Scripture forbids us to kill. Yet even the gentlest soul can be mesmerized by a tale of murder and mayhem. A good whodunit is like a metaphor for the mystery of the human condition itself.
No one understood this better than Agatha Christie. In her lifetime, the grande dame of the murder mystery authored more than 70 books and screenplays, making her the most widely published novelist of all time. Only the Bible and the works of Shakespeare have outsold her.
In September, VisionTV kicks off the new television season with a tribute to the “Queen of Crime.” The network salutes the anniversary of Agatha Christie’s birth (September 15, 1890) with a series of prime time specials celebrating the author’s life and work.
Feature Film – Agatha
Tuesday, Sept. 2, 10 pm & 12 am ET / 7 pm & 9 pm PT
Vanessa Redgrave stars as Agatha Christie in this 1979 drama based upon a real life mystery worthy of one of the author’s own whodunits: her infamous 11-day disappearance in 1926. Dustin Hoffman co-stars as an intrepid American journalist who tracks her down and pursues a romantic liaison. With Timothy Dalton. Michael Apted (the 7 Up series) directed.
Feature Film – Murder, She Said
Wednesday, Sept. 3, 9 pm & 12 am ET / 6 pm & 9 pm PT
Veteran British character actor Margaret Rutherford played Agatha Christie’s Miss Jane Marple in four feature film adaptations for MGM, and her charmingly eccentric portrayal of the famed spinster sleuth remains the most popular with fans of big-screen whodunits. In this first outing from 1961, loosely based on Christie’s 4.50 from Paddington, the elderly Miss Marple witnesses a murder through the window of a passing train. Unable to make the police believe her story, Miss Marple decides to investigate on her own, taking a job as a maid at the estate where she suspects the body to be buried. Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavlow, James Robertson Justice, Charles “Bud” Tingwell and Stringer Davis (Rutherford’s real-life husband) also star. Sharp-eyed viewers will notice that the housekeeper, Mrs. Kidder, is played by Joan Hickson, who went on to portray Miss Marple in a later series of Agatha Christie adaptations for the BBC. George Pollock directed.
Feature Film – Murder at the Gallop
Thursday, Sept. 4, 9 pm & 12 am ET / 6 pm & 9 pm PT
Was wealthy Mr. Enderby really frightened to death by a cat? This looks like a case for Miss Jane Marple, portrayed once again by the indomitable Margaret Rutherford. In this 1963 feature, the second of MGM’s Miss Marple adaptations, Agatha Christie’s spinster sleuth investigates the mysterious death of an elderly estate owner. With four of the old man’s relatives in line for a piece of his fortune, Miss Marple has no shortage of suspects – until the heirs start turning up dead as well. Stringer Davis, Robert Morley, Flora Robson and Charles “Bud” Tingwell also star. George Pollock directed. Based on Christie’s novel After the Funeral.
Docudrama – Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures
Friday, Sept. 5, 9 pm & 12 am ET / 6 pm & 9 pm PT
“I still have that feeling I’m pretending to be an author,” Agatha Christie once remarked. For all her fame and success, the “Queen of Crime” was a complex woman who guarded her privacy with great care. This 2004 docudrama, produced for the BBC, unravels the myth and mystery that has shrouded much of her personal life. Writer/director Richard Curson Smith (Wire in the Blood) draws upon the best-selling author’s own writings to recreate her childhood, her disastrous first marriage, her bizarre (and still unexplained) 11-day disappearance in1926, and her second marriage to a much younger man. Three different actresses portray Christie at various ages: British screen legend Anna Massey (Peeping Tom, Frenzy), Olivia Williams (Dollhouse, Rushmore) and Bonnie Wright (Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix). Raymond Coulthard, Stephen Boxer, Anthony O’Donnell and Mark Gatiss also star.
Feature Film – Agatha
