BBC One adds seven Agatha Christie dramas

UK broadcaster BBC One has kicked off the Edinburgh International Television Festival with an agreement to broadcast seven new Agatha Christie-inspired dramas over the next four years.

The deal with is Agatha Christie Productions, whose production wing will wotk with ITV Studios-owned Mammoth Screen on the adaptations.

The first Christie novel to be adapted will be Ordeal by Innocence, with Ancient Egypt murder mystery Death Comes as the End and The ABC Murders, which follows the race to stop a serial killer in 1930s Britain, also lined up.

Sarah Phelps will write the script for Ordeal by Innocence, with other writers announced at later dates. Hilary Strong and James Prichard are executive producers on Ordeal, with Karen Thrussell and Damien doing the same for Mammoth Screen and Matthew Read for the BBC.

This comes after BBC One’s latest Christie adaptation, And Then There Were None, rated well in December. Furthermore, filming is underway on The Witness for the Prosecution, which Phelps also wrote and adapted.

“These new commissions continue BBC One’s special relationship as the home of Agatha Christie in the UK,” said BBC director of content Charlotte Moore. “Our combined creative ambition to reinvent Christie’s novels for a modern audience promises to bring event television of the highest quality to a new generation enjoyed by fans old and new.”