TV Preview: And Then There Were None

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
★★★★
Saturday 7.30pm, BBC First

Even if you're not a fan of Agatha Christie – perhaps especially if you're not a fan of Agatha Christie – you'll find yourself hooked on this wonderfully dark adaptation of one of her most famous works. There are drawing rooms, and English gentlemen and women with cut-glass accents, and everyone dresses for dinner. But there is absolutely nothing polite or genteel about this. Instead, writer Sarah Phelps has dug down to the claustrophobia and psychological bleakness that underpinned Christie's original tale and grabbed it with both hands, creating a thriller that is genuinely disturbing in the best possible way. As we've come to expect from these British period dramas, the cast is stonking and as a true ensemble everyone gets their chance to take centre stage. Before they'd knocked off, of course. Charles Dance, Burn Gorman, Noah Taylor, Aidan Turner, Miranda Richardson, Sam Neill, Anna Maxwell Martin – and others – embody the drama and the melodrama of the story superbly. Filmed under lowering skies off the coast of Cornwall, the mood is magnificently oppressive. And as the title suggests, there's no Marple or Poirot here to sort everything out. By the closing credits (very minor spoiler) there are none. Appreciating that having watched one episode you won't be able to wait to watch the next, BBC First is screening all three episodes back-to-back. Don't miss it.