Witness For The Prosecution Film [News Update!]

ChristieFanForLife ChristieFanForLife
in General Agatha Christie discussions


The Witness for the Prosecution is already filmed and is set to air on BBC One in the UK on the 26th and 27th December, and on Acorn TV in the US late January 2017. 

In the beginning, I wasn't too keen on this film because it's been done before and when I heard of who the cast members were I was a little disappointed (except for Monica Dolan who played in the Poirot film After the Funeral with a wonderful acting performance) but when I saw this picture a few days ago I re-considered:



I will give this adaptation a chance and I hope the acting is up to par. I'm interested in this particular adaptation of Witness For The Prosecution because it's based on the short story instead of the play like the previous adaptations and there are some differences between the two. To my knowledge, this is the first time the short story has been adapted. I'm crossing my fingers, hoping they won't take any unnecessary liberties like with the previous recent adaptations -- liberties that mess with the storyline and the characters, shoehorning crude and titillating scenes to appeal to the younger generation, and senseless action sequences, specifically throughout the Poirot series (Lord Edgware Dies, The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd, Evil Under the Sun for example). Just be faithful to the story! And if changes are done have them line up to what Agatha Christie would have done. . . . and that requires some thinking -- fools rush in where angels fear to tread! So you scriptwriters, directors, and producers, tread carefully! This film, if done faithfully and respectfully, would be a good start to the new crop of films that are coming down the BBC pipeline. I hope they respect the material, be true to the Christie name, and keep in line with what is Christie and what isn't. 

Comments

  • GKCfanGKCfan Wisconsin, United States
    I think this is the first time the short story has been adapted for the screen, though it has also been adapted for radio.
  • ChristieFanForLife ChristieFanForLife
    edited December 2016
    GKCfan said:
    I think this is the first time the short story has been adapted for the screen, though it has also been adapted for radio.
    I remember listening to a 1949 radio adaptation of the short story but they had Leonard Vole get hit by a car in the end instead of leaving him alive and totally getting away with his crime. It still achieved the shock that Agatha Christie wrote in the short story though. 
  • GKCfanGKCfan Wisconsin, United States
    edited December 2016
    Right!  There was also a more recent radio adaptation with Miriam Margoyles as Romaine.
  • ChristieFanForLife ChristieFanForLife
    GKCfan said:
    Right!  There was also a more recent radio adaptation with Miriam Margoyles as Romaine.
    Was it from the play or the short story? And was it faithful?
  • GKCfanGKCfan Wisconsin, United States
    It was from the short story, and overall pretty faithful (I'm not sure if it was updated or not, but if so it wasn't too obvious), and it kept the original ending.
  • ChristieFanForLife ChristieFanForLife
    edited December 2016
    I don't think I'm interested in watching this adaptation now considering what I've read from this article (there's a link on "article"). So it seems to me that the intended purpose of this adaptation is to SHOCK, rather than being faithful to the story and relying on the shocking ending that Christie devised. Apparently that alone isn't shocking enough though it was said in a previous article, "experts insist that the new drama is true to the spirit of the original 1925 short story." No, that is a LIE! It's not even true to the spirit and essence of the story nor is it to Agatha Christie. For Pete's sake be faithful to the story and stop trying to be shocking just for the mere purpose of it! And who are these "experts" that this article's (click on the link) talking about? Are these the same ones that think Christie can't write, that she has shallow two-dimensional characters? They think they can write better?? I couldn't stomach the recent And Then There Were None adaptation . . . .I couldn't even watch the whole thing through (I didn't even make it through all of part 1 of the miniseries) and it looks like this will be the same. So in order for Christie's material to be good, it has to have F-bombs flying everywhere? And a sex scene? What in the world? 

    I'll stick to the 1957 and the 1980's version. At least both films respected Christie's work and made the story's true plot shine. I won't be watching this version at all. I'm not going to add to their ratings. Adding F-bombs, sex scenes, and all that jazz is nothing but a dumbing down. My mind is far too superior for that kind of trash.

    Honestly, I don't have any optimism concerning these new adaptations and will not watch these new adaptations until someone makes a change. If only they get a group of people who respect and understand Agatha Christie's work and agrees to be faithful and have an adaptation be in the spirit and essence of Christie, then these new adaptations will continue to go in the same direction they're going.  

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