss Marple. You look at this rather benign creature and just think,
16:35how did she think up all this stuff and present present this face to the world?
16:42But I mean, I'm hugely admiring of it. And we sort of take her for granted, but she's, she's an
16:51icon and so prolific.
16:55I mean, there are, there are many crime writers, there are many women crime writers, but I think they've all
17:00taken their inspiration from her.
17:05I think, when I think of Agatha Christie, I just think hugely successful author and a name that everyone knows.
17:13When I say, when I say her name to people, like just friends and family, when I go, I'm working
17:19on her and then there were none.
17:20Oh, it's, it's one of Agatha Christie's novels. Oh, Agatha Christie, I mean, they just, everyone knows her.
17:25I think, and it's one of those things where it's not just in England, it does seem to be globally
17:29in America.
17:30And she's a very international writer in the sense that I think she's one of the authors who's been translated
17:36into almost more languages than anyone else.
17:39So she has a huge, broad appeal in that sense. There's just something in her writing that obviously captures people's
17:46imaginations and makes them want to read her books over and over again.
17:50Well, I mean, I remember as a kid watching a lot, a lot of Agatha Christie when it came on
17:53TV.
17:53And I mean, there was always, for me as well, there's a sense of, I can rewatch a lot of
17:58them.
17:59I mean, knowing initially who the murderer is going to be was always a comfort for me early on when
18:04you know, even if you've seen it a couple of times,
18:07just knowing that that's the guy and he's going to get his comeuppance, you know, something's going to happen.
18:12As a kid, there was just a sense of, I don't know, warmth and security in that, you know, knowing
18:18the result of something.
18:20But yeah, I mean, she's a British, you know, institution and I got to see him all as a kid
18:26through the BBC in Ireland.
18:28So I mean, it's odd for an Irishman to be playing a role like this in such a famous story,
18:35but thrilling nonetheless.
18:37I had no idea, to be honest, about what, how significant this book was.
18:44I was cast very last minute. I was cast two days before we had the read through and I was
18:50in Burma, Myanmar of all places.
18:55I quickly caught up. I read the book in the first couple of weeks of filming, which is not ideal.
19:01It freaked me out quite a bit. But no, and obviously, as soon as I sort of was offered it,
19:07I looked it up and saw that it was such a huge event.
19:11And things like, I went and bought a copy at reading, oh, where did I go? Waterstones, I guess.
19:18And just that there's a whole section for Agatha Christie.
19:20I mean, I knew, of course, I knew that she's such an icon, but I'm, in Australia, not so, you
19:27know, we know her as a sort of British literary icon rather than, we don't, I don't think we tend
19:33to have such a relationship to her work.
19:38But learning about it has been wonderful in terms of, I mean, she just seems like such a brilliant woman.
19:45Her, her rigour and her, her output and, I mean, incredible. That's incredible.
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