David Walliams to star as BBC bags Agatha Christie drama deal

Corporation's contract with Christie estate will bring new series and documentaries coinciding with author's 125th anniversaryDavid Walliams will star in a new Agatha Christie adaptation on BBC1 under a new deal to bring some of the author's best-known works to the small screen in the 125th anniversary year of the author's birth.The BBC has screened many Christie works in the past but the author has been associated with ITV for the past two decades, with its take on Miss Marple and its long-running Poirot series, starring David Suchet, which ended last year.Walliams will star in a six-part series set in the 1950s, Partners in Crime, an adaptation of two Christie books featuring married sleuths Tommy and Tuppence, The Secret Adversary and N or M.The Christie deal will also see a new three-part adaptation of And Then There Were None, Christie's most successful work which has sold more than 100m copies. Adapted by Sarah Phelps, it will be the centrepiece of its Christmas schedule in 2015."It is our ambition for Tommy and Tuppence to finally take their rightful place alongside Poirot and Marple as iconic Agatha Christie characters," said Walliams. "They are among Christie's very best work."Ben Stephenson, the BBC's controller, drama commissioning, said he hoped the new adaptations would return Christie to "the pantheon of truly great British writers" and added he was in discussion with the Christie estate about a "huge variety of things". The Christie adaptations will also be... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2014-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BBC digital news operation must be curbed, say newspaper publishers

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Rights Deals Are Key to Rio International Book Fair for Americans

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The BBC is vying for viewers when what it really needs is friends

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Book Deals: Week of August 31, 2015

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Bear story to be Walliams’ next picture book

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BBC's Nick Robinson attacks 'bullying' over Scottish referendum coverage

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'BBC warned George Osborne it would have to axe BBC2 and BBC4 due to cuts'

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Peter James and Pan Mac sign new five-book deal

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Top 10 Reads from Yale Book Publishing Course All-Stars

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