Ordeal By Innocence 2018 Based on the 1958 novel Ordeal By Innocence by Agatha Christie, screenplay by Sarah Phelps, directed by Sandra Goldbacher. Broadcast in three parts on BBC One April 1 - 15 2018.
It's a fairly complex murder in the manor story that features a couple of the worst parents in the UK. They live in that big old mansion in Scotland. Bill Nighy plays the father and Anna Chancellor is the mother. As the story plays out it's revealed how utterly horrible these posh people are. Mom gets murdered and the son Jack is blamed. He's sent to prison. Eighteen months pass.
A physicist with issues comes to visit the family home, he has an alibi for Jack but it's too late, Jack got beaten to death in prison. Poor Jack didn't even get to stand trial. The family tries to drive the physicist away but he doesn't let it rest and things go bad quickly. Much of the story is told in flashbacks. We see how damaged they are. At the end we see some payback but it's too little to late.
A nicely made production about a horrible lot of people. It's different from the book but not necessarily improved. Agatha's fans complain a good bit abut Sarah Phelps BBC adaptions. I can see why though it doesn't bother me. It's mostly three hours of yelling and I could see watching other adaptations again before this one.
The novel has been adapted several times. There was a 1985 film with Donald Sutherland. I have a DVD to watch and hope to get to it someday. I did see the two TV adaptations, the first was the 2007 episode of Agatha Christie's Marple with Geraldine McEwan. I want to watch those Miss Marple programs again sometime. Secondly it was adapted in 2009 for the French series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie. I enjoyed that series a lot. It's the first series, the one set in the 30s. The second and third series are set in the 50s. They are even better than the first series and some of my favorite Christie adaptations.
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