In this TV movie, a classic mystery is updated and relocated to a glamorous world of London socialites and secret agents, introducing two unique and compelling investigators and taking us through to the highest corridors of power.
Rosemary Barton, the beautiful wife of a top attorney, dies during their anniversary party at an exclusive restaurant. Later a suicide note is found along with traces of cyanide in her drink, but murder cannot be ruled out.
Director:
Robert Michael Lewis
Stars:
Anthony Andrews,
Deborah Raffin,
Pamela Bellwood
Lady Eileen 'Bundle' Brent a pert, aggressive young aristocrat insinuates herself into a series of murders, stolen state secrets, and a mysterious secret society.
Director:
Tony Wharmby
Stars:
John Gielgud,
Harry Andrews,
Cheryl Campbell
When Mark Easterbrook finds himself in the frame for the murder of a priest, there seems no way to prove his innocence other than solving the mystery himself.
Director:
Charles Beeson
Stars:
Colin Buchanan,
Jayne Ashbourne,
Hermione Norris
A friend of Miss Marple's sees a woman being strangled in a passing train. When police cannot find a body and doubt the story, Miss Marple enlists professional housekeeper, Lucy Eyelesbarrow, to go undercover.
While golfing on the Welsh coast, Bobby Jones apparently hits a stranger who falls off the the sea cliff. His enigmatic last words are "Why didn't they ask Evans?"
Directors:
John Davies,
Tony Wharmby
Stars:
Francesca Annis,
John Gielgud,
Bernard Miles
As WW2 rages around the world, DCS Foyle fights his own war on the home-front as he investigates crimes on the south coast of England. Later series sees the retired detective working as an MI5 agent operating in the aftermath of the war.
Stars:
Michael Kitchen,
Honeysuckle Weeks,
Anthony Howell
A series of brutal sex murders disturbingly similar to the pattern of Superintendent Jane Tennison's first major case leads to the awful suggestion that she may have caught the wrong man the first time.
After two old friends accidentally meet and resolve to become investigators for hire, they quickly become embroiled in a missing treaty and a Bolshevik conspiracy.
Director:
Tony Wharmby
Stars:
James Warwick,
Francesca Annis,
Gavan O'Herlihy
In this TV movie, a classic mystery is updated and relocated to a glamorous world of London socialites and secret agents, introducing two unique and compelling investigators and taking us through to the highest corridors of power.
"Sparkling Cyanide" is one of my favourite Agatha Christie novels. So you can imagine my delight when I heard of a new film of it, starring Oliver Ford-Davis. But, alas, this does no-where near justice to the original book. They've kept about two names the same (Lucilla, Iris), added about 10 new characters, and changed most of the original characters around to fit a modern-day setting. The detectives are two elderly MI5 agents (compare that to the respectable retired colonel in the book), it just doesn't work, investigating the murder of an uneducated footballer's wife at a nightclub (compare that to the glamorous wife of a successful businessman who dies at a high-class resteraunt in the book). The solution isn't really explained at all, the interval of two years is clumsily merged into two weeks, and Rosemary Barton is portrayed as a wrist-slitting slut, a tragic loss of one of Agatha Christie's most beautiful descriptions. The only member of the cast who can act is Oliver Ford-Davis, whose talent is pointlessly wasted. Perhaps this film was meant to appeal to the younger generation. It doesn't. I represent the younger generation, this isn't right. If you've never heard of Agatha Christie before, and like things on the TV like "Silent Witness", I suppose this is aimed at you. But you won't like it. If you're a die-hard Agatha Christie fan, like me, follow the advice of Rosalind Hicks, her daughter, who hates the film, and "stick to the book".
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"Sparkling Cyanide" is one of my favourite Agatha Christie novels. So you can imagine my delight when I heard of a new film of it, starring Oliver Ford-Davis. But, alas, this does no-where near justice to the original book. They've kept about two names the same (Lucilla, Iris), added about 10 new characters, and changed most of the original characters around to fit a modern-day setting. The detectives are two elderly MI5 agents (compare that to the respectable retired colonel in the book), it just doesn't work, investigating the murder of an uneducated footballer's wife at a nightclub (compare that to the glamorous wife of a successful businessman who dies at a high-class resteraunt in the book). The solution isn't really explained at all, the interval of two years is clumsily merged into two weeks, and Rosemary Barton is portrayed as a wrist-slitting slut, a tragic loss of one of Agatha Christie's most beautiful descriptions. The only member of the cast who can act is Oliver Ford-Davis, whose talent is pointlessly wasted. Perhaps this film was meant to appeal to the younger generation. It doesn't. I represent the younger generation, this isn't right. If you've never heard of Agatha Christie before, and like things on the TV like "Silent Witness", I suppose this is aimed at you. But you won't like it. If you're a die-hard Agatha Christie fan, like me, follow the advice of Rosalind Hicks, her daughter, who hates the film, and "stick to the book".