Doctor Who Vs. Sparkling Cyanide

Agatha Christie's thirty-fifth crime

novel was issued i 1945 - first in

America (as Remembered Death) then

in the UK.

Colonel Race's final case (of four)

expanded the plot of short story

Yellow Iris, published in Strand

Magazine in 1937.

Sparkling Cyanide was dramatised

twice for television - the CBS production

aired in 1983, whilst this Thames TV

version was broadcast in 2003.

Shown on Sky Arts tonight, the mystery

featured Lia Williams, Susan Hampshire,

and these eight Doctor Who cast and crew

connections:

• Kenneth Cranham (Barton here; Fortescue in A Pocket Full of Rye, 2008) voiced Tom Cardwell for Big Finish's Blood of the Daleks (2007)
• [William Henry] Richard Clifford (Maitre D here & Murder on the Orient Express, 2017) voiced Novar for The Master's Dalek Plan, Pandak for Shockwave (both 2019), Merlin for The Lone Centurion 2, and Jessop for Mind of the Hodiac (both 2022)
• James Wilby (Farraday here; Kirkwood in The Sittaford Mystery, 2006; Restarick in Third Girl) voiced Tenebris for The Acheron Pulse and The Shadow Heart (2012), and Professor John Torrance for The Sontaran Project (2017)
• Pauline [Angela] Collins (Dr. Kendall here; Thyrza in The Pale Horse, 2010) was Samantha Briggs in The Faceless Ones, then Queen Victoria in Tooth and Claw
• Jonathan Firth (Drake here; Chapman in Hickory Dickory Dock; Robarts in Witness for the Prosecution, 2021) voiced John for The Doomwood Curse (2008), Cadwallader for Harvest of the Sycorax (2016), and the Duke of Cardenas for Kingdom of Lies (2018)
• Chloe [Naomi] Howman (Iris) voiced Mags for Litefoot and Sanders (2011)
• Peter Bennett was also first assistant director on fourteen stories (from Bad Wolf to The End of Time), production manager on The Doctor's Daughter, Midnight, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End, then produced another twenty-one instalments (from The Beast Below to Twice Upon a Time) and Torchwood: Children of Earth
• Barbara Kidd was also costume designer on nine stories (from Frontier in Space to Kinda) then thirteen revived series episodes (from A Christmas Carol to The Wedding of River Song)