Two of Agatha Christie’s amateur sleuths are set for a modern reimagining and will soon be returning to the small screen for a new series.
Tommy and Tuppence, aka Thomas and Prudence Beresford, are a married couple who first appeared in Christie’s 1922 novel The Secret Adversary.
They are being reimagined for “the modern world” in a new series produced by the people behind the hit shows Happy Valley and Am I Being Unreasonable?
Deadline reports that the six-part series has been commissioned by the streaming service BritBox and will start filming later this year. The show, which is yet to announce a cast, will reportedly be set in Hampstead, London and written by Phoebe Eclair-Powell (The Road Trip).
In a statement, executive producer Katie Draper said: “Phoebe’s wonderful scripts combine screwball comedy, playful romance and thrilling murder to bring an exhilarating modern-day twist to Christie’s iconic detective duo.”
In addition, Eclair-Powell said it was “dream come true” to be writing the drama, adding that “Christie’s detective duo are witty, sharp and raring to solve lots and lots of murders whilst asking if they should really be more than just partners in crime”.
This won’t be the first time that the detective duo have been adapted for TV. They were first portrayed by James Warwick and Francesca Annis in ITV’s 1982 version of The Secret Adversary. The series won an Emmy award for Outstanding Graphic and Title Design. Warwick and Annis returned to the roles in 1983 for a 10-part-series of Partners in Crime.
In 2015 another adaptation of Partners in Crime was made by the BBC with David Walliams playing Tommy and Jessica Raine as Tuppence.
Tommy and Tuppence continues BritBox’s history of adapting Christie novels for the small screen having already made Towards Zero, starring Anjelica Houston, and Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? starring Will Poulter and Hugh Laurie.
It comes after it was announced in 2023 that a number of Christie’s books were being rewritten for modern sensitivities, with racist terms removed and passages of text amended.
Christie’s Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries have undergone edits such that original passages have either been reworked or removed in new editions published by HarperCollins.
Vocabulary has also been changed. The term “Oriental”, for example, has been removed, along with other racial descriptors in some instances.
In the 1937 Poirot novel Death on the Nile, a passage describing a Black servant as grinning because he understands the need to stay silent about an incident, has been altered to no longer relays that he is Black or smiling. Instead, he is simply “nodding”.
The edits include amendments made to the inner monologue of characters such as Miss Jane Marple or Hercule Poirot.
