You’re not doing anything brutal with it. Otherwise, the next thing you know, you’re back in kind of cozy Sunday evening TV. Would Phelps consider other Christie adaptations in the future? “If I was to do more, I would have to find another way to frame them, to validate them being done. What was really important was to frame the work, rather than just ‘doing a Christie’ and trundling along on the same old track. “I said I wanted to write a quintet and I’ve written a quintet. There has, however, been a chronology of sorts to the five stories, which provide a snapshot of 50 years of the 20th century through the eyes of Christie. She adds that the copyright constraints have actually been helpful because she has not become “swamped” by the Christie brand. Phelps says the Christie stories she has chosen to adapt have been more about the availability of copyright than a considered approach to her vast collection of work. It’s not what weapon was used, it’s why is that person dead. It’s not so much the murder, it’s the lying. “What she is really writing about is power and how people lie to hold on to their power. Instead, Phelps believes Christie’s murder mysteries are “dressing” for darker, grander themes. It’s this undercurrent that drew Phelps to Christie, not the folksy “cozy pleasure” often associated with the author’s work - the sense that everything is going to be all right in the end once the famous detective has solved the riddle. When I follow those clues I come up with my version of The Pale Horse.” They give you an undercurrent of a very different story. “There’s a tension between the book she wants people to read and the book she wants to write, and I always think when I’m reading: what is that doing there? Is it a mistake, is it a lapse in concentration, did she mean for it to be there? I think it’s a clue. It makes you go: ‘That’s really strange.’ There’s something really prurient about that,” Phelps says.

The way he talks about the smell of a girl’s unwashed hair. 'The ABC Murders' Writer Sarah Phelps Signs Up For 'A Very English Scandal' Season 2

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