Towards Zero, starring Oscar winner Anjelica Huston, is the latest BBC adaptation of an Agatha Christie classic and the whole series is now available on BBC iPlayer.
Having made Murder is Easy, in 2023, the broadcaster has now adapted "Towards Zero", which was first published in 1944. It's been adapted for the screen by BAFTA-nominated Rachel Bennette (NW) and directed by the Olivier Award-winning Sam Yates (Magpie).
Anjelica Huston describing the drama says: "It's classic, witty, surprising and smart."
Talking about her character Lady Tressilian, she adds: "Lady Tressilian is the matriarch of a very disjointed, unruly family. They have lots of problems and it’s up to her to try and corral everyone – or at least that’s how she sees it. She has a way of getting everyone to do what she wants them to do – commandeering the ship and running it the way she sees it should be run."
Writer, Rachel Bennette, says: "These are among the richest and most complex of Christie's characters, and I was captivated from the first by the charisma, in particular, of her female characters. It has been thrilling to bring them all to life in this disturbing tale of truth and lies, love and hate, a story which unfolds amidst the dark, cinematic glamour of the 1930s, yet feels startlingly of our time."
Here's everything we know including how it differs from the book…
Towards Zero release date
Towards Zero will begin on BBC One at 9 pm on Sunday, March 2 — all three 60-minute episodes are available now on BBC iPlayer. The second episode airs on Sunday, March 9 at 9 pm on BBC One.
In the US, Towards Zero will begin on BritBox on Wednesday, April 16. The next episode will be released on Thursday, April 17 and the final episode on Friday, April 18.
What's the plot?
Teasing the plot, the BBC says: "England, 1936. After a scandalous celebrity divorce, British tennis star Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and his ex-wife Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland) make the unthinkable decision to spend a summer together at Gull’s Point, their childhood home and the coastal estate of Nevile's aunt, Lady Tressilian (Anjelica Huston).
"With unfinished business between the former childhood sweethearts, plus the presence of Nevile’s new wife Kay (Mimi Keene), tensions are running high. Add to this a long-suffering lady’s companion, a mysterious gentleman's valet, an exiled cousin with a grudge, a venerable family lawyer, an inquisitive orphan and a French con man, and soon there will be murder. A troubled detective must rediscover his purpose to untangle a toxic web of jealousy, deceit and dysfunction. Can he solve the crime before another victim meets their death?
"An explosive love triangle, a formidable matriarch and a house party of enemies. All compelled… Towards Zero."
Talking about how the plot in the TV version differs from the book, writer Rachel Bennette explains: "Christie is doing some very unusual things in 'Towards Zero'. Most interestingly, she de-centres the detective in the story. She chooses to use Superintendent Battle, rather than Poirot or Marple — and indeed, Battle spends a lot of the case wishing he was Poirot — and then she splits the deducing duties between Battle and the character of Angus MacWhirter who is a guest at the hotel, and a wonderfully original Christie creation. This is all designed to serve the plot, but it also led me to feel that what interests her most in this book is character and theme, and so I found myself leaning into the richness of Angus’ character as the investigator figure. But that brought its own challenges, because he is very tangential to our central characters, and it quickly became apparent that I really did need a policeman to crack this extremely convoluted case. And so Inspector Leach evolved quite organically from that process, to become a detective who is perhaps a character first and a detective second, and who serves the book’s themes in Angus’ place. I did have a needle scratch moment where I realized that Leach might appear to be a 'new' Agatha Christie detective, but actually, he’s a mixture of Battle, Angus MacWhirter and Battle’s nephew Jim Leach who is the local policeman in the book. In his DNA, our Inspector Leach is pure Christie, and he could only have walked out of the pages of 'Towards Zero'.
"Other changes were driven by the dramatic challenges of the three-hour drama, and the need to dig deeper into the characters and themes to find the emotional truths of the bigger story, and build the plot, so I had to reconceive a couple of the characters. Most notably, I needed to reorientate the characters of Nevile and Audrey Strange, and the nature of their relationship. Audrey especially is a very hidden character in the book, which was impossible to sustain over the three episodes. But she remains as powerfully charismatic as she is in the book, albeit of a very different stripe."
What happens in episode 1?
After a scandalous divorce, a tennis star, his ex-wife, and a volatile mix of guests converge on a coastal estate. With unfinished business between the visitors, tensions are soon running high. A troubled detective wrestling with his own despair must recover his sense of purpose when a murder is committed.
Who's in the cast?
As mentioned Anjelica Huston plays Camilla, Lady Tressilia. The series also stars Jackie Clune (Motherland), Grace Doherty (Call the Midwife), Jack Farthing (Rain Dogs), Khalil Gharbia (Mary & George), Adam Hugill (Sherwood), Academy Award-winner Anjelica Huston (The Grifters), Ella Lily Hyland (Black Doves), Oliver Jackson-Cohen (The Haunting of Hill House), Mimi Keene (Sex Education), Clarke Peters (The Wire), Emmy winner Matthew Rhys (The Americans) and Oliver Award-winner Anjana Vasan (Black Mirror: Demon 79).
Is there a trailer?
Yep, here you go...
Has Towards Zero been adapted for television before?
Yes, oddly ITV turned it into a Miss Marple mystery even though Miss Marple isn’t in the book! Back in 2008 the late Geraldine McEwan played Marple in ITV's Towards Zero.
Towards Zero behind the scenes and more
Filming took place in and around Bristol and on the Devon coast. It is produced by Agatha Christie Limited and Mammoth Screen (part of ITV Studios), and is a co-commission between the BBC and BritBox International. It is adapted by Rachel Bennette, directed by Sam Yates and produced by Rebecca Durbin. Executive producers are James Prichard for Agatha Christie Limited, Sheena Bucktowonsing and Damien Timmer for Mammoth Screen, Danielle Scott-Haughton for the BBC and Jon Farrar, Stephen Nye and Robert Schildhouse for BritBox International.
