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2015 British Television Series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
And Then There Were None is a 2015 mystery thriller television series that was first broadcast on BBC One from 26 to 28 December 2015. The three-part programme was adapted by Sarah Phelps and directed by Craig Viveiros and is based on Agatha Christie's 1939 novel of the same name.[1][2][3] The series features an ensemble cast, including Douglas Booth, Charles Dance, Maeve Dermody, Burn Gorman, Anna Maxwell Martin, Sam Neill, Miranda Richardson, Toby Stephens, Noah Taylor, and Aidan Turner. The programme follows a group of strangers who are invited to an isolated island where they are murdered one by one for their past crimes.
And Then There Were None | |
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Genre | |
Based on | And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie |
Written by | Sarah Phelps |
Directed by | Craig Viveiros |
Starring | |
Composer | Stuart Earl |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of episodes | 3 |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Producer | Abi Bach |
Cinematography | John Pardue |
Running time | 180 minutes |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network | |
Release | 26 December – 28 December 2015 |
The drama, debuting to 6 million viewers, received critical acclaim with many praising the writing, performances, and cinematography. It also scored high ratings.
On a hot day in late August 1939, eight people, all strangers to each other, are invited to a small, isolated island off the coast of Devon, England, called Soldier's Island, by a "Mr. and Mrs. Owen". The guests settle in at the manor home on the island tended by two newly hired servants, a husband and wife, Thomas and Ethel Rogers, but their hosts are absent. When the guests sit down to dinner, they notice the centrepiece, ten abstract art deco figurines, supposedly representing ten soldiers arranged in a circle. Afterward, Thomas Rogers puts on a gramophone record, from which a voice accuses everyone present of a murder.[4] Shortly after this, one of the party dies from poisoning, and then more and more people are murdered, all in methods synonymous with a poem affixed in each bedroom. With each death, the murderer removes a figurine from the centrepiece to coincide with the rhyme's sinister disappearance of each "little soldier boy." The remaining people must discover who the murderer is before they run out of time and nobody remains.
And Then There Were None was commissioned by Ben Stephenson and Charlotte Moore for the BBC to mark the 125th anniversary of Agatha Christie's birth.[7] The adaptation was produced by Mammoth Screen in partnership with Agatha Christie Productions.[8][9][10]
Writer Sarah Phelps told the BBC that she was shocked by the starkness and brutality of the novel. Comparing the novel to Christie's other work, she stated, "Within the Marple and Poirot stories somebody is there to unravel the mystery, and that gives you a sense of safety and security, of predicting what is going to happen next... In this book that doesn't happen – no one is going to come to save you, absolutely nobody is coming to help or rescue or interpret."[11]
Maeve Dermody was cast two days before the read through of the script and was in Myanmar at the time.[12] She flew to the UK to begin work with a dialect coach and read the book in the first two weeks of filming.[13]
Filming began in July 2015.[14] Cornwall was used for many of the harbour and beach scenes, including Holywell Bay, Kynance Cove, and Mullion Cove.[15] Harefield House in Hillingdon, outside London, served as the location for the island mansion.[16] Production designer Sophie Beccher decorated the house in the style of 1930s designers like Syrie Maugham and Elsie de Wolfe.[17] The below stairs and kitchen scenes were shot at Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire.[18] Railway scenes were filmed at the South Devon Railway between Totnes and Buckfastleigh.[19]
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) | |
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1 | "Episode 1" | Craig Viveiros | Sarah Phelps | 26 December 2015 | 9.56[20][lower-alpha 1] | |
In August 1939, eight strangers arrive at Soldier Island, most having ostensibly been invited by old friends or the current ostensible owners, Mr and Mrs Owen. There is no host to greet them but there are domestic staff, Thomas and Ethel Rogers, a married couple. The "guests" find a copy of a children's rhyme, "Ten Little Soldiers", in each of their rooms and ten jade figurines on the dining room table. After dinner, Mr Rogers, who had been instructed to do so, plays a gramophone record, in which all the guests as well as Mr and Mrs Rogers are named as being responsible for the death(s) of another human being for which they evaded punishment. One of the guests (Blore) is revealed to be an impostor using another name. Eight guests refute the accusations made against them, but Philip Lombard and Anthony Marston do not. Marston dies shortly thereafter from cyanide-laced gin in a similar manner to that of the first little soldier. The next day, the cook Mrs Rogers is found dead in her bed from unknown causes, matching the second verse from the poem. Vera Claythorne shows Dr Armstrong that two of the soldiers in the dining room have disappeared. | ||||||
2 | "Episode 2" | Craig Viveiros | Sarah Phelps | 27 December 2015 | 8.45[20][lower-alpha 1] | |
The poisoning of both victims casts suspicion on Dr. Armstrong, who has his bag searched. As a hunt for the mysterious Mr Owen is conducted on the island, the nature behind the accusations begin to come to light; Philip Lombard confirms that he killed 21 Africans for a diamond reward, Emily Brent recounts the fateful past of her former maid, Beatrice Taylor, and General MacArthur succumbs to insanity, crippled with guilt over killing his subordinate and wife's lover, Arthur Richmond. After the General is found with his head smashed in with a telescope, the remaining seven realize that whoever left the mysterious message intends to make good on their threat, according to the rules of the nursery rhyme. Wargrave proposes a damning theory to the others that the killer is one of them. After the butler, Mr Rogers, is found split open with an axe, and Miss Brent is found fatally stabbed in the throat, the five survivors band together to search all the rooms and belongings to unmask the killer and save themselves. | ||||||
3 | "Episode 3" | Craig Viveiros | Sarah Phelps | 28 December 2015 | 8.33[20][lower-alpha 1] | |
Five of the original ten are left. Judge Wargrave is found, dressed up to match the Chancery verse of the poem, with a gunshot wound to the head. He is declared dead by Armstrong. The remaining four engage in a demented bacchanal with alcohol and drugs. Vera and Philip have sex. During the night, Armstrong leaves the house, leaving the other three to believe that he is the killer. Blore is ambushed and fatally stabbed by the killer, who then partially covers the body with a bear skin rug. Subsequently, Armstrong's corpse is brought in by the tide. Vera manages to lift Philip's gun and when he charges at her, she shoots him dead. Delirious, she returns to her room where a noose is waiting. In a trance, she begins to hang herself. Then, Judge Wargrave walks in, quite alive, and reveals how he wanted to create an unsolvable mystery and punish the guilty, and how he intends to shoot himself to complete the poem, explaining the details of his scheme. She tries to bargain with him but he pulls the chair out from under her. He returns to the dining room, where he has set the table for two. He loads the revolver with the final bullet and shoots himself. The revolver recoils to land at the other table setting, thus creating a presumably unsolvable mystery for the police who will arrive to find 10 corpses on the remote island. |
And Then There Were None received critical acclaim and was a ratings success for the BBC, with the first episode netting over 6 million viewers and becoming the second most watched programme on Boxing Day. Each of the two subsequent episodes netted over 5 million viewers.[21]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, And Then There Were None has an approval rating of 86% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "Dark yet dashingly executed, And Then There Were None offers a brazenly misanthropic look at human nature."[22]
Ben Dowell of the Radio Times gave a positive review.[23] Jasper Reese for The Daily Telegraph gave the first episode 4 out of 5 stars, calling it a "pitch-black psychological thriller as teasing murder mystery" and "spiffingly watchable".[24]
Reviewing the first episode, UK daily newspaper The Guardian's Sam Wollaston noted, "[...] it also manages to be loyal, not just in plot but in spirit as well. I think the queen of crime would approve. I certainly do. Mass murder rarely gets as fun as this."[25] Reviewing the final episode for The Daily Telegraph, Tim Martin gave it 4 out of 5 stars, calling it a "class act", and praising the adaptation for highlighting the darkness of Christie's novel, which he claimed no previous adaptation had attempted.[26] The Russian adaption, ‘’Desyat Negrityat’’ from 1987, however, was the first visual adaption to include the novel’s original ending.
And Then There Were None was the first in a series of Christie adaptations scripted by Sarah Phelps for the BBC. The further instalments consisted of: The Witness for the Prosecution (2016), Ordeal by Innocence (2018), The ABC Murders (2018) and The Pale Horse (2020).
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