Ordeal by Innocence scriptwriter: 'Agatha Christie? I'd rather watch Masterchef'

If the BBC’s latest Agatha Christie adaptation appears to be a radical departure from the cosy whodunnits of old, there is a good reason.

The screenwriter responsible for tonight’s BBC One drama, Ordeal by Innocence, has confessed that she has never seen a Christie film or television series, and would rather watch an episode of Masterchef.

The three-part adaptation by Sarah Phelps is a dark psychological drama about the brutal murder of a mother whose five adopted children are among the suspects. The family’s idyllic-seeming country home hides terrible secrets.

Asked if she had deliberately avoided writing a “traditional” Christie adaptation, Phelps said: “I have no idea what the stereotype of Christie would have been, because I’ve never watched one.

I wouldn’t sit down and go, ‘Tell you what, let’s watch a bit of Christie.’ I would never do that. I’d probably watch Masterchef or Nigella or something way before I’d watch that.

“They didn’t interest me.”

Nor had she read any of Christie’s books - a fact she concedes is “rather unusual” - until she was asked to adapt And Then There Were None, a ratings hit for the BBC over Christmas 2015. There followed Witness for the Prosecution in 2016, and Ordeal by Innocence was pencilled in for last Christmas until sexual assault allegations were made against one of its star, Ed Westwick.

Westwick denies the allegations but the producers chose to replace him with another actor, Christian Cooke, and recall the entire cast to Scotland in January to re-shoot 35 scenes.

Phelps said: “I didn’t have a pre-existing relationship with Agatha Christie, because I don’t see it as my job to serve her hagiography. What I want to know is what happens with these characters.

“I don’t care whodunnit; I want to know why they did it. Why is this person dead?”

Reading the books in order to adapt them made her realise that Christie’s work is darker than some previous adaptations have suggested. Perhaps the most famous is the 1974 film version of Murder on the Orient Express, featuring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot and an all-star cast of suspects: Sir Sean Connery, Lauren Bacall, Sir John Gielgud and Ingrid Bergman.

“When I came to read And Then There Were None I was startled and shocked to find that they were, in fact, brutal. There was a cold and witty mind behind them,” Phelps said.

“It struck me that instead of these being the parlour games of murder mysteries that I thought they were, there was actually something else going on. Also, because I’d never read any of the books before, I didn’t have any of the sentimental attachment that you sometimes have for something you’ve read again and again.”

She has never read a Poirot story, although her next adaptation is one of his cases, The ABC Murders.

Phelps, whose previous television credits include EastEnders, The Casual Vacancy and The Crimson Field, has set Ordeal by Innocence in the 1950s.

She has also taken “some very clear and quite big liberties” with the novel, including the ending, but they have the blessing of Christie’s estate.

James Prichard, the author’s great-grandson and chairman of Agatha Christie Limited, said: “Christie disliked the television adaptations she saw in her lifetime, he added. “The reason she decided they were terrible is because they weren’t brave enough, they weren’t radical. Well, nobody is going to accuse Sarah of not being brave or radical.”