Doctor Who Vs. Agatha and the Truth of Murder

In December 1926, Agatha

Christie went missing for eleven

days. The circumstances

surrounding her disapperance

have never been revealed. This

film imagines what might have

happened...

This channel 5 thriller is another
fictionalised account of Christie's unexplained vanishing. It is revealed

that Christie (portrayed here by Ruth

Bradley) staged her disappearance

and evaded the ensuing nationwide hunt to investigate the real-life unsolved murder of Florence

Nightingale Shore (goddaughter of the Crimean war nurse) who was bludgeoned to death on a Sussex

bound train in 1920. The Queen of Crime (1890-1976) had writer's block

and posed here as Mary Westmacott, her later pen-name.

The thriller spawned two sequels for 5 - The Curse of Ishtar (in 2019), and

The Midnight Murders (2020). The channel later broadcast documentaries

Inside the Mind of Agatha Christie and Agatha Christie's England.

First shown at Christmas 2018 (then rerun on Boxing Day and New Year's

Day 2019) the film was repeated on U&Drama today - it featured Ralph

Ineson, Dean Andrews, Michael McElhatton, and these six Doctor Who

cast connections: 

• Tim McInnerny (Randolph here; Rev. Clement in The Murder at the Vicarage, 2004) was Klineman Halpen in Planet of the Ood, and voiced Admiral Dolne for Big Finish's The Well-Mannered War (2015), and the eponymous role for Puccini and the Doctor (2024)
• Pippa Haywood (Mabel here; Mrs. Price in Ordeal by Innocence, 2007; Mrs. Upjohn in Cat Among the Pigeons, 2008) voiced the Prime Minister for Seed of Chaos and The Destructive Quality of Life (both 2017), Jaxa for Seizure, Teremon for The War Master 2 (both 2018), and Captain Graff for Genetics of the Daleks (2020)
• Blake Harrison (Travis here & Agatha and the Midnight Murders) voiced Lieutenant Daniel Hopkins for The Helliax Rift, Hour of the Cybermen and Warlock's Cross (all 2018), then starred in Village of the Angels as Namaca Ost Parvess Po
• Brian McCardie (Persimmion here; Gould in Ordeal by Innocence, 2018) voiced Alan Weir for Masters of Earth (2014)
• Samantha Spiro (Pamela) was Hazran in The Doctor Falls
• Joshua Silver (Franklin) voiced Charlie Nisbett for The Romance of Crime (2015)