The Pale Horse 2020 Two part BBC adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel of the same name, written by Sarah Phillips, directed by Leonora Lonsdale.
Rufus Sewell isn't having a good year, his wife died in the bath, electrocuted by a radio, he married the woman he'd been having an affair with and things aren't so rosy anymore. When his new mistress dies in the night, he panics and runs away. The police call him the next day and invite him down to the station. They've found a woman dead in the street and his name was written on a list that was hidden in her shoe. Rufus is confused, as he doesn't know the woman. Why is his name on that list, why is there a check mark next to it, is he in danger?
As he digs into things he finds his dead wife had visited the same psychics as the dead woman had. The three women live in the small market town of Much Deeping. He visits the town with his wife but doesn't get much new info. He meet a man at the police station, he's also on the list. The man tells him the psychics are witches and they're killing people for money. He finds his godson had visited the witches, shortly after his rich aunt died and left him a big inheritance. The cop on the case thinks Rufus is up to something but he never gets to find out what as someone kills him. Rufus figures out what's going on, nearly dying in the process.
It's not very Agatha Christie like, the story is really changed a lot and the ending is confusing and vague. It looks nice, it's a period drama that set in the 1950s. Well, up to the BBC's usual standards with good sets, costumes and cars. Great performances from the cast. Sarah Phelps has adapted some other Agatha Christie novels and people have complained about her pretentiousness and changes to the original story. I liked her version of And Then There Were None from 2015 but it's not my favorite adaptation. I also didn't care for her adaptation of The Casual Vacancy that same year. I didn't like the JK Rowling novel at all, it's uninteresting to me. Who wants to spend time with those horrible people.
I have some more of Sarah's Agatha adaptations to watch. I also found a copy of the 1997 film of The Pale Horse and two Agatha movies from the 1960s. I'll get to those as I can.
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