Jim BroadbentandEmma Thompsonhave boardedHugh Laurie’s three-part adaptation ofAgatha Christie’sWhy Didn’t They Ask Evans?for BritBox. The acting icons will make special appearances as British aristocrats Lord and Lady Marcham.
They join a cast led byWill Poulter, who plays the “honest and amiable” Bobby Jones, who witnesses a man’s death with Lucy Boynton’s Frankie, “Lord and Lady Marcham’s daughter, a clever and unflappable young woman with a flair for adventure.”
RELATED:‘The ABC Murders’ Review: Amazon’s Agatha Christie Adaptation Is a Somber Affair
A new generation has been exposed to the Queen of Crime’s books, with directorKenneth Branagh’s glossy adaptation ofMurder on the Orient Expressand its upcoming sequel,Death on the Nile. On television, BBC One and writerSarah Phelpshave delivered five back-to-back adaptations of Christie’s writing –And Then There Were None(2015),The Witness for the Prosecution(2016),Ordeal by InnocenceandThe ABC Murders(both 2018), and most recently,The Pale Horse(2020).
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?Was first published in the UK in 1934. The novel has previously been adapted for television in 1980, 2011 and 2013.
The cast for Laurie’s BritBox show also includesMaeve Dermody(The Secret Garden) as Moira, the troubled wife of psychiatrist Dr. James Nicholson,Conleth Hill(Game of Thrones) as Bobby’s genial mentor, Dr. Alwyn Thomas, along withDaniel Ings(I Hate Suzie) as Roger Bassington-ffrench, andJonathan Jules(Small Axe) as Ralph “Knocker” Beadon, Bobby’s trusted friend and former shipmate.Miles Jupp(The Durrells) will play Roger’s brother Henry Bassington-ffrench withAmy Nuttall(Downton Abbey) as his wife, Sylvia Bassington-ffrench.Alistair Petrie(Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) also joined the cast as Bobby’s father, Rev. Richard Jones, along withPaul Whitehouse(The Personal History of David Copperfield) as the landlord of a country inn,Morwenna Banks(Skins) as Mrs. Cayman, andJoshua James(Black Mirror) as Frankie’s long-suffering ally, Dr. George Arbuthnot.
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?currently doesn’t have a release date. In the meantime, check out the first image of the show and read its official synopsis below: her
Based on the iconic 1934 Agatha Christie novel,Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?follows the local Vicar’s son, Bobby Jones (Poulter), and his whip-smart friend, socialite Lady Frances “Frankie” Derwent (Boynton) on their crime-solving adventure after they discover the crumpled body of a dying man who, with his last breath, gasps the cryptic question of the title. Armed only with a photograph of a beautiful young woman found in the dead man’s pocket, these amateur detectives pursue, and are pursued by, the answer to the mystery.
KEEP READING:‘Ordeal by Innocence’ Review: Amazon Gives the Agatha Christie Classic a New Twist
