This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – and judging by the number of TV programmes that have borrowed from Agatha Christie, the crime writer would have been very flattered indeed.Her great-grandson, TV and film producer James Prichard, who manages Christie’s literary and media rights, is delighted by the trend for Christie-ish murder mysteries like the Knives Out film franchise and Only Murders in the Building, starring Daniel Craig and Steve Martin respectively.
But most of all, he loves the BBC’s ratings-busting show The Traitors.He believes the show – hosted by Claudia Winkleman – is based on And Then There Were None, the famous Christie novel published in 1939, in which a group of people are stranded on an island and murdered, one by one.The Traitors also includes tropes associated with Christie, such as an ornate library and luxury train, often used as a plot device in Christie’s stories.
“I think The Traitors is brilliant. It’s absolutely based on an Agatha Christie murder-mystery concept,” Prichard says of the show, a game of trust and treachery that is credited with reviving reality TV.“At the beginning of the series, they’re on the train.
They’ve got the board with all the faces being picked off, one by one. They’ve got the library, it’s everything Agatha Christie. It’s And Then There Were None in lots of ways.
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