Date With History: 1926

Ninety-nine years ago today, crime

novelist Agatha Christie and her

husband, Colonel Archibald Christie

quarrelled at their home, Styles, in

Sunningdale, Berkshire. 

Archie then left to see his mistress,

Nancy Neele, at Godalming. Later

that same evening, Agatha informed

her secretary by letter that she had

left for Yorkshire, and she sub-

sequently disappeared - her car was

found abandoned at Silent Pool, near Guildford.

 Despite the ensuing public outcry and

a massive and costly manhunt, the

writer was only identified on Tuesday

December 14th, as a guest at the

Swan Hydropathic Hotel, 230 miles

away in Harrogate.

 She had registered as Mrs. Teresa

Neele, and she never spoke of her disappearance ever again. Agatha was then diagnosed with fugue/amnesia,

but many contemporary commentators believed she had staged a publicity

stunt, and those missing eleven days remain a mystery worthy of one of her

books. The author's disappearance was dramatised in the 1979 film, Agatha

- Vanessa Redgrave and Timothy Dalton depicted the Christies, and in the

Doctor Who story, The Unicorn and the Wasp (2008), Fenella Woolgar

portrayed the Queen of Crime. In the TV drama, A Life in Pictures (2004)

Agatha's psychiatrist concluded that her fugue state was genuine - an

opinion reinforced by Lucy Worsley in Destination Unknown (2022).

The Christies divorced in 1928, and Agatha married the archaeologist

Max Mallowan two years later. 

Great Doctor Who Quotes #1

“…but think about it. There’s a murder, and Agatha Christie… isn’t that a bit weird? Agatha Christie didn’t walk around surrounded by murders… that’s like meeting Charles Dickens and he’s surrounded by ghosts, at Christmas… come on! It’s not like we could drive across country and find Enid Blyton having tea with Noddy. Could we? Noddy’s not real, is he? Tell me there’s no Noddy… you’ll be telling me it’s like Murder on the Orient Express, and they all did it!”

- the plucky Miss Donna Noble, The Unicorn and the Wasp
(May 17th 2008)
Written by Gareth Roberts

Doctor Who Vs. Agatha Christie: Part 2

BBC2 first transmitted Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures in September 2004. This 90-minute biopic - told in flashback from Agatha's point of view - examined her famous disappearance of 1926. Here, her psychiatrist concluded that the novelist (portrayed by Olivia Williams) had been in a fugue state at the time, and her amnesia was genuine (see Part 1).

The programme was repeated on BBC4 in 2008, and featured these five Doctor Who cast connections:

• For Anna Massey (Older Agatha) see Vs. Strange, here
• Raymond Coulthard (Archie Christie) voiced Loki/Edgar/Hawks for Cobwebs (Big Finish, 2010)
• Anthony O'Donnell (Kenward/Poirot) played Commander Kaagh in The SJA: Enemy of the Bane and The Last Sontaran
• for both Mark Gatiss (Kenyon) and Bertie Carvel (Max Mallowan) see Sherlock here

Series 4 story, The Unicorn and the Wasp (TX: 17/5/2008) depicts the events (albeit fictional) leading up to Agatha's disappearance. By the end of the episode, the action has moved from the atypical Christie 'whodunit' setting - the English country house - to Silent Pool, where the novelist's car was actually found abandoned. Here, Agatha (now played by Fenella Woolgar) is briefly possessed by the alien firestone, and falls unconscious. The Doctor now realises that this incident caused her memory loss, and takes the writer to Harrogate ten days later (ie. the day before she was discovered). In the TARDIS, the Doctor shows Donna a copy of Death in the Clouds (1935), a book in which a wasp sting is an apparent cause of death - so Agatha's amnesia was not complete. Even by the year 5 billion, Christie is still the best selling author of all time.

Great Doctor Who Quotes #11

"..we've solved another riddle. The mystery of Agatha Christie.. tomorrow morning, her car gets found by the side of a lake. A few days later she turns up in a hotel in Harrogate with no idea of what just happened. No-one'll ever know.. [she] married again, saw the world, wrote and wrote.. Thing is, I don't think she ever quite forgot.. where is it? Here we go.. Somewhere in the back of her mind, it all lingered.. Look at the copyright page [passing Donna a copy of Death in the Clouds, "Facsimile edition, published in the year 5 billion!"]. People never stop reading them. She is the best selling novelist of all time. Well, no-one knows how they're going to be remembered.. Same thing keeps me travelling. Onwards?"

- The Doctor, The Unicorn and the Wasp (17/5/2008)

Written by Gareth Roberts