And Then There Were None (TV series)

And Then There Were None is a 2015 mystery thriller television serial that was first broadcast on BBC One from 26 to 28 December 2015. The three-part programme was adapted by Sarah Phelps and directed by Craig Viveiros and is based on Agatha Christie's 1939 novel of the same name.[1][2][3] The series features an ensemble cast, including Douglas Booth, Charles Dance, Maeve Dermody, Burn Gorman, Anna Maxwell Martin, Sam Neill, Miranda Richardson, Toby Stephens, Noah Taylor and Aidan Turner. The programme follows a group of strangers who are invited to a secluded island where they are murdered one by one for their past crimes.

And Then There Were None
Title card
Genre
Based onAnd Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie
Written bySarah Phelps
Directed byCraig Viveiros
Starring
ComposerStuart Earl
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes3
Production
Executive producers
  • Mathew Pritchard
  • Hilary Strong
  • Karen Thrussell
  • Damien Timmer
  • Matthew Read
  • Sara Phelps
ProducerAbi Bach
CinematographyJohn Pardue
Running time180 minutes
Production companies
DistributorBBC
Release
Original network
Picture formatHDTV 1080i
Audio formatStereo
Original release26 December (2015-12-26) –
28 December 2015 (2015-12-28)
External links
Website

The serial, debuting to 6 million viewers, received critical acclaim with many praising the writing, performances, and cinematography. It also scored high ratings.

Synopsis

On a hot day in late August 1939, ten people, all strangers to each other, are invited to a small, isolated island off the coast of Devon, England, called Soldier's Island, by a "Mr. and Mrs. Owen". The guests settle in at the manor home on the island tended by two newly hired servants, a husband and wife, Mr. Thomas Rogers and Mrs. Ethel Rogers, but their hosts are absent. When the guests sit down to dinner, they notice the centrepiece, ten abstract art deco figurines, supposedly representing ten soldiers arranged in a circle. Afterward, Mr. Rogers puts on a gramophone record, from which a voice accuses everyone present of a murder.[4] Shortly after this, one of the party dies from poisoning, and then more and more people are murdered, all in methods synonymous with a poem affixed to the back of each bedroom door. With each death, the murderer removes a figurine from the centerpiece to coincide with the rhyme's sinister disappearance of each "little soldier boy". The remaining people decide to work together. They must discover who the murderer is before they run out of time and nobody remains.

Cast

Production

Conception
(From top to bottom, left to right), Douglas Booth, Miranda Richardson, Charles Dance, Maeve Dermody, Sam Neill and Aidan Turner.

And Then There Were None was commissioned by Ben Stephenson and Charlotte Moore for the BBC to mark the 125th anniversary of Agatha Christie's birth.[5] The adaptation was produced by Mammoth Screen in partnership with Agatha Christie Productions.[6][7][8]

Writer Sarah Phelps told the BBC that she was shocked by the starkness and brutality of the novel. Comparing the novel to Christie's other work, she stated, "Within the Marple and Poirot stories somebody is there to unravel the mystery, and that gives you a sense of safety and security, of predicting what is going to happen next... In this book that doesn't happen – no one is going to come to save you, absolutely nobody is coming to help or rescue or interpret."[9]

Casting

Maeve Dermody was cast two days before the read through of the script and was in Myanmar at the time.[10] She flew to the UK to begin work with a dialect coach and read the book in the first two weeks of filming.[11]

Filming

Filming began in July 2015.[12] Cornwall was used for many of the harbour and beach scenes, including Holywell Bay, Kynance Cove, and Mullion Cove.[13] Harefield House in Hillingdon, outside London, served as the location for the island mansion.[14] Production designer Sophie Beccher decorated the house in the style of 1930s designers like Syrie Maugham and Elsie de Wolfe.[15] The below stairs and kitchen scenes were shot at Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire.[16] Railway scenes were filmed at the South Devon Railway between Totnes and Buckfastleigh.[17]

Episodes
No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air dateUK viewers
(millions)
1"Episode 1"Craig ViveirosSarah Phelps26 December 2015 (2015-12-26)9.56[18][lower-alpha 1]
In August 1939, eight strangers arrive at Soldier Island, most having ostensibly been invited by old friends or the current ostensible owners, Mr and Mrs Owen. There is no host to greet them but there are domestic staff, Thomas and Ethel Rogers, a married couple. The "guests" find a copy of a children's rhyme, "Ten Little Soldiers", in each of their rooms and ten jade figurines on the dining room table. After dinner, Mr Rogers, who had been instructed to do so, plays a gramophone record, in which all the guests as well as Mr and Mrs Rogers are named as being responsible for the death(s) of another human being for which they evaded punishment. One of the guests (Blore) is revealed to be an impostor using another name. Eight guests refute the accusations made against them, but Philip Lombard and Anthony Marston do not. Marston dies shortly thereafter from cyanide-laced gin in a similar manner to that of the first little soldier. The next day, the cook Mrs Rogers is found dead in her bed from unknown causes, matching the second verse from the poem. Vera Claythorne shows Dr Armstrong that two of the soldiers in the dining room have disappeared.
2"Episode 2"Craig ViveirosSarah Phelps27 December 2015 (2015-12-27)8.45[18][lower-alpha 1]
The poisoning of both victims casts suspicion on Dr. Armstrong, who has his bag searched. As a hunt for the mysterious Mr Owen is conducted on the island, the nature behind the accusations begin to come to light; Philip Lombard confirms that he killed 21 Africans for a diamond reward, Emily Brent recounts the fateful past of her former maid, Beatrice Taylor, and General MacArthur succumbs to insanity, crippled with guilt over killing his subordinate and wife's lover, Arthur Richmond. After the General is found with his head smashed in with a telescope, the remaining seven realize that whoever left the mysterious message intends to make good on their threat, according to the rules of the nursery rhyme. Wargrave proposes a damning theory to the others that the killer is one of them. After the butler, Mr Rogers, is found split open with an axe, and Miss Brent is impaled with one of her knitting needles, the five survivors band together to search all the rooms and belongings to unmask the killer and save themselves.
3"Episode 3"Craig ViveirosSarah Phelps28 December 2015 (2015-12-28)8.33[18][lower-alpha 1]
Five of the original ten are left. Judge Wargrave is found, dressed up to match the Chancery verse of the poem, with a gunshot wound to the head. He is declared dead by Armstrong. The remaining four engage in a demented bacchanal with alcohol and drugs. Vera and Philip have sex. During the night, Armstrong leaves the house, leaving the other three to believe that he is the killer. Blore is ambushed and fatally stabbed by the killer wearing a bear skin rug. Subsequently, Armstrong's corpse is brought in by the tide. Vera manages to lift Philip's gun and when he charges at her, she shoots him dead. Delirious, she returns to her room where a noose is waiting. In a trance, she begins to hang herself. Then, Judge Wargrave walks in, quite alive, and reveals how he wanted to create an unsolvable mystery and punish the guilty, and how he intends to shoot himself to complete the poem. Vera tries to bargain with Wargrave, but he pulls the chair from under her and leaves her to die. He returns to the dining room, where he has set the table for two. He loads the revolver with the final bullet and shoots himself. The revolver recoils to land at the other table setting, thus creating a presumably unsolvable mystery for the police.

Reception

And Then There Were None received critical acclaim and was a ratings success for the BBC, with the first episode netting over 6 million viewers and becoming the second most watched programme on Boxing Day. Each of the two subsequent episodes netted over 5 million viewers.[19]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, And Then There Were None has an approval rating of 86% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "Dark yet dashingly executed, And Then There Were None offers a brazenly misanthropic look at human nature."[20]

Ben Dowell of the Radio Times gave a positive review.[21] Jasper Reese for The Daily Telegraph gave the first episode 4 out of 5 stars, calling it a "pitch-black psychological thriller as teasing murder mystery" and "spiffingly watchable".[22]

Reviewing the first episode, UK daily newspaper The Guardian's Sam Wollaston noted, "[...] it also manages to be loyal, not just in plot but in spirit as well. I think the queen of crime would approve. I certainly do. Mass murder rarely gets as fun as this."[23] Reviewing the final episode for The Daily Telegraph, Tim Martin gave it 4 out of 5 stars, calling it a "class act", and praising the adaptation for highlighting the darkness of Christie's novel, which he claimed no previous adaptation had attempted.[24] The Russian adaption, ‘’Desyat Negrityat’’ from 1987, however, was the first visual adaption to include the novel’s original ending.

See also

Notes
  1. 28 day data

References
  1. Plunkett, John (28 February 2014). "David Walliams to star as BBC bags Agatha Christie drama deal". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
  2. Dowell, Ben (28 February 2014). "David Walliams heralds new era for BBC as the new home of Agatha Christie adaptations". Radio Times. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
  3. "David Walliams to star in new Agatha Christie BBC drama". Independent. 28 February 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
  4. "Filming begins on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None". agathachristie.com. Archived from the original on 16 November 2015. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  5. "BBC One to become new home of Agatha Christie in UK". BBC. 28 February 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
  6. Kemp, Stuart (27 February 2014). "BBC Commissions Two New Agatha Christie Adaptations". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
  7. Barraclough, Leo (28 February 2014). "BBC Plots Agatha Christie Adaptations for Writer's 125th Anniversary". Variety. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
  8. Kanter, Jake (28 February 2014). "BBC signs Agatha Christie deal". Broadcast. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
  9. Staff (17 December 2015). "Adapting Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None' for BBC One". BBC Online. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  10. Dermody, Maeve. "Maeve Dermody plays Vera Claythorne". Agatha Christie.com. Archived from the original on 31 July 2016. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  11. Dermody, Maeve. "Behind the scenes". Agatha Christie.com. Archived from the original on 7 October 2016. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  12. "Filming begins on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None for BBC One". BBC. 10 July 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  13. "Not Poldark: Aidan Turner back in Cornwall with Charles Dance and Sam Neill in Agatha Christie drama". West Briton. 22 July 2015. Archived from the original on 7 August 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  14. Tom Deehan (22 December 2015). "BBC's And Then There Were None filmed in Cornwall and Hillingdon". The Location Guide. Archived from the original on 13 January 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  15. "And Then There Were None: A Landmark Adaptation of the World's Best SElling Crime Novel" (PDF) (Press release). BBC. December 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  16. "And Then There Were None and Christie Adaptation Links". 29 February 2016. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  17. "Steam railway is a star in Christie's ratings winner". Western Morning News. 8 January 2016. Archived from the original on 12 January 2016. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  18. "Top 30 Programmes". BARB. 14 February 2016. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  19. Jackson, Jasper (29 December 2015). "And Then There Were None helps BBC dominate Christmas ratings". Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  20. "And Then There Were None: Miniseries". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  21. Dowell, Ben (26 December 2015). "And Then There Were None is a creepy, chilling Agatha Christie... with a helping of Aidan Turner". Radio Times. London. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  22. Rees, Jasper (26 December 2015). "And Then There Were None, review: 'spiffingly watchable'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  23. Wollaston, Sam (26 December 2015). "Dickensian review – a labour of love obscured by too much fog and too many hats". The Guardian. London, UK. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  24. Martin, Tim (28 December 2015). "And Then There Were None, episode three, review: 'a class act'". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
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