This article appears as part of the Herald Arts newsletter.

Did I miss something or was there really no flashy new all-star Agatha Christie adaptation on TV over Christmas?

Some festive traditions are sacrosanct in my book and that’s one of them. You can keep your MR James ghost story – I want my Agatha Christie murder case.

I know there were Christie re-runs because I re-ran one myself, 2018 three-parter Ordeal By Innocence. It starred Bill Nighy, Anna Chancellor and Morvern Christie, and as well as having been filmed around Inverkip was notable for having large numbers of scenes re-shot with a different actor due to sexual assault allegations made against a cast member post-production.

There were old Christie films too, among them 1957 curio Witness For The Prosecution. Directed by the great Billy Wilder, it stars the equally great Marlene Dietrich alongside Charles Laughton and Bride Of Frankenstein’s Elsa Lanchester, and is based on one of the writer’s stage plays. She being an early adopter of the re-use/re-cycle mantra, the play was in turn based on a short story. But of new Agatha Christie adaptations I saw not hide, hair nor cocktail dress.

I only ask because 2024 was my self-appointed Year of Agatha. I had never read her before, you see, clearly a miss on my part. So last January I picked up The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd, thought by many to be her masterpiece. From there I worked my way through And Then There Were None, Murder On The Orient Express, Evil Under The Sun and Five Little Pigs.

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