“America has had a
wonderful Oedipal relationship with England in that it could not have
us ruling them but could not do without our tailors.”
– Nick Foulkes
“It is a real
honour to mount this exhibition showcasing the talents, craft and
vitality of the most famous tailoring address in the world. Savile
Row is rightly recognised for its long tradition of ultimate quality,
but it is also a tradition that is living and thriving; training new
generations of craftsmen, constantly inspiring the worlds of fashion
and style and responding to customers’ changing needs and desires.
Americans have long recognised the unique charms of a bespoke Savile
Row suit and we have a truly rich selection of pieces in this
exhibition exploring this special relationship from Buffalo Bill to
Samuel L Jackson.”
– Pierre Lagrange,
Chairman of Savile Row Bespoke
The Savile Row
Bespoke Association takes pleasure in announcing the exhibition,
Savile Row and America: a Sartorial Special Relationship. The event
is hosted in Washington DC by Sir Peter Westmacott, British
Ambassador to the United States of America, at the historic British
Ambassador’s residence at 3100 Massachusetts Avenue, NW. An
original Lutyens house, the Embassy is considered one of the most
exceptional in the world.
Curated by
critically acclaimed author and life-long Savile Row aficionado, Nick
Foulkes, the exhibition centres on the special relationship between
Savile Row and the United States. It focuses on important commissions
from famous Statesmen and Hollywood legends through to customers of
today. The showcase demonstrates Savile Row’s position at the
forefront of its craft, today catering to the bespoke needs of the
style-conscious modern gentleman. Visitors will appreciate the skill
of London’s bespoke tailors in all their diversity: from historic
companies trading as early as 1689 through to contemporary houses
established within the past few years.
Homage is paid to
Savile Row’s American customers both past and present, with names
such as Junius Spencer Morgan and his son J. P. Morgan, William
Randolph Hearst, John Jacob Astor, Rudolph Valentino, Charlie
Chaplin, Fred and Adele Astaire, Bill Blass, Gary Cooper, Frank
Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jnr, Louis B. Meyer, Samuel Goldwyn, Gerry Ford,
Douglas Fairbanks, Katharine Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Humphrey Bogart,
Stewart Grainger, Gregory Peck, Duke Ellington, Ambassador Joseph
Kennedy, Presidents Harry Truman, George Bush Sr, Ronald Reagan, John
Paul Getty, Cole Porter, Bing Crosby, Steve McQueen and Michael
Jackson, plus present stars such as Henry Kissinger, Madonna and
Gwyneth Paltrow.
The above roll call
and those of many more is brought to life by over 70 outfits and 175
artefacts, including ledgers, patterns, photographs, documents and
curiosities, collectively demonstrating the history and heritage of
Savile Row and the unique relationships formed between one small
street and a nation.
In addition to the
main exhibition, guests will also have the opportunity to view
clothing made for members of the Royal family as well as a selection
of garments specially created for Bentley drivers by five Savile Row
tailoring houses. The show also includes a number of exquisite
bespoke pieces from Huntsman ‘s Gregory Peck exhibition, which met
with critical acclaim in London last year.
Henley Royal
Regatta's official YouTube channel is the best place to catch all the
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Henley Royal Regatta
is the pre-eminent, river-based international rowing regatta. It has
an unparalleled
Despite a long and
diverse career in the theatre and cinema, Patrick Macnee, who has
died aged 93, will be remembered as John Steed, the
umbrella-twirling, bowler-hatted hero of the stylish derring-do TV
series The Avengers. The programme, written and presented in
“swinging” 1960s London, was thrilling and dynamic, and it made a
star of Macnee and his sidekicks Honor Blackman (as Cathy Gale) and
Diana Rigg (as Emma Peel).
In 1960, the series
Police Surgeon, produced by ABC with Ian Hendry as its star, had come
to an end. The writer Brian Clemens was asked to devise a show on
similar lines, but more light-hearted, and came up with The Avengers,
in which Hendry would be a doctor, David Keel, being helped in his
search for revenge on the drug-dealer killers of his lover by a shady
and enigmatic man, John Steed, from some mysterious intelligence
service.
The show was
immediately popular, with Hendry and Macnee investigating
assassinations, lethal radioactivity, missing scientists and
political extremists. Macnee was told to develop the character of
Steed in any way he fancied. “They were very sweet people and they
just gave me the name,” he recalled. “They said: ‘Have you read
the James Bond books? Go away and make up a character.’”
When Hendry left the
show after the first series, the emphasis shifted towards the
flamboyant Steed. From the time the series took root in 1961 until
1969 when it was wound up, and by which time a third female sidekick,
Tara King (played by Linda Thorson) had joined him, Macnee as Steed
was the constant factor.
He reprised the role
in 1976 when Clemens launched The New Avengers, which partnered
Macnee with Gareth Hunt (as Mike Gambit) and Joanna Lumley (as
Purdey), and ran for two series. Macnee claimed that Steed was based
on his own ironic approach to life. During the second world war, many
of his friends had been killed, he said, and he had acquired a “wry
detachment” which he liked to think he had infused into The
Avengers.
Macnee was born in
London, the son of Daniel, a racehorse trainer at Lambourn,
Berkshire, and his wife, Dorothea (nee Hastings), a niece of the Earl
of Huntingdon. Macnee claimed that his family life had been chaotic
and was dominated by a “tight group of women”. He was sent to
boarding school – Summerfields, Oxford – at the age of five and
then to Eton, where he recalled being whipped. While at Eton, he
opened a betting book, helped by the racing tips passed on to him by
his father. He also raced his own greyhound at the dog track in
nearby Slough.
Macnee later said
that he felt that first school and then the armed forces (in 1942 he
went into the Royal Navy and commanded a motor torpedo boat) stifled
his emotions. It was to escape this psychological straitjacket that
his thoughts turned to the stage. He won a place at the Webber
Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, London, and became a leading man at
Windsor Rep.
Unimpressed by the
overall prospects in post-war Britain, he went off to Canada, where
there were opportunities for young actors on TV. He sent much of his
earnings back to his wife, the actor Barbara Douglas, whom he had
married in 1942. He also took parts in many US TV shows and stage
productions. In 1949 he appeared in a TV version of Macbeth and in
1953 was in Othello. In 1951 he played the young Jacob Marley in the
film of Scrooge (A Christmas Carol in the US). He was working in
London in a rare production role, on the documentary series Winston
Churchill: The Valiant Years, when he was offered the part in The
Avengers.
He appeared in more
than 150 stage plays from his 20s to his 70s, including the Broadway
production of Sleuth in the early 1970s and the leading role in
Killing Jessica in the West End of London in 1986-87. He played both
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson several times. A memorable big-screen
part was as Sir Denis Eton-Hogg in This Is Spinal Tap (1984). He was
also in The Howling (1981) and the Bond film A View to a Kill (1985).
Kinky Boots,
recorded by Macnee and Honor Blackman in 1964, finally made the
charts in 1990.
The cult status of
The Avengers continued to grow, and in 1990 a recording of Kinky
Boots made by Macnee and Blackman and first released by Decca in
1964, which at the time had failed to reach the charts, made the UK
top 10. In 1998 a film version of The Avengers, starring Ralph
Fiennes as Steed and Uma Thurman as Emma Peel, featured Macnee as the
voice of Invisible Jones. The following year he appeared with his
former New Avengers co-star Lumley in a TV adaptation of Rosamunde
Pilcher’s Nancherrow (1999).
Macnee’s first
marriage ended in divorce, as did his second, to the actor Kate
Woodville. His third wife, Baba Sekely, died in 2007. He is survived
by the two children of his first marriage, Rupert and Jenny.
• Daniel Patrick
Macnee, actor, born 6 February 1922; died 25 June 2015
In 2015, the
Spanish Riding School will be celebrating the 450th anniversary of
its first written mention with gala performances on Heldenplatz.
The first mention of
the existence of a predecessor of the later Spanish Riding School is
dated 20 September 1565: A document bearing this date refers to an
amount of 100 gulden for creating a "Thumblplatz im Garten an
der Purgkh alhie" (a playground in the garden on the castle
boulevard). An outdoor riding and tournament ground was installed at
the time near the Imperial Palace on land presently occupied by
Josefsplatz.
On the occasion of
the 450th anniversary festivities, an anniversary performance will be
held on Heldenplatz at 7.00 pm on 26 June 2015 in front of the Office
of the Federal President: The Royal Andalusian Riding School and its
horses will be coming specially from Jerez to Vienna in order to give
a very special presentation of classical riding art together with the
Lipizzaners of the Spanish Riding School. The glittering Fête
Impériale will then be held in the Imperial Palace. Another
performance follows on 27 June 2015 at 7.00 pm. The general rehearsal
starts at 7.00 pm on 25 June.
450 years of the
Spanish Riding School
Dress rehearsal: 25
June 2015, 7.00 pm
Anniversary
performance: 26 June 2015, 7.00 pm
Gala performance: 27
June 2015, 7.00 pm
Tickets priced from
€25 to €250 can be purchased at www.srs.at
Like all things
golf, it originated in Scotland and probably derived its diminutive
name from the kilt. It’s a mini kilt of sorts – for your shoe. It
probably had the job of keeping rain and mud from the golfer’s
foot, since things can get messy in a hurry in the highlands.
Lore has it that the
Duke of Windsor (of Wallis Simpson fame), popularized many of the
styles of golf shoes worn today when he sported them stateside,
handsomely festooned with the hitherto unknown kiltie. In the Duke’s
time, kilties were known as oxfords – as in the whole shoe – with
a ‘skirt’ of fringed leather draped over the instep covering the
laces and eyelets. Today, the term refers simply to the fringed
accessory that we all know and love.
So, about our
kilties. You may have noticed that they’re pretty generous in width
and length. That’s because like a good set of bangs, they make the
haircut. There’s nothing worse, in my view, than a skimpy kiltie
that’s too short or narrow for the shoe. It’s got a job to do and
ought to have the heft to do it.
The unique feature
of our kiltie is that it has two hidden metal strips inside that
allow you to mold it to the shape of your foot. That keeps it looking
neat and sweet, fitting for a round of golf with his highness. So
wear it or not, as you choose – but remember that it’s history is
a noble, if murky one, and the look, utterly, exquisitely royal.
IN some fashion
quarters, enthusiasm for old-school heritage style is fading like
embers. But elsewhere, it is raging out of control, with evermore
vivid hues and ornate detail. One need only glance down, at the
recent spate of colorized bucks and saddle shoes. Or take a gander at
the even more surprising reappearance of an over-the-vamp,
over-the-top shoe detail one might have thought was gone forever: the
kiltie.
Like some soap-opera
character declared dead in a South American plane crash, only to be
found alive years later (and looking suspiciously like a completely
different actor), the charmingly oddball golf-shoe detail that is the
kiltie is back, in a totally different incarnation. Once an
inescapable facet of 1950s country clubs, a kiltie is a long fringed
tongue of leather that attaches to a golf shoe’s inside tongue and
folds over the laces.
But just as those
golf shoes, with their treacherous metal spikes, were verboten inside
the clubhouse, the kiltie itself almost never appeared other than on
golf shoes. The style, which was first spotted on George V in 1905,
was widely adopted in the ’20s, then faded out in the ’70s. Today
a kiltie is as likely to be found on a golf shoe as those old metal
spikes are.
So the comeback was
not on the links but the runways. Kilties have been spotted here and
there for a couple of seasons, a favorite (in a black-and-white
spectator style) of Thom Browne, but this spring several labels have
come out with them. There is quite a range, too, from subtle styles
in black and brown from Ralph Lauren, Mark McNairy, Billy Reid and
Church’s English Shoes to far more conspicuous color combinations.
Prada made a handful with eye-popping accents.
“I am wearing a
pair even as we speak,” said Billy Reid, on the phone at home in
Florence, Ala. “I love how it reminds me of a country club, and
highballs and whiskey sours. When I was young, my summer job was
bartender and lifeguard at a country club, so I saw a lot of these.”
Mr. Reid said he was
surprised at how well they had sold.
“There’s a lot
of novelty happening in shoes,” he said. “Whether it’s colored
leather, fabric, hardware or soles, that is what guys seem to be
interested in. What I like about the kiltie — at least the way I
did it, in this beat-up horsehide — is that it’s good for the guy
who might want to buy a colorful shoe but doesn’t want to go that
far.”
He pointed out that
they go well with a seersucker suit and also look great with jeans or
khakis, adding a dandified note to lazy summer dressing. As
preposterous as it may sound, the old-fashioned propriety and
slightly silly elegance of the kiltie sends a message: that a man
should both take, and not take, style too seriously.
Far better to let
your shoes explain that than you.
2 July to 18 October
2015, National Portrait Gallery, London
This fascinating
photographic exhibition will illustrate the life of actress and
fashion icon Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993). From her early years as a
chorus girl in London’s West End through to her philanthropic work
in later life, Portraits of an Icon will celebrate one of the world’s
most photographed and recognisable stars.
A selection of more
than seventy images will define Hepburn’s iconography, including
classic and rarely seen prints from leading twentieth-century
photographers such as Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Terry O’Neill,
Norman Parkinson and Irving Penn. Alongside these, an array of
vintage magazine covers, film stills, and extraordinary archival
material will complete her captivating story.
#Hepburn
Supported by Midge
and Simon Palley
With support from
the Bernard Lee Schwartz Foundation and the Audrey Hepburn Exhibition
Supporters Group
Organised with
support from the Audrey Hepburn Estate / Luca Dotti & Sean
Hepburn Ferrer
The
cult of Audrey Hepburn: how can anyone live up to that level of chic?
An exhibition of
rare photographs of Audrey Hepburn reveals that even at the age of
nine she knew how to work the camera. Bee Wilson celebrates the woman
who set a new standard for style
The greatest film
stars inspire certain labels that stick to them as surely and
superficially as school nicknames. Marlon Brando is always a “screen
legend”. Lauren Bacall is a “siren” and Montgomery Clift, a
“heart-throb”. As for Audrey Hepburn, she was, and is, “iconic”:
occasionally, an “icon of elegance”, sometimes a “style icon”,
but mostly, just plain “icon”.
As labels go, it
could be worse. It is certainly less reductive than “sex symbol”
(Marilyn’s fate). Hepburn’s enduring iconic status is a sign of
how strong her cultural currency remains. Fashion writers invoke her
constantly. When enthusing about sunglasses or little black dresses
or gloves, it is still de rigueur to mention that scene from
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, with Hepburn clutching a paper cup of
coffee and a croissant, staring coolly into a window full of
jewellery.
Now, more than 70
photographs of the star can be seen in a small but dazzling
exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Half are from the
personal collection of her children, Sean Hepburn Ferrer (the son she
had with her first husband, actor Mel Ferrer) and Luca Dotti (the son
she had with her second husband, an Italian psychiatrist). Ferrer and
Dotti own their mother’s name as Audrey Hepburn™. In 2013, they
granted permission to Galaxy chocolate to recreate her image in CGI.
You may have seen the adverts; they had a Roman Holiday vibe, with a
young Audrey driving through Italy in an open-top car. Her sons also
worked closely with the NPG on the new exhibition. Its title, you may
not be surprised to hear, is Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon.
And what an icon she
was. As Billy Wilder said: “God kissed Audrey Hepburn on the cheek,
and there she was”, meaning: she was born a star. No one has ever
worn a white shirt quite as she did. To peruse this glamorous
collection of photographs – including work by Cecil Beaton, Yousuf
Karsh and Irving Penn – is to be reminded how sublimely photogenic
Hepburn was. Others have been called gamine, but only she fully
inhabited that identity: the skittishness and innocence. On another
face, to have eyebrows so darkly painted and eyes so swishily lined
might have seemed overkill; on her it looked natural. She
photographed equally well in black-and-white and in colour. Here she
is in 1951, in one of her informal black tops, grinning for American
Vogue, like a child with a secret. And there she is four years later,
radiant in pink Givenchy couture during the filming of War and Peace.
Even in family album
snapshots – or at least the examples chosen by the NPG – she has
a ballerina’s poise. The earliest image in the exhibition shows her
in 1938 aged just nine. She has a Milly-Molly-Mandy haircut and no
eyeliner yet, but she has already mastered how to smile for the
camera without giving everything away. Richard Avedon – whose 60s
portraits are some of the most haunting in the exhibition,
accentuating the vulnerability of her swan neck – claimed that he
found Hepburn paradoxically hard to photograph. She left so little
work for him to do: “However you defined the encounter of the
photographer and subject, Audrey won.”
Our continued
reverence for Hepburn is interesting because it reveals the extent to
which we remain in thrall to beautiful stills. An icon is something
lovely and precious but also motionless: symbolic, not real. It is a
flat picture of a golden saint before which you kneel, unworthy. As
such, an exhibition of photography – rather than a film
retrospective – may be the perfect way to pay homage to Hepburn’s
charm.
In theory, we
inhabit the age of the moving image: Netflix, YouTube, Skype. Yet the
Hepburn with the enduring fame and cachet is not, as you might
expect, the witty, talky one who could actually act – Katharine –
but the one who photographed well. The more you look at the exquisite
images in the NPG exhibition, the more you see that Hepburn’s
genius for still imagery far eclipsed her achievements in motion
pictures. I wonder how many now watch her in Sabrina, a rather odd
and stilted romantic comedy in which Hepburn gives one of her many
less-than-convincing performances as a chauffeur’s daughter torn
between Humphrey Bogart and William Holden. Yet we still recall the
black slacks and ballet flats she wore in that picture, and her
sylph-like waist.
The cult of Hepburn
as “icon” has often seemed to be less about devotion to her film
work and more a way for other women to put themselves down. Who can
live up to that level of chic, not to mention the extreme
slenderness? Hepburn herself insisted she ate “awfully well at
meals”, but still, her figure would be a dangerous one for others
to emulate. “Audrey maintained an impressive 31.5in-22in-31.5in her
entire life,” remarked Pamela Keogh in her deeply annoying 2008
book What Would Audrey Do? Timeless Lessons for Living with Grace and
Style.
As Billy Wilder
said: ‘God kissed Audrey Hepburn on the cheek, and there she was’,
meaning: she was born a star
In the exhibition
catalogue, curator Helen Trompeteler admits that film “was just one
of the ways Hepburn’s image was shaped, and arguably not the most
enduring”. She points out that at the height of Hepburn’s career,
audiences would often see a film only once, whereas photographic
stills were treasured, to be viewed over and over again. Through such
publications as Picture Post and Picturegoer, Hepburn’s image
reached a huge public. She was on the cover of Life magazine nine
times, more than any other celebrity (Marilyn only managed seven). In
1954, Vogue magazine said that she had so captured the public
imagination that she had established a new “standard of beauty”.
It was the costume designer Edith Head who first spotted that Hepburn
was more like a model than an actor. Head worked with Hepburn on
Roman Holiday and said “her figure and flair told me, at once, that
here was a girl who’d been born to make designers happy”.
Partners
In Crime - major new BBC One drama for Agatha Christie’s 125th
celebration year
"In bringing these thrilling
stories to the screen, it is our ambition for Tommy and Tuppence to
finally take their rightful place alongside Poirot and Marple as
iconic Agatha Christie characters."
David Walliams
Date: 18.09.2014
Last updated: 18.09.2014 at 08.42
Category: BBC One;
Drama; Commissions and casting
BBC One brings Endor
Productions and Acorn Productions' Agatha Christie’s married couple
Tommy and Tuppence to life in a brand-new six-part adventure series
for the channel. Partners In Crime stars David Walliams (Little
Britain, Big School) as
Tommy and Jessica
Raine (Call The Midwife, Wolf Hall) as Tuppence.
Directed by Edward
Hall (Restless, Downton Abbey), episodes 1-3, 'The Secret Adversary',
are written by award-winning author, playwright and director Zinnie
Harris, (Spooks, Born With Two Mothers, Richard Is My Boyfriend) with
the following three, 'N or M?' penned by Claire Wilson, (Where There
Is Darkness, Twist).
Partners In Crime is
produced by Georgina Lowe, (Mr Turner, Mad Dogs), executive produced
by Emmy award-winning Hilary Bevan Jones (Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot,
State Of Play), David Walliams, Hilary Strong (Poirot, Have I Got
News For You) and Mathew Prichard for Acorn Productions/Agatha
Christie Ltd and Matthew Read for the BBC.
Partners In Crime is
an adventure series with espionage and humour at its heart. Set in a
1950s Britain rising from the ashes of the Blitz into the grip of a
new Cold War, our beekeeping duo stumble into a world of murder,
undercover agents and cold war conspiracy.
Tuppence is a woman
who sees adventure round every corner, throwing herself head first
into every mystery with passion and fervour, determined to get to the
truth no matter what it takes, much to the dismay of her more
cautious husband Tommy.
Hilary Bevan Jones,
executive producer and founder of Endor Productions, says: “To
introduce the iconic Christie characters Tommy and Tuppence and their
adventures to a whole new generation, is a fabulous opportunity for
all of us at Endor. Our incredible creative team of David Walliams,
Zinnie Harris and Claire Wilson are crafting a drama that promises to
be exciting, fun and fresh. With the inspirational Edward Hall
directing the whole series, and Georgina Lowe producing, we have a
clarity and cohesiveness of ambition that promises only the best.”
David Walliams says:
“In bringing these thrilling stories to the screen, it is our
ambition for Tommy and Tuppence to finally take their rightful place
alongside Poirot and Marple as iconic Agatha Christie characters. I
was first drawn to the delicious notion of a married couple solving
crimes together, and the more I read of the Tommy and Tuppence novels
and short stories, the more I realised they are among Christie’s
very best work.”
Hilary Strong,
Managing Director, Acorn Productions, says: “We are excited to be
working with the BBC and Endor to bring Agatha Christie to a whole
new generation of viewers as we continue to build the Christie brand
worldwide. Partners In Crime is the first of two major new dramas for
2015, the second of which is a new production of And Then There Were
None, one of Christie’s most popular novels of all time. I am
delighted that our partnership with the BBC will play a central part
in our 125th anniversary celebrations next year.”
Mathew Prichard,
Chairman of Agatha Christie Ltd, says: “The first Tommy and
Tuppence novel was published in 1922 and my grandmother, Agatha
Christie, would be thrilled to see her crime-fighting team
reinvigorated for the BBC over 90 years on from when she first
brought them to life.”
Ben Stephenson
Controller of Drama Commissioning, says: “This new and exciting
partnership between David and Jessica promises to bring a fresh new
take on these classic and well-loved adventures. With their
combination of humour, wit and talent, I can’t think of two people
better suited to take on the iconic roles of Tommy and Tuppence.”
The 2015
International Agatha Christie Festival takes place in Torquay, Devon,
UK between 11 – 20 September.
Celebrating the
125th anniversary of the birth of the Queen of Crime, the festival
offers a week-long programme of new and unique events.
Our programme
includes performances and film screenings, expert talks exploring
Agatha Christie’s life and times, and opportunities to enjoy food,
drink and dancing in some of the finest venues on the English
Riviera.
At Torre Abbey
visitors will find the International Agatha Christie Festival ‘hub’.
The entrance ticket will provide access to the house, gardens and
Book Tent as well as a free programme of daily activities and a very
special newly-curated exhibition, Agatha Christie: Unfinished
Portrait.
Ticketed events will
also be held in The Spanish Barn at Torre Abbey, The Grand Hotel, The
Imperial Hotel, the Princess Theatre, the Palace Theatre, The Little
Theatre, Torquay Museum, Cockington Court, Greenway (National Trust),
Churston Church and Oddicombe Beach.
For those seeking
creative inspiration there will also be a professionally led workshop
programme for aspiring writers and plenty of participatory events for
young people
We will shortly be
adding a map of Torbay showing quirky quieter spaces in which
visitors may wish to do their own creative writing or simply read and
watch the world go by.
Tickets for most of
the festival events are available through our dedicated festival
online bookings system. Some venues are selling tickets directly so
please read the booking details carefully.
This year the
International Agatha Christie Festival celebrates the life,
literature and legacy of Agatha Christie on the 125th anniversary of
her birth in Torquay with an exciting mix of literary talks from
best-selling crime writers, theatre performances, talks, writers’
workshops, children’s events, cookery demonstrations, film
screenings, a birthday garden party, a tea dance and a glamorous
ball.
Each day of our
nine-day festival has a theme around which the events have been
programmed.
Friday 11 September
– Festival launch
Saturday 12
September – Festive Family Fun
Sunday 13 September
– Agatha Christie and the First World War
Monday 14 September
– Miss Marple, Music and Unsolved Mysteries
Tuesday 15 September
– The Birthday and the next 125 years.
Wednesday 16
September – The Golden Age of Detective Fiction
Thursday 17
September – International Christie and Adaptations
Friday 18 September
– Agatha Christie and the Theatre
Born into a
prosperous Anglo-American family in Torquay on 15 September 1890 and
named Agatha Mary Clarissa by her parents, Frederick and Clara (nee
Boehmer) Miller.
Acquires the name by
which she becomes world famous in 1914 through her Christmas Eve
marriage in Bristol to Clifton College graduate Archie Christie, a
career soldier and qualified pilot already embroiled in ‘The Great
War’.
As her war effort,
Agatha becomes a Torquay hospital volunteer and so meets the Belgian
refugees who are to influence the character of Hercule Poirot and
gains, though her pharmacy duties, a basic knowledge of potions and
poisons.
The first Agatha
Christie crime novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles is published in
1920 and features the debut of Hercule Poirot.
Another 80 Agatha
Christie crime novels and short story collections then follow, along
with six romances published under the name Mary Westmacott.
In 1928 she and
Archie Christie divorce and she subsequently meets and marries the
archaeologist Max Mallowan, later Sir Max Mallowan. In 1938 they buy
Greenway House, near Brixham, as a holiday retreat and it remains in
family hands until 1999 when passes into the care of the National
Trust.
During the Second
World War, Max’s knowledge of Arabia sees him posted to North
Africa while Agatha volunteers for pharmacy duties at University
College, London.
On 21 September
1943, Agatha becomes a grandmother when her only child Rosalind –
the daughter of Archie Christie and married to Hubert Prichard –
gives birth to a son, Mathew.
In 1971, Agatha is
made a Dame Commander of the British Empire, with the result that she
and Max become one of the very few married couples in which both
partners have earned a knightly honour in their own right.
Today’s estimate
is that more than 2 billion of her books have been sold worldwide,
making her the world’s best-selling author, out-ranked only by the
works of Shakespeare and The Holy Bible.
Agatha Christie is
also the world’s most translated novelist, with her books appearing
in 100+ languages, according to UNESCO. She is also the most
successful woman playwright.
Her play The
Mousetrap holds the world record for the longest running theatre
show, having opened in London’s West End in 1952 and still playing
there, more than 25,000 performances later.
Agatha Christie dies
on 12 January 1976, aged 85, and is buried in Oxfordshire.
The last book she
writes is Posterns of Fate, a Tommy and Tuppence story, published in
1973 but it is followed into bookshops by Curtain, the last case of
Hercule Poirot (1975) and by a final Miss Marple mystery, Sleeping
Murder (1976) – both written more than 30 years earlier but held
back in accordance with the author’s wishes.
Very many Christie
stories have been made into films or television dramas and this year
the number will rise even higher with the BBC making a new version of
And Then There Were None and screening Partners in Crime, a series
based on the Tommy and Tuppence stories and starring David Walliams
and Jessica Raine.
Agatha Christie's
Partners in Crime is a 1983 British television series based on the
short stories of the same name by Agatha Christie. It was directed by
John A. Davis and Tony Wharmby, and starred James Warwick and
Francesca Annis in the leading roles of husband and wife sleuths
Tommy and Prudence 'Tuppence' Beresford. Reece Dinsdale co-starred as
Albert in all except episodes 3 and 5.
The series follows
the adventures and exploits of the Beresfords, who have recently
taken over the running of a detective agency based in London, and
each episode features one of the stories from the book. Among these
are a quest for missing jewels, the investigation of poltergeists and
a story involving poisoned chocolates.
The series followed
the short stories closely with two notable exceptions: First, the
detective parodies, although alluded to on occasion, were for the
most part dispensed with. Secondly, the story arc of the blue Russian
letters and the search for the agent known as Number 16 were also
dispensed with. For this reason three chapters (The Adventure of the
Sinister Stranger, Blindman's Bluff and The Man Who Was No. 16) were
not adapted.
The series' original
run was immediately preceded by transmission on 9 October 1983 of the
same production team's adaptation of Christie's second novel The
Secret Adversary, which also starred Annis and Warwick in the same
roles and which acted as an introduction for viewers to Agatha
Christie's Partners in Crime.
The series ran for
one season between 16 October 1983 and 14 January 1984 with ten
episodes. It was poorly received at the time, but was later shown in
the United States, where John Tribe, the series graphic designer, won
an award at the 1985 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Graphic and Title
Design in recognition of the programme's title sequence. As of 2007,
the series is regularly aired in the UK on the digital channel ITV3.
Unavailable on DVD for a long period, it was released by Acorn Media
UK on 2 September 2013.
