All-star cast joins Agatha Christie drama

BBC One has announced the casting of their drama adaptation of Agatha Christie‘s And Then There Were None, as filming commences on the best-selling crime novel of all time.

The three-parter, written and executive produced by Sarah Phelps (The Casual Vacancy, Great Expectations) is set in 1939, when Europe teeters on the brink of war. Ten strangers are invited to Soldier Island, an isolated rock near the Devon coast. Cut off from the mainland, with their generous hosts Mr and Mrs U.N. Owen mysteriously absent, they are each accused of a terrible crime. When one of the party dies suddenly they realise they may be harbouring a murderer among their number.

The 10 strangers include a reckless playboy, a troubled Harley Street doctor, a formidable judge, an uncouth detective, an unscrupulous mercenary, a God-fearing spinster, two restless servants, a highly decorated general and an anxious secretary. One by one they are picked off. Who will survive? And who is the killer? Copies of an ominous nursery rhyme hang in each room, the murders mimicking the awful fates of its ‘Ten Little Soldier Boys’.

The all-star cast includes, Douglas Booth (Great Expectations) as Anthony Marston, Charles Dance (Game Of Thrones) as Justice Lawrence Wargrave, Maeve Dermody (Black Water) as Vera Claythorne, Burn Gorman (Torchwood) as William Blore, Anna Maxwell Martin (Death Comes To Pemberley) as Ethel Rogers, Sam Neill (Peaky Blinders) as General John MacArthur, Miranda Richardson (Parade’s End) as Miss Emily Brent, Toby Stephens (Jane Eyre) as Dr Edward Armstrong, Noah Taylor (Game Of Thrones) as Thomas Rogers and Aidan Turner (Poldark) as Philip Lombard.

Mathew Prichard, Chairman of Agatha Christie Limited and grandson of Agatha Christie, says: “I am so excited that this, the most iconic of Agatha Christie stories, is being made for television with this truly extraordinary cast. My grandmother would be thrilled to know that a new generation will be able to enjoy And Then There Were None when it appears on the BBC.”

Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is made by Mammoth Screen and Agatha Christie Productions, and will air in the UK later this year to coincide with Agatha Christie’s 125th anniversary. It will air in the US in 2016.