Created by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie stories outside of Hercule Poirot & Miss Marple have been dramatised and broadcast since the 1940s on BBC radio. Details to 4 follow, with the latter 3 having been issued by the BBC Radio Collection.
Other Agatha Christie dramatisations on BBC Radio.
First Upload July
31 2001 Updated 17
September 2003
Created
by Agatha
Christie
Agatha Christie stories outside of Hercule Poirot & Miss Marple have been dramatised and broadcast
since the 1940s on BBC radio. Details to 4 follow, with the
latter 3 having been issued by the BBC Radio Collection.
The Unexpected Guest was 60 minutes, The Pale Horse, 90 minutes and The Sittaford Mystery a 5 x 30 minute serial.
Separately, two series of updated & modernised Agatha Christie short stories were broadcast on BBC Radio 4 during 2002 & 2003, details have been added further down the page.
Broadcast - BBC A thirty minute play for radio written by Agatha Christie
A
young couple, James and Pamela Brent, are having a
party. There is a "personal call" for James from a woman
who says her name is Fay and that she's
waiting at Newton Abbott for him. Brent becomes very
angry and says it is a cruel practical joke, but doesn't
elaborate to his wife as to the calls meaning. He
contacts the operator who says NO personal calls have
been put through to that number today! Later he explains
that Fay was his first
wife who was killed at the railway station of Newton
Abbott when she fell under a train. The strange thing
about the call being that the voice on the line WAS her
voice! First
BBC
production by Ayton Whitaker (BBC
broadcast date unavailable - listed in the New Zealand
Listener 5 August 1955)
Second
BBC
production by David H. Godfrey |
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Broadcast - BBC World Service
adapted & directed by Gordon House A foggy night ... a lonely country house ... and a woman with a gun in her hand quietly surveying the dead body of her husband. It looked like a straighforward case of murder. Or was it? As the ghosts of an old wrong begin to emerge from the past, the case begins to look anything but straightforward... BBC Radio Collection featuring Jillie Meers (Laura Warwick), Alexander Johns (Michael Starkwedder), Diana Bishop (Miss Bennett), Elizabeth Lindsay (Jan Warwick), Margot Boyd (Mrs Warwick), Anthony Hyde (Henry Agell), Sion Probert (Sgt. Cadwaller), Michael Spice (Inspector Thomas) & Sean Arnold (Julian Farrar). |
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The Sittaford Mystery
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Broadcast in 5
parts. (Weekly) - Radio 4. dramatised & directed by Michael Bakewell In a remote house in the middle of Dartmoor, six shadowy figures huddle around a small table for a seance. Tension rises as the spirits spell out a chilling message: `Captain Trevelyan ... dead ... murder'. Is this black magic or simply a macabre joke? The only way to be certain is to locate Captain Trevelyan. Unfortunately, his home is six miles away and, with snow drifts blocking the roads, someone will have to journey on foot... . Collins Crime featuring Geoffrey Whitehead (Inspector Narracott), Stephen Tompkinson (Charles Enderby), Melinda Walker (Emily Trefusis), John Moffatt (Mr Rycroft) & Norman Bird (Major Burnaby). |
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The Pale Horse
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Broadcast -
Saurday Night Theatre - Radio 4. dramatised
by Michael Bakewell A dying woman gasps out her bizarre story to Father Gorman - but no sooner has he written it down than he is violently killed. The only clue he leaves is a twisted scrap of paper on which are written nine names. On the trail of these names Inspector Lejeune, together with academic Mark Easterbrooke and his crime writer friend Ariadne Oliver, are led inexorably to The Pale Horse Inn, home of a psychic, a medium and a witch... BBC Radio Collection NOTE: Ariadne Oliver (Stephanie Cole) also features in the Poirot story Five Little Pigs. featuring Jeremy Clyde (Mark Easterbrooke), Stephanie Cole (Ariadne Oliver), Jonathan Adams (Inspector Lejeune) & Stephen Hodson (Jim Corrigan). |
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**Thanks to Ian Beard.**
***This ties in with
the first production; The Man With No Face by Dorothy L. Sayers broadcast 3
April 1943.
 This release features the episodes. Philomel Cottage Swan Song Magnolia Blossom Published 7 May 2002; ISBN: 0563536160 |
Broadcast - BBC Radio 4
Agatha
Christie's Witness for the Prosecution dramatised
by Bill Morrison Well-meaning but hopeless Leonard Vole finds himself accused of murder when a rich spinster whom he has befriended is found dead. Mayherne ..... Anthony
Bate
dramatised
by Mike Walker Alex has an excellent track record in an e-commerce company. Richard, one of her colleagues, is interested in forming a closer relationship with her, but when Terry comes on the scene he doesn't stand a chance. Within a month, Alex and Terry have set up their own company (with Alex's capital) and are living in Philomel Cottage, a roses round the door place near the M4 corridor. But is Terry for real? Alex finds out that he is syphoning money from her account. And then there is the cottage, it certainly has a history, a history which involves unnatural death... Alex ..... Lizzie
McInnerny
dramatised
by Mike Stott A disparate group of adventurers sets out from Damascus to visit the Gate of Baghdad, once known as the Gate of Death. Miss Pryce ..... Patricia
Routledge
dramatised
by Mike Walker As if from nowhere, a soprano has emerged to become the Tosca of our day - but like Tosca she carries in her heart a terrible need for revenge. Operatic emotions accompany the Queen of Crime into the 21st Century with Mike Walker's thoroughly modern dramatisation of one of Christie's most passionate tales. Polina ... Maria Friedman
dramatised
by Mike Walker A woman's place in Agatha Christie's short story Magnolia Blossom is defiantly not in the luxury home created for her by her financier husband. But in times of trouble a woman's loyalty can challenge the presumption of men - and infidelity can be a small crime compared to others. Emilia Fox takes the role of Theo, a woman determined to seek happiness with her husband's rival, Vincent. As they escape London to be together in Paris, news comes of the financial collapse of her husband's business. Putting her own desires aside, Theo returns to discover that Richard has been less than honest with her, and that more than his job is at stake. Theo ... Emilia Fox
dramatised
by Bill Morrison 1920: an ambitious doctor and a pioneering psychologist try to restore the sanity of a nun apparently traumatised by what she witnessed during the war. Alice ... Julia McKenzie |
 This release features the episodes. Witness for the Prosecution The Gate of Baghdad The Hound of Death Published 7 May 2002; ISBN: 0563536179 |
 This release features the episodes. In A Glass Darkly The Dressmaker's Doll The Perfect Carer Publication Due in May 2003 |
Broadcast - BBC Radio 4
Agatha Christie’s The
£199 Adventure dramatised by Mike Stott from Agatha
Christie's The Case of the City Clerk Richard Griffiths, Rebecca
Front and Chris Langham star in this updated version of
an Agatha Christie story. Bobby Roberts, a middle-aged
man stuck in a mid-life rut, is in search of adventure.
The ad in The Times reads: "Need help? Ask Parker
Pyne." So who better to approach than the great PP
himself. And sure enough, Pyne comes up trumps. Bobby is
sent on a trip. His mission is to collect a harmless
package from a scientist in Milan, and eat plenty of ice
cream along the way. Before long, he finds himself caught
up in a terrifying murder and with blood all over his ice
cream. Parker Pyne ... Richard
Griffiths
dramatised by Mike
Walker In a mirror, a man witnesses a murderous attack on a young woman – just before he meets the woman and falls in love with her. Agatha Christie’s tale about a man trying to outwit fate still has the power to chill in an age of helicopter warfare, and Mike Walker’s dramatisation relishes testing Christie’s storytelling gifts against the accelerated tensions of the 21st century. With thoroughly modern performances by Neil Dudgeon as an Army helicopter pilot, and Rebecca Egan as the threatened woman he seeks to protect – and marry – the fundamental human characteristics of loyalty and jealousy are as intense as ever.
adapted by Dougie
Lucie Agatha Christie’s
The Gypsy is an eerie tale of love and loss. It tells the
story of Dickie Carpenter, a war-wounded sailor, who is
haunted by terrifying visitations from a ghostly woman.
His friend, Robert, attempts to solve the mystery of
these visions – and, ultimately, Dickie’s death
– only to find himself caught up in the strange
happenings and at risk of losing his true love.
stars
Michael Fenton-Stevens, Hilton
McRae and Vivien Heilbron.
dramatised by Mike
Walker The driving rhythms of
London’s fiercely competitive cat-walks may seem a
thousand miles away from the cosy cottage murders of Miss
Marple, but they provide a perfect environment for the
more chilling edge of Agatha Christie’s short
stories. Music composed and realised by Ben Wallfisch.
dramatised by Mike Walker from The Case
of the Perfect Maid Renting a flat to elderly sisters in a converted dower house should be a simple job for an estate agent, but Kate finds Bernice anything but easy. Then valuables start to disappear. Bernice ...... Richenda
Carey Music composed and realised by Ben Wallfisch.
adapted by Paul
Kember Paul Kember’s contemporary adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Last Séance is a highly topical thriller with an all-star cast. Set in England, but against the backdrop of international turmoil, this chilling story focuses on a young woman whose life has been devastated by the war in Afghanistan. Having lost her husband and only child, she turns to an Irish couple who may be able to offer her a chance of salvation: the promise of a miracle. But dark forces are at work,and the price paid for such a miracle may be too much to bear. The Last Séance stars Dervla Kirwan, Adrian Dunbar, Rebecca Saire and Andrew Sachs. |
 This release features the episodes. The £199 Adventure The Gypsy The Last Séance Publication Due in May 2003 |
Reference's:
BBC Press Office's weekly radio schedules. BBC Radio 4 What's On.
"Agatha Christie -
Murder in Four Acts" by Peter Haining published by ABC
Books, 1994.