Multiple part Christie TV vs. feature length

austin.pearce.35

Who thinks that Agatha Christie is better in feature length format than in multiple parts? Personally, I don't think Agatha Christie's works are suitable for multiple part adaptations.

Griselda

I think that there are some richly layered works which might work well in consecutive episodes. What would be needed would be a narrator to remind the viewer, each episode, of what had gone on before in terms of his thinking and suspicions. The best examples would be those in which the narrator was also the sleuth, so never Marple or Poirot mysteries, but definitelyThe Crooked House and The Moving Finger would work extremely well in this respect. And as it happens, some producers are thinking of filming The Crooked House, so why not give this episodic format at a go? Where there is beautiful characterisation, and certainly this is the case in The Moving Finger, which I think we can hardly ever tire of, it would be nice to linger in a drawing room per episode, and soak up the characterisation, the Miss Barton, or the Dane Calthorpe's and really inform our understanding of the pressures facing the murderer when we are happily immersed in the cosy and respectable microcosm of the English village of the 1940s. The romances, Jerry and SPOILER ALERT Megan, and Joanna and Owen could really be given a life of their own. We could experience the horror of each letter arriving. Actually, one episode on tv isn't enough to bring out the characterisation of TMF. But for Death on the Nile, or Murder on the Orient Express, I think you'd lose a sense of what was going on by serialising. You'd be confused. As, in Murder on the OE, there is only one murder early on, I think you' lose the sense of horror and death after Episode 1 completely. TMF is almost more like Jane Austen with a death, so enjoyable is the social stuff. But for other mysteries, you would need to create pace, and the sense of events overtaking the murderer, and you'd lose this, as you astutely point out, Austin. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is quite dense and lengthy, and seems to cover weeks and weeks. Would it be better in episodes - more time to deal with such an unusual narrative form, and to suggest Poirot the friend, and Poirot who sees through things? But isn't The ABC Murders so difficult with it's almost two murderers - the one we are really narrated up the garden path to believe in, and the other one - that we need more episodes to help us to follow it?

Tommy_A_Jones

I would think Multiple parts would work with the Stand Alones and I think some of the Poirot Episodes would have een better in Multiple parts so they coul'd have left out less, I definitely think The Big Four and The Labours of Hercule should have been done as individual short stories.

tudes

I agree. I think the Labours of Hercules, for instance, would be better in multiple parts. I think it depends on the story. I think T&T, The Man in the Brown Suit could work very well in multiple parts (maybe because they've more the adventure style). On the other hand, I can't image Evil under the sun working in this way.

MarcWatson-Gray

The only problem i have with feature length format.Is that due to time constraints,so many bits are cut !!!

Maybe serialisation (multiple parts)would allow more time for "cut" charactersto be included and character development of main players ??

Griselda

I think, Marc, that you are right. Also, to experience the action over a few or several episodes would have us experiencing the key moments pretty much in the manner that the lead protagonist did - over weeks, with boring days in between. But you would have to have a narrator who is the sleuth to allow them to come out with internal monologue in order to create those little crescendos and cliff top moments that tv episodes need to have. You might not have enough otherwise. A funny thing thought that both movies of Death on the Nile, ( David Suchet one, and one with Simon McCorkindale, and also Greta Satchi) are fantastic, so didn't need breaking up into episodes.

MarcWatson-Gray

Great examples Griselda . Death on The Nile (Both )are great movies..and probably would not be enhanced by serialisation..

Anubis

Interesting topic and comments by all. I tend to associate feature-length films with the cinema and multiple-part films with television. A serialized TV production gives you the luxury to explore side plots and the smaller details, whereas cinematic movies tend to have time to only focus on the main points. So if that production of Crooked House ever does get going, then for the reasons Griselda gives above, I can envision it being done better as a TV serial than a movie. And these days, we can "binge-watch" the entire production at one go. Julian Fellowes, whose name has been associated with the Crooked House film, would certainly be a good candidate for involvement — he's responsible for the Downton Abbey serial as well as a series of investigations into famous unsolved crimes, available on DVD, called A Most Mysterious Murder.

Tommy_A_Jones

I agree some of the Poirot's would be ruined if they were in Parts like Death On The Nile and Evil Under The Sun.