The new BritBox series Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence is the first modern English-language adaptation of Christie’s work. It takes the married couple of Christie’s stories and turns them into exes who start a detective agency together and rekindle their old chemistry.
Opening Shot: A woman writes in a journal. Her voice over talks about how “everyone loves a bit of crime.”
The Gist: Tuppence Cowley (Antonia Thomas) is an actor who lives in L.A. but has returned home to London to “think about” her marriage. Tommy Beresford (Josh Dylan) is a crime novelist whose previous novels were big successes but who has had a devil of a time coming up with a new story.
The two of them dated when they went to university together, but haven’t seen each other in years. But they literally run into each other at the Alice In Wonderland-themed wedding of Tommy’s friend Bingo (Toby Regbo). His bride, Alice (Madeline Walker), is an influcencer with a deep-pocketed father (Sean Pertwee), and Bingo is dressed as the White Rabbit.
One of the guests, Tatiana (Fola Evans-Akingbola), is stabbed to death, and when Tuppence finds her, she says it was Bingo, because the person who killed her was in a rabbit costume. But both Tommy and Tuppence think that something about that is off, and they investigate the murder together, with an assist from Tommy’s aunt Ada (Imelda Staunton), who was a private investigator until she retired.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Written by Phoebe Eclair-Powell, Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence is based on the detective couple Christie established in a number of books over 50 years. The format, though, feels closer to cozy mystery series like The Chelsea Detective.
Our Take: Eclair-Powell does a really good job of establishing the flirtatious relationship and professional partnership between Tommy and Tuppence in this modern adaptation of Christie’s characters, but as you might expect, the mystery that they solve in the first two episodes suffers because of it. We really enjoyed the chemistry between Thomas and Dylan, even if the episode doesn’t really address their previous relationship all that much or even explain that Tuppence is married and having relationship issues until near the end of the first episode. There’s also good comedic tension between Tuppence’s risk-taking and Tommy’s sensible approach.
But the mystery itself in the first two episodes is muddled at times, with quick recitations of who might have spoofed whose cell phone passing as evidence. Pertwee is underutilized, and his connection to the murder is under-explained. There doesn’t seem to be enough play-along to satisfy mystery fans, and much of the mystery itself plays out in a bit of a paint-by-numbers fashion. We’re not even 100 percent sure what Staunton’s role is going to be as Ada, aside from being bawdy during bingo games and giving the young detectives advice.
Performance Worth Watching: We mentioned the chemistry between the show’s stars, but the ensemble also includes Chizzy Akudolu and Callie Cooke as the police detectives whom T&T interact with on cases, and Charlie Condou as the gender-fluid owner of a pub in the building where T&T’s flat is located.
Parting Shot: We hear and see Aunt Ada writing in her journal again; and on the spine, it’s marked “The Wedding Party.”
Our Call: STREAM IT. Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence is an entertaining cozy mystery that has a good time establishing the main characters, but whose mysteries need a little help.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.