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.
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