BBC Plan Birthday Bash for Agatha Christie

Her books have spawned countless TV adaptations, now Agatha Christie‘s most successful novel, along with two of her less familiar creations, will be brought to life by the BBC to mark the 125th anniversary of her birth.

The phenomenon that is And Then There Were None – sales have topped the 100 million mark worldwide – will be televised as a three-parter, while Partners in Crime will encompass six.

Documentaries about the crime writer are also in the pipeline as part of next year’s Christie-fest. She was born in Torquay in 1890 and penned her first detective story, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in 1916. This was finally published in 1920, paving the way for a breathtaking body of work. She died peacefully at her Oxfordshire home in 1976.

One big name already linked to Partners in Crime is David Walliams, who will play one half of the husband-and-wife team, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, that the title refers to. Evidently excited by this latest role, the Britain’s Got Talent judge said: “I was first drawn to the delicious notion of a married couple solving crimes together, and the more I read of the Tommy and Tuppence novels and short stories I realised they are among Christie’s very best work.”

Partners in Crime was also a series back in 1983, while the characters of Tommy and Tuppence also cropped up in the same year in a feature-length production, The Secret Adversary. This is reminiscent of one of Christie’s most recognisable creations, Hercule Poirot, although the moustachioed sleuth had been portrayed in movies on several occasions before David Suchet made the role his own on the small screen.

It was Poirot that provided the most recent success for the Christie legacy, with the last series of the popular programme proving a ratings winner for ITV towards the end of last year. It is highly likely that the BBC will have more than a few viewers glued to their screens in 2015.