Agatha Christie bestselling crime novels to get TV series treatment

PanARMENIAN.Net - Acorn Productions, the rights division of U.S. giant RLJ Entertainment, has licensed two new adaptations of Agatha Christie's work for BBC One, the public broadcaster's flagship channel, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Acorn Productions said the channel BBC One has commissioned a fresh take of And Then There Were None, Christie’s most successful work and one of the best-selling crime novels of all time.

Sarah Phelps (Great Expectations, BBC) is adapting the book, which will be produced by Mammoth Screen (Parade’s End) in partnership with Acorn Productions. It is slated for broadcast at Christmas 2015.

Crime-fighting duo Tommy and Tuppence will return to U.K. screens in a 1950s-set six-part adventure thriller series called Partners in Crime, starring David Walliams as Tommy.

The new adaptation will be produced by Endor Productions (The Escape Artist) in partnership with Acorn Productions with the first three episodes penned by award-winning author, playwright and director Zinnie Harris.

The two fresh BBC1 dramas are part of a raft of upcoming developments as RLJ Entertainment, of which Acorn Productions, aims to "reinvent the Christie brand across a range of platforms."

Also in the works is a re-make of Murder on the Orient Express from Fox produced by Ridley Scott, Mark Gordon and Simon Kinberg and the 2013 release of Dead Man’s Folly hidden object tablet game that has seen some 200,000 downloads in the first few weeks of release.

Acorn Productions managing director Hilary Strong said: "We are delighted to unveil these two major new dramas for BBC1. They are an integral part of our plans for the Christie brand and demonstrate the scale of our ambition at Acorn Productions for the portfolio of works that we own."

Mathew Prichard, chairman of Agatha Christie Limited and grandson of the novelist said: “It is fantastic that, in her all-important 125th anniversary year, my grandmother is to be welcomed with such enthusiasm to the BBC: a wonderful new home for her much-loved characters and their stories, and one which she would be delighted with."