A superb cast, a suitably head-scratching mystery, and a legendary crime writer’s themes updated to a more sensitive present: Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials on Netflix makes for a satisfying binge.
The three-episode series, written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Chris Sweeney, is adapted from The Seven Dials Mystery. Christie’s novel from 1929 was the second after The Secret of Chimneys to feature the amateur aristocrat-detective Eileen “Bundle” Brent.
Christie had already introduced Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Christie never went back to the intelligent and brave Bundle, choosing instead to create other characters in between Poirot and Marple.
The Seven Dials Mystery revolves around the murder of Bundle’s close friend Gerry after a party thrown at her country manor. Gerry’s friends play a prank on Gerry, who can sleep through almost anything, by placing eight alarm clocks all over the house.
Gerry never does wake up. Seven of the eight clocks are found neatly arranged on the mantelpiece in the room where Gerry died. Bundle takes it upon herself to investigate the crime, complementing and sometimes clashing with Inspector Battle along the way.
The Netflix mini-series is set in 1925, and begins with an unsolved death in Spain. In England, at the party thrown by Bundle (Mia McKenna-Bruce) and her mother Lady Caterham (Helena Bonham-Carter), both victims and possible killers are paraded one by one. They include Gerry’s friends Ronny (Nabhaan Rizwan), Jimmy (Edward Bluemel) and Bill (Hughie O’Donnell).
Various aristocrats behave suspiciously over the course of the investigation. Apart from the masked guests at the ball, there are other masked characters too.
Inspector Battle (Martin Freeman) turns up to help but mostly hinder Bundle’s movements. A scientist from Cameroon (Nyasha Hatendi) provides a thoughtful corrective to the stereotyped foreigners who sometimes turned up in Christie’s writings.
Apart from a handsome production, modish costumes and attractive cinematography, the show has ample momentum, supplied by Bundle’s boundless energy. A chamber room section in the novel, where the meaning of the title is revealed, is set on a train in the series, where Bundle finds out just how significant her mission to find Gerry’s killer is.
Clocking at nearly three hours, the show rides on as well as enhances Christie’s plotting skills. While The Seven Dials Mystery doesn’t count as one of Christie’s more accomplished books, the show expands its source material in fruitful ways. Unlike Kenneth Branagh’s recent movies based on Hercule Poirot stories, the series doesn’t tinker too much with Christie’s broad vision.
The star player is Mia McKenna-Bruce, the acclaimed actor from the film How To Have Sex, who will also play Ringo Starr’s first wife Maureen Starkey in Sam Mendes’s upcoming quartet of movies on The Beatles. Sparky, feisty and understated, McKenna-Bruce embodies the “It Girl” of Christie’s imagination, as well as a woman unafraid to poke her nose where it doesn’t belong.
Martin Freeman, Helena Bonham-Carter, Edward Bluemel and Nabhaan Rizwan deliver the goods too, with Bonham-Carter especially memorable as the eccentric lady of the manor that becomes a crime scene.
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