BBC & BritBox International co-commission Agatha Christie drama ‘Murder Is Easy’

L-R: Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre & Meenu Gaur

UK pubcaster the BBC and its JV streamer BritBox International have co-commissioned an adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel Murder Is Easy.

Mammoth Screen (The Serpent) and Agatha Christie Limited (Death On The Nile) will produce the 2 x 60-minute thriller, which will film this summer and is being adapted for the screen by Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre, while Meenu Gaur will direct.

Fifth Season will handle international sales outside of the UK, Americas and South Africa, while the series will air on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK, and on BritBox International’s streaming service in the US, Canada and South Africa.

The original novel was first published in 1939, though this adaptation of Murder Is Easy moves the action to 1954. Opening aboard a London-bound train, Luke Fitzwilliam meets Miss Pinkerton, who tells him that a killer is on the loose in the sleepy English village of Wychwood under Ashe.

The villagers believe the deaths are mere accidents, but Miss Pinkerton knows otherwise – and when she’s later found dead on her way to Scotland Yard, Luke feels he must find the killer before they can strike again.

Murder Is Easy is the latest in the ongoing series of Agatha Christie adaptations made by ITV Studios-backed Mammoth Screen and Agatha Christie Limited for the BBC, following the productions of And Then There Were None, The Witness For The Prosecution, Ordeal By Innocence, The ABC Murders and The Pale Horse.

Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, said: “Agatha Christie on the BBC has become a classic combination, and in Murder is Easy we have one of the Queen of Crime’s finest page-turners in a new adaptation that both speaks to us today and honours her incredible talent for brilliantly entertaining, skilfully told mystery.”