1 00:00:03,320 --> 00:00:05,520 You've caught me in my trailer. 2 00:00:05,520 --> 00:00:09,200 To me, it's more like a caravan near an airport. 3 00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:14,560 I should explain, because I'm half in character, and you've caught me during my lunch hour. 4 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:18,080 I've just taken my moustache off, 5 00:00:18,080 --> 00:00:21,560 and with it on, of course, I would be Hercule Poirot. 6 00:00:23,960 --> 00:00:28,000 I know this man, Agatha Christie's famous creation. 7 00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:31,040 I know him so well. 8 00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:33,000 I could take him shopping. 9 00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:35,400 But... 10 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:39,760 how well do I, David Suchet, 11 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:42,240 know Poirot's creator? 12 00:01:05,240 --> 00:01:09,000 'Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. 13 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:14,320 Only the Bible and Shakespeare have been more widely read. 14 00:01:16,560 --> 00:01:19,520 So, I wonder, what is it about her 15 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:23,400 that makes her so good and so enduringly popular? 16 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:30,560 I'm on my way to Greenway, the country retreat in Devon, 17 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:34,560 where Agatha spent most of her summers until her death in 1976. 18 00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:39,920 I first came here 25 years ago, 19 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:42,400 to meet Agatha's daughter Rosalind, 20 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:44,640 to celebrate me playing Poirot. 21 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:51,080 Today I've come to see Agatha's grandson, my old friend Mathew Prichard, 22 00:01:51,080 --> 00:01:54,680 and Mathew has offered me a rare peek into the treasure trove 23 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:56,880 that is the Christie family archive.' 24 00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:03,240 Welcome to Greenway. Thank you. Great to see you. 25 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:05,520 Great to see you, after so many years. 26 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:07,320 Yes. Goodness me. 27 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:10,280 I've got a lot of lovely things to show you. 28 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:13,200 I'm looking forward to it. We'll go into the library. 29 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:22,120 So, I'll tell you why I'm excited about this. 30 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:25,880 There are all these fantastic photographs, which you're going to tell me about, 31 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:28,000 but for 25 years, 32 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:32,320 I have been playing that iconic character 33 00:02:32,320 --> 00:02:35,360 that your grandmother, Agatha Christie, wrote, 34 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:41,000 and because of that, my whole life and career has changed. 35 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:45,360 But I've never met the lady who was responsible 36 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:49,000 for my life, really, in such a big way. 37 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:53,000 So, I want to get to know her through you. 38 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:55,920 What sort of person she was. Not the writer, 39 00:02:55,920 --> 00:02:58,160 but your grandmother. 40 00:02:58,160 --> 00:02:59,960 What sort of lady was she? 41 00:02:59,960 --> 00:03:02,640 Well, we've put aside a few things here 42 00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:05,280 which may give you at least a little clue, 43 00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:09,560 particularly one item, but we'll leave that one till last. 44 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:12,520 I mean, you said you didn't want to know the writer, 45 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:16,160 but this is the sort of picture that everybody sees on books. 46 00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:20,600 Yes, and that's the iconic one. Yes, that is the iconic one. 47 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:24,400 And this is the first one we have of her. 48 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:27,840 This is Christmas 1895, 49 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:31,360 and there she is, sitting by a pile of wood, 50 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:35,160 with her first little dog, who was called George Washington. 51 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:41,200 And she had this extraordinary curiosity 52 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:44,320 and huge appetite to learn. 53 00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:49,480 Nobody's ever seen this before, outside the family, I don't think. 54 00:03:49,480 --> 00:03:52,200 It's called... The Cowslip. 55 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:54,120 So, this is a poem. 56 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:57,800 "There was once a little cowslip, and a pretty flower too, 57 00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:01,640 but yet she cried and fretted all for a robe of blue. 58 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:06,240 Now, a merry little fairy, who loved a trick to play, 59 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:10,240 has changed into a nightshade that flower without delay. 60 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:15,640 The silly little nightshade thought her life a dream of bliss, 61 00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:20,280 yet she wondered why the butterfly came not to give his kiss." 62 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:23,720 She wrote that April 1901. 63 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:26,440 Agatha Miller, aged ten. 64 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:29,160 Wow. What a lovely thing to have. Yes. 65 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:36,480 Upstairs, Mathew had another treat for me. 66 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:39,920 Home movies, never before seen outside the family. 67 00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:43,520 Oh, look. There's Rosalind. 68 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:51,760 There is Agatha. 69 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:54,320 Wonderful picture of her. It is. 70 00:04:55,200 --> 00:04:58,240 And I think a little bit of bathing is about to take place. 71 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:01,120 Yes. There we go. 72 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:03,080 She always said she loved bathing, 73 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:06,800 and I think that is at a place called Meadfoot. 74 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:11,160 Near Torquay? Near Torquay. 75 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:16,880 She always loved immersing herself in the water. 76 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:21,600 That's my mother, I think. 77 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:24,000 I doubt if I'd even arrived in the world then. 78 00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:28,920 This is great footage of your family. 79 00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:36,040 'As I watched, I wondered: 80 00:05:36,040 --> 00:05:40,560 how had this reclusive lady grown from a curious child 81 00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:42,520 into the queen of crime? 82 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:46,720 Mathew had something for me that might provide a few clues.' 83 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:54,240 Well, they always say that, if you really want to understand a person, 84 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:56,880 and they've written something serious, 85 00:05:56,880 --> 00:06:01,440 you should read what the person says themselves. 86 00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:04,520 And I have here a manuscript 87 00:06:04,520 --> 00:06:08,160 of Agatha Christie's autobiography, 88 00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:10,320 hand-corrected, 89 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:14,680 and I think you, of all people, should read that in its original form. 90 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:17,520 Oh, my goodness. So, there you are. Wow! 91 00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:22,520 Well, what a privilege. Thank you very much. 92 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:28,680 'Keeping a tight grip on the precious manuscript, 93 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:32,960 I headed down to Greenway's old boat-house by the river and began to read.' 94 00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:40,560 "One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is, I think, 95 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:42,520 to have a happy childhood. 96 00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:45,400 I had a very happy childhood. 97 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:49,680 I had a home and a garden that I loved. 98 00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:54,160 I had a very wise and patient nanny. 99 00:06:55,880 --> 00:07:01,840 And I had, as father and mother, two people who really loved each other dearly, 100 00:07:01,840 --> 00:07:04,760 and who made a success of their marriage 101 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:07,000 and a success of parenthood." 102 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:12,920 'I read on. 103 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:15,880 There were many stories of a carefree childhood. 104 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:19,160 But then one tale stood out.' 105 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:22,800 "All children have nightmares. 106 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:25,960 My own particular nightmare 107 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:28,880 centred around someone I called the Gunman. 108 00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:32,360 The dream would be quite ordinary. 109 00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:35,120 A tea party or a walk with various people. 110 00:07:35,120 --> 00:07:37,640 Usually a mild festivity of some kind. 111 00:07:38,480 --> 00:07:42,240 Then suddenly, a feeling of uneasiness would come. 112 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:47,120 And then I would see him, sitting at the tea table, 113 00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:50,240 walking along the beach, joining in the game. 114 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:53,080 His pale blue eyes would meet mine, 115 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:55,400 and I would wake up, shrieking." 116 00:07:56,880 --> 00:07:58,800 'So, was this, I wondered, 117 00:07:58,800 --> 00:08:02,280 the first clue to explain the origins of her dark side? 118 00:08:14,760 --> 00:08:17,760 This is Blackpool Sands in Devon, 119 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:19,800 one of Agatha's favourite spots. 120 00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:25,560 I've come here to meet her biographer, Laura Thompson.' 121 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:30,680 Of course, Agatha loved the sea, and she loved to swim. 122 00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:34,680 Even when she got quite an old lady, she really got a kick out of swimming. 123 00:08:34,680 --> 00:08:37,600 Well, yeah, Mathew showed me a wonderful home movie 124 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:39,800 of her running into the sea 125 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:42,640 and having a terrific time swimming. 126 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:44,800 Hello! Hello, sweetheart! 127 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:47,600 Hello, darling. And she loved dogs, of course. 128 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:49,600 Here you are. 129 00:08:57,720 --> 00:08:59,880 'Having played Poirot for so long, 130 00:08:59,880 --> 00:09:04,040 I know how Agatha's novels were inspired by the Devonshire landscape, 131 00:09:04,040 --> 00:09:09,640 with real villages and hidden coves becoming fictional places of murder and intrigue. 132 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:15,360 And I'm sure these idyllic settings have always been a part of her appeal. 133 00:09:22,160 --> 00:09:24,440 We headed off to Torquay. 134 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:28,040 It was here in this genteel town on the English riviera 135 00:09:28,040 --> 00:09:30,960 that Agatha Miller was born in 1890. 136 00:09:33,280 --> 00:09:36,320 She grew up in this house, Ashfield, 137 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:38,280 the youngest of three children. 138 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:43,920 If her nightmares about the Gunman had been unusual, 139 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:47,320 I needed to know whether there was anything else about her childhood 140 00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:49,720 that might have influenced her life and work.' 141 00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:52,800 She was an interesting child. 142 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:57,280 She was a complicated child, inevitably, because she was so clever. 143 00:09:57,280 --> 00:09:59,640 And she was hugely imaginative. 144 00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:01,560 The house, Ashfield, 145 00:10:01,560 --> 00:10:03,520 which was a lovely house - 146 00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:06,280 she would dream that the gardens were infinite, 147 00:10:06,280 --> 00:10:11,800 or that there were rooms where you would open a door and there were unknown rooms in there. 148 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:15,200 She always had that sense of a world beyond, 149 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:19,160 and I think that worked very well for developing her particular gifts. 150 00:10:21,360 --> 00:10:24,720 AGATHA CHRISTIE: 'People often ask me: What made you take up writing? 151 00:10:24,720 --> 00:10:29,360 Many of them, I fancy, wonder whether to take my answer seriously, 152 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:32,080 although it's a strictly truthful one. 153 00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:36,080 You see, I put it all down to the fact that I never had any education. 154 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:38,200 Although I was gloriously idle, 155 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:41,920 I found myself making up stories and acting the different parts. 156 00:10:41,920 --> 00:10:44,600 There's nothing like boredom to make you write.' 157 00:10:45,280 --> 00:10:47,480 Well, her mother, Clara... 158 00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:51,160 They had a fantastically close relationship, I think. 159 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:53,680 She was the most important person in Agatha's life, 160 00:10:53,680 --> 00:10:58,480 but she decided that Agatha shouldn't be allowed to read until she was eight. 161 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:01,200 That's extraordinary, to hear that today. 162 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:05,240 I know. It was mad. It was a whim. It was just something she decided. 163 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:08,240 That was what she was like - impulsive. 164 00:11:08,240 --> 00:11:13,640 And Agatha, being incredibly bright, took no notice. Taught herself to read. 165 00:11:13,640 --> 00:11:19,400 Did she have a class? I mean, in the class system, where would she find herself? 166 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:27,160 The interesting thing about Agatha is that she was innately cosmopolitan. 167 00:11:27,160 --> 00:11:31,560 She was half-American. Her father was born in New York. 168 00:11:31,560 --> 00:11:39,160 She had a side to her that wasn't this supremely English being, as we think of her. 169 00:11:39,160 --> 00:11:41,240 Actually, she wasn't quite like that. 170 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:43,800 In her autobiography, 171 00:11:43,800 --> 00:11:46,800 Agatha writes that her father's death, when she was 11, 172 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:49,600 symbolised the end of her childhood, 173 00:11:49,600 --> 00:11:53,720 and it also brought considerable financial strain to the family. 174 00:11:53,720 --> 00:11:56,480 I wonder if that's why, in over half her novels, 175 00:11:56,480 --> 00:11:58,960 money is the prime motive for murder. 176 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:05,440 I learned that, despite the hardships, 177 00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:07,960 society demanded that life went on. 178 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:15,360 Finishing school in Paris was followed by a whirlwind of social engagements in Torquay, 179 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:18,880 and her official coming-out in Cairo, 180 00:12:18,880 --> 00:12:22,880 which inspired a first attempt at a novel, Snow Upon The Desert. 181 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:27,960 But more important was the promise of romance. 182 00:12:29,920 --> 00:12:35,040 I think the phrase she used: 'We were like fillies kicking up our heels in a field.' 183 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:38,840 She had about five proposals, 184 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:43,840 and then Archie Christie came into her life in 1912. 185 00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:46,560 There was a dance near Exeter. 186 00:12:46,560 --> 00:12:50,760 Anyway, this gorgeous man comes up to her. 187 00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:57,200 You had a dance card... 'Cut that, cut that, cut that. Dance them all with me.' Quite sexy. 188 00:12:57,200 --> 00:12:59,320 (LAUGHS) 189 00:12:59,320 --> 00:13:01,520 Yeah, and he was very good-looking. 190 00:13:02,680 --> 00:13:05,040 But her mother didn't want her to marry Archie. 191 00:13:05,040 --> 00:13:07,800 She said, 'He's ruthless. He won't treat you well, 192 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:09,800 and he's very attractive to women.' 193 00:13:10,840 --> 00:13:15,040 It's a bit like Romeo And Juliet. The feud pumps up the romance. 194 00:13:15,040 --> 00:13:17,920 And I think theirs was pumped up by, 195 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:21,640 A, the fact that Agatha's mother didn't want them to get married, 196 00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:23,600 and, B, the war. 197 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:28,600 'The First World War began in August 1914. 198 00:13:29,680 --> 00:13:33,280 By then, Archie had joined the fledgling Royal Flying Corps, 199 00:13:33,280 --> 00:13:35,280 and was convinced he was going to die. 200 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:39,600 So, while on leave, he and Agatha got married in secret. 201 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:44,520 She would live with the consequences for the rest of her life.' 202 00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:02,040 'In 1914, the newly married, 24-year-old Agatha Christie 203 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:04,480 hadn't published a single novel. 204 00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:08,160 But what was happening to this young woman's life at the outset of war 205 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:11,680 was to lay the foundations of her future literary career.' 206 00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:16,000 The famous photograph we have of Agatha Christie 207 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:18,360 is that of an elderly lady, 208 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:23,200 and one always imagines Agatha to always have been an elderly lady. 209 00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:26,520 But it's lovely to read this time of her life, 210 00:14:26,520 --> 00:14:30,160 when it was all beginning, as a young woman, in Torquay, 211 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:32,160 before she became a writer. 212 00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:35,880 'With her husband Archie fighting in France, 213 00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:38,880 Agatha volunteered as a nurse in Torquay, 214 00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:41,880 treating wounded soldiers brought back from the front, 215 00:14:41,880 --> 00:14:44,680 and helping out in the operating theatre. 216 00:14:44,680 --> 00:14:46,720 For a well-to-do young woman, 217 00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:48,960 it was an often shocking experience.' 218 00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:52,040 CHRISTIE: 'The first time I went, 219 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:55,520 it was a stomach operation, 220 00:14:56,680 --> 00:14:59,000 and it... 221 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:02,240 made you feel very ill to look at it. 222 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:05,520 And I began to shake all over. 223 00:15:06,400 --> 00:15:09,240 But everything, in life, one gets used to.' 224 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:16,040 'It was during this time that Agatha came into contact with Belgian refugees, 225 00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:19,320 and it was an encounter that sparked her imagination, 226 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:23,320 leading to the creation of her character Hercule Poirot. 227 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:29,000 It was in 1916 that Poirot made his debut on the page, 228 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:31,960 when Agatha began writing her first detective story. 229 00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:35,520 She called it The Mysterious Affair At Styles. 230 00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:41,560 I've come to Dartmoor with Agatha's biographer Laura Thompson, to find out more.' 231 00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:45,640 So, Dartmoor - Agatha used to come an awful lot, 232 00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:48,800 as a young woman, young girl. 233 00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:51,800 And also, this is hugely important, 234 00:15:51,800 --> 00:15:55,120 because this is where she worked out a lot of her first book. 235 00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:57,680 Really? Yes. 236 00:15:57,680 --> 00:16:02,400 Her mother sent her to stay here. She said, 'Unless you go away, you won't finish the book.' 237 00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:07,200 She just walked across these moors for six hours at a time, 238 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:09,040 speaking the dialogue out loud. 239 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:12,560 So, some of the words you would have said. Really? Yes. 240 00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:15,920 When I learn my lines, I always have to speak them out loud, as well. 241 00:16:15,920 --> 00:16:18,160 Well, there you go. That's interesting. 242 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:22,040 It was rather brave of her to come out to an area like this, 243 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:25,720 cos the climate can change in a second, can't it? 244 00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:30,720 It really can. You can feel the sort of sinister lowering waiting to happen. 245 00:16:30,720 --> 00:16:36,720 But she liked that. That fed her imagination, as well as the beauty of Devon. The sinister side. 246 00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:41,680 'After several rejections, 247 00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:45,920 The Mysterious Affair At Styles was eventually published in 1920, 248 00:16:45,920 --> 00:16:47,880 to enthusiastic reviews. 249 00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:53,440 In the book are many of the traits for which Agatha would later become famous. 250 00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:56,120 There's a country-house setting, 251 00:16:56,120 --> 00:16:58,400 a closed circle of suspects, 252 00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:00,680 and a death by poisoning, 253 00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:04,320 the method of murder she would employ in around half of her novels.' 254 00:17:05,280 --> 00:17:07,240 She's dead. 255 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:14,520 'I've read that it was while working in a hospital dispensary during the war 256 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:17,320 that Agatha developed her passion for poison. 257 00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:21,240 In Torquay, Ali Marshall has created a poison garden, 258 00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:23,520 dedicated to Agatha and her work.' 259 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:27,480 So, tell me all about these poisons. 260 00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:31,280 I mean, it looks like a lovely garden, but it's not, is it? 261 00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:35,440 But it is lovely, and a lot of these plants are common plants, 262 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:38,040 which shows you how dangerous it all is. 263 00:17:38,040 --> 00:17:45,040 But this section here is where I've put the majority of my potentially very dangerous plants. 264 00:17:45,040 --> 00:17:48,360 Here? But it all looks so innocent. 265 00:17:48,360 --> 00:17:50,240 But then a lot of them are innocent. 266 00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:54,240 For example, do you know where cyanide comes from? 267 00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:57,840 Show me. Cyanide is found in the kernels 268 00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:02,560 of cherries, apple pips, peaches. 269 00:18:02,560 --> 00:18:05,840 That's where you get cyanide from - hydrocyanic acid, 270 00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:10,240 which of course was Agatha's favourite poison. 271 00:18:10,240 --> 00:18:13,040 But she had an amazing knowledge, didn't she? 272 00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:17,760 She did, and that training as a pharmacy assistant 273 00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:21,120 gave her so much more background knowledge. 274 00:18:21,120 --> 00:18:25,840 I think the first novel, The Mysterious Affair At Styles, 275 00:18:25,840 --> 00:18:29,280 which she wrote while she was working as a pharmacy assistant - 276 00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:32,840 her favourite review was from the Journal Of Pharmacology... 277 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:34,320 Oh, what was...? 278 00:18:34,320 --> 00:18:37,200 And they credited her with being very accurate, 279 00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:39,280 because it was a very accurate description, 280 00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:44,280 and the technical background of it, knowing that the salts sink and all the rest of it - 281 00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:48,520 you need a certain amount of knowledge to talk about that and to write about that. 282 00:18:51,840 --> 00:18:54,720 'This ability to draw on her own experience 283 00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:56,920 to shape and inform her stories 284 00:18:56,920 --> 00:19:00,360 would become another enduring trait in Agatha's work.' 285 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:08,120 You see? Already the strychnine is beginning to fall to the bottom. 286 00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:11,800 In a few hours, it'll form colourless crystals... 287 00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:14,000 Which remain at the bottom of the liquid? 288 00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:17,000 Which remain at the bottom of the liquid. 289 00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:25,600 'The end of the war ushered in a period of great happiness for Agatha. 290 00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:28,400 Archie returned home, and they moved to London, 291 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:31,280 where Agatha gave birth to her daughter 292 00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:34,360 and signed the publishing deal that launched her career. 293 00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:39,920 She also accompanied her husband on a ten-month tour of the dominions, 294 00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:44,720 and in Hawaii became one of the first Europeans to learn to surf standing up. 295 00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:49,360 Then, in 1925, 296 00:19:49,360 --> 00:19:51,600 they left London for Sunningdale, 297 00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:54,680 where Agatha bought her first car, a Morris Cowley. 298 00:19:55,440 --> 00:20:00,280 It was, she later wrote, an experience as fulfilling as meeting the Queen. 299 00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:06,520 This adventurous period in her life 300 00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:08,840 culminated in a story I know well. 301 00:20:10,360 --> 00:20:13,160 In the Poirot novel The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd, 302 00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:16,560 her decision to cast the narrator of the story as the murderer 303 00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:19,360 broke all the rules of crime fiction, 304 00:20:19,360 --> 00:20:22,760 cementing her at the heart of the golden age of the genre.' 305 00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:28,960 So it would seem that, at this point in Agatha Christie's life, 306 00:20:28,960 --> 00:20:32,720 everything was going absolutely wonderfully. 307 00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:36,880 But in her autobiography, we learn that everything was about to change. 308 00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:40,720 "The next year of my life is one I hate recalling. 309 00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:45,400 As so often in life, when one thing goes wrong, everything goes wrong." 310 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:51,480 'I needed to know what had gone wrong in Agatha's life, 311 00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:57,640 so have come to the golf course at Sunningdale to meet historian and Agatha Christie fan Bettany Hughes. 312 00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:00,720 I'm hoping she has some of the answers.' 313 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:04,120 On the face of it, things are going very well. 314 00:21:04,120 --> 00:21:06,800 Her books are published. She's got money coming in. 315 00:21:06,800 --> 00:21:09,800 She's got this lovely young daughter, Rosalind. 316 00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:11,760 She's got Archie. 317 00:21:12,360 --> 00:21:15,880 But you just get the sense that, beneath the surface, 318 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:18,440 there are cracks beginning to develop. 319 00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:22,240 I think Archie was probably very damaged by the Great War. 320 00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:24,400 Physically and emotionally. 321 00:21:24,400 --> 00:21:27,840 And then his eyes start to wander, 322 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:34,720 and there's this very attractive, curvaceous, dark young woman, called Nancy Neele, 323 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:37,320 who crosses Archie's path, 324 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:40,440 and he starts to spend a lot of time with her, on the golf course. 325 00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:42,600 They come and play golf together. 326 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:46,880 And then she has a terrible time. Her darling mother dies. 327 00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:50,080 Of whom she was so fond. So attached to. 328 00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:53,240 And it's Agatha's job to clear out the old house. 329 00:21:53,240 --> 00:21:55,360 So, you have to imagine her there, 330 00:21:55,360 --> 00:21:57,440 dismantling her childhood, really. 331 00:21:57,440 --> 00:22:01,200 All those childhood memories that she's wrapping up or throwing away. 332 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:03,680 She's down there on her own. 333 00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:06,240 And then Archie turns up 334 00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:09,840 and announces that he's having an affair and he wants a divorce. 335 00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:14,240 'Agatha was devastated. 336 00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:17,840 What happened next was so extraordinary, 337 00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:20,120 it was like the plot from one of her own novels. 338 00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:24,760 On the evening of Friday 3 December, 1926, 339 00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:27,840 Agatha said goodbye to her sleeping daughter Rosalind, 340 00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:30,200 then drove off into the night. 341 00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:33,360 The following morning, her Morris Cowley was found abandoned 342 00:22:33,360 --> 00:22:36,520 at a spot called Newlands Corner near Guildford. 343 00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:39,320 Her coat and driving licence were on the back seat, 344 00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:41,600 but Agatha was nowhere to be seen. 345 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:45,200 In a near-identical car, 346 00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:47,520 we've come to see the place for ourselves.' 347 00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:51,880 So, we know that she got this far, 348 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:55,280 because the police report the following day 349 00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:58,840 reported having found this car, 350 00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:01,080 but abandoned. 351 00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:04,080 And can you imagine? It's bleak enough as it is now, isn't it? 352 00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:06,320 Yes. 353 00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:08,880 And so remote. It's not near anywhere. 354 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:10,840 No. 355 00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:15,000 'Bettany had unearthed some early police reports 356 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:18,120 that I hoped would shed some light on her disappearance.' 357 00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:24,680 "The lady disappeared under circumstances which opened out all sorts of possibilities. 358 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:29,200 She might have been wandering around with loss of memory around Newlands Corner, 359 00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:33,400 or she might have fallen into one of the numerous gravel pits that abound here..." 360 00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:37,800 Cos there's tons just a bit further down the lane there. 361 00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:40,360 "..and lying helpless in agony. 362 00:23:40,360 --> 00:23:44,080 Or she might, as was strongly suggested to the police, 363 00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:46,320 have been the victim of a serious crime." 364 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:48,280 My goodness me. 365 00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:52,800 This is an extraordinary place to come. It is. 366 00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:56,640 I mean, don't you think, coming here... 367 00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:58,640 this feels like a chosen place? 368 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:00,760 It doesn't feel like she's... 369 00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:03,000 It doesn't seem random at all. 370 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:05,080 I mean, you can't see this from the road, 371 00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:07,240 so it must be foreknowledge. 372 00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:09,440 Yes. I mean, you can imagine... 373 00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:15,000 It caught the public imagination. Almost immediately, it became headline news. 374 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:18,320 "Aeroplane search for missing novelist." 375 00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:20,960 And then it's on page three. 376 00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:25,000 "Plane scours downs for lost woman novelist." 377 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:31,680 "All-day hunt by 300 men with dogs." This is huge. 378 00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:35,560 It's huge. And look: "Pool dragged again." 379 00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:39,720 Actually, I think I've got some pictures of that. 380 00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:42,600 Oh, they're there. Look at them, searching. 381 00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:45,800 They're all searching. I don't know whether the numbers are right, 382 00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:50,960 but some people said there were 15,000 who came to look for her... 383 00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:55,000 because if anybody knows that people like a mystery, 384 00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:57,120 it was Agatha Christie. 385 00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:00,960 'But then I discovered the truth. 386 00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,960 It lay in a hotel in the spa town of Harrogate.' 387 00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:12,200 And so, now I find myself on the train, going to Harrogate, 388 00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:15,760 and hoping to find 389 00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:20,480 some answers to the mystery of her disappearance. 390 00:25:24,360 --> 00:25:26,880 'On 4 December 1926, 391 00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:29,400 Agatha arrived at this hotel, 392 00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:32,440 and signed in under the surname Neele, 393 00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:34,400 the same name as Archie's mistress. 394 00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:37,480 And here she remained for the next ten days. 395 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,960 In the meantime, the search for her continued unabated. 396 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:46,960 Biographer Janet Morgan is here to tell me what happened next.' 397 00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:52,200 Janet, we're not talking about a minor occurrence. 398 00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:55,120 We're talking about a major manhunt, 399 00:25:55,120 --> 00:25:58,760 looking for the body of Agatha Christie. 400 00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:01,160 And the murderer. And the murderer. 401 00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:04,080 It was an extraordinary story. 402 00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:07,160 Aeroplanes. Special constables. 403 00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:10,120 'Bring your boots. Bring your bloodhounds.' 404 00:26:10,120 --> 00:26:12,320 But for the public that didn't know her, 405 00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:17,520 and only knew her as a crime writer, 406 00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:20,560 writing these mysteries... 407 00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:23,720 ..huge theories developed. 408 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:26,800 So, what were some of the theories after her disappearance? 409 00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:32,120 That here was a woman who wanted to publicise her books. 410 00:26:32,120 --> 00:26:37,640 And another theory was that this was a very complicated sort of revenge. 411 00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:40,760 So, if she disappeared, 412 00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:43,480 it might be thought that her husband 413 00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:47,240 had intended to murder her. 414 00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:49,520 And then he'd be tried for attempted murder, 415 00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:52,840 and possibly, in those days, that would be the end of him. 416 00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:54,600 So, how was she discovered? 417 00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:59,160 Two of the men who played in the band identified her... 418 00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:04,440 who, rather wonderfully, didn't go to the press and claim the £100 reward, 419 00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:06,440 but went to the police, 420 00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:11,920 and said that they thought that this might be Agatha Christie. 421 00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:16,720 'The press quickly got wind of the story, 422 00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:19,960 and photos of Agatha leaving the hotel hit the front pages. 423 00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:25,720 Archie told journalists his wife was suffering from amnesia, 424 00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:29,880 but there was public outcry from those who continued to see her disappearance 425 00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:31,920 as nothing more than a publicity stunt. 426 00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:37,320 The repercussions would haunt Agatha for the rest of her life. 427 00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:41,040 But it was a subject she refused to discuss, 428 00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:44,240 and I could find little mention of it in her autobiography. 429 00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:47,120 I needed to see Laura Thompson again, 430 00:27:47,120 --> 00:27:49,720 to see if she could shed any light on the mystery. 431 00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:53,560 I began by reading what little Agatha had written.' 432 00:27:55,520 --> 00:27:58,160 "But life in England was unbearable. 433 00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:02,360 From that time, I suppose, dates my revulsion against the press, 434 00:28:02,360 --> 00:28:05,240 my dislike of journalists and of crowds. 435 00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:08,320 I had felt like a fox, hunted, 436 00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:12,360 my earths dug up and yelping hounds following me everywhere. 437 00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:16,320 I had always hated notoriety of every kind, 438 00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:18,720 and now I had had such a dose of it, 439 00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:23,080 that at some moments I felt I could hardly bear to go on living." 440 00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:25,800 Poor woman. I mean... 441 00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:28,840 what an honest thing to actually write. Yeah. 442 00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:31,000 But that's all. 443 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:33,440 So, can you help me any more? 444 00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:36,240 (LAUGHS) Well... 445 00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:40,880 Where she really wrote about it is as Mary Westmacott, and this book - 446 00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:43,680 Whoa. So, you're saying... 447 00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:47,200 she let it out in a novel? 448 00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:49,560 She did. She really did. 449 00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:53,720 These Mary Westmacott novels are not particularly well known. There are six of them. 450 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:56,720 She wrote them between 1930 and 1956. 451 00:28:56,720 --> 00:29:01,200 So, when she's at the peak of her powers as a detective-fiction writer, 452 00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:05,120 she's writing the opposite of those books, which are neat and tidy. 453 00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:13,120 Everything's resolved. You know - that catharsis at the end, the world restored to itself. 454 00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:15,440 These Westmacotts are the exact opposite. 455 00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:18,640 Everything's churned up, emotional, unexplained. 456 00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:21,560 She's digging deep into herself, 457 00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:23,800 trying to understand everything 458 00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:25,880 that puzzles her in real life. 459 00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:29,360 And she's writing these really rather... 460 00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:33,080 They're not as accomplished as the detective fiction, 461 00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:35,200 but they're incredibly powerful, 462 00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:39,120 and they are probably the best clue to her that you're gonna find. 463 00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:44,000 Under a pseudonym? Yes. Protected by the pseudonym. 464 00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:47,200 So, her disappearance will always remain a mystery, or not? 465 00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:52,640 It's a mystery in the sense that we would never know what was going on in the poor woman's head, 466 00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:54,520 what anguish she went through. 467 00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:59,440 It's not a mystery in the sense that, in the emotional context, we kind of know. 468 00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:05,240 And of course, everything she did to get that man back 469 00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:07,440 determined that she would never get him back, 470 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:11,160 because a private tragedy became this public sensation, 471 00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:14,920 and I think that's as good an explanation as you're gonna get, really. 472 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:19,200 'Agatha and Archie were divorced in 1928. 473 00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:23,600 In Harrogate's Turkish spa, 474 00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:25,760 I reflected on what I'd learned. 475 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,480 It must have been a dreadful period in Agatha's life. 476 00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:34,280 I imagine most of us have got to the stage where you can't think straight any more, 477 00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:36,680 and you get that tight band around the head. 478 00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:39,600 I know I have.' 479 00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:47,760 I don't think we'll ever know what really happened. 480 00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:51,120 But we do know that this whole painful experience 481 00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:54,560 was the beginning of a new phase in the life of Agatha Christie. 482 00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:58,280 It's as though she wanted to just slam the door on it all, 483 00:30:58,280 --> 00:31:02,080 and she describes it quite vividly in her autobiography. 484 00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:09,600 "I knew that the only hope of starting again 485 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:14,400 was to go right away from all the things that had wrecked life for me. 486 00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:17,080 There could be no peace for me in England now, 487 00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:19,040 after all I had gone through." 488 00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:23,720 'On the next leg of my journey, 489 00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:25,760 I'd have to go further afield, 490 00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:29,120 to find out what happened when Agatha left England, 491 00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:32,760 on a voyage that would change her life in more ways than one.' 492 00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:48,000 'Istanbul, the city where it's said 493 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:50,520 that east meets west. 494 00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:53,600 In 1928, following her divorce from Archie, 495 00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:56,080 Agatha Christie was craving adventure, 496 00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:59,800 so, on a whim, came to Istanbul on the Orient Express, 497 00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:01,800 en route to Baghdad. 498 00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:04,720 It marked the beginning of a love affair with the East 499 00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:07,440 that would last for over 40 years, 500 00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:10,960 one which would have a profound effect on her life and writing. 501 00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:15,240 And it was her use of exotic locations in stories 502 00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:18,760 like Death On The Nile and Murder On The Orient Express 503 00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:21,480 that really set her apart from her contemporaries. 504 00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:28,960 I'm meeting Barbara Nadel, 505 00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:31,760 otherwise known as the queen of Turkish crime-writing. 506 00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:36,240 Though born in London, most of Barbara's stories are set in Istanbul, 507 00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:40,160 and her novels have been strongly influenced by Agatha Christie.' 508 00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:43,520 Hi, David. Nice to meet you. 509 00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:46,600 Welcome to Istanbul. Please come in. 510 00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:51,080 'Barbara took me to Sirkeci Station, 511 00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:54,560 where both Agatha and Poirot once boarded the Orient Express. 512 00:32:56,320 --> 00:32:59,960 I wanted to know more about this period in Agatha's life 513 00:32:59,960 --> 00:33:02,760 and the effect it had on her readers back home.' 514 00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:05,720 What was your introduction to Agatha Christie? 515 00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:07,720 We had her books at home, 516 00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:12,600 so I picked them up as a kid and read them and thought, 'These are good.' 517 00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:16,920 And when you're a young child, you don't think too much about it, 518 00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:21,280 but as I got older, I started reading more crime fiction, 519 00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:24,760 but I always went back to Agatha Christie. 520 00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:32,040 I think one of the extra dimensions that she brings to crime fiction, 521 00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:34,680 that was so extraordinary at that time, was, 522 00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:39,320 you've got this sort of English cosiness about it, 523 00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:42,520 but you've also got this edge. 524 00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:45,320 Not just in terms of the plots 525 00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:49,440 and her psychological development of the characters, 526 00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:52,840 but also the edge of...she went abroad. 527 00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:58,280 She set mysteries in places like Iraq and Egypt. 528 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:00,680 These were places that... 529 00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:05,280 Britain had an empire, so British people were aware of these places, 530 00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:07,720 but they didn't go to these places, 531 00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:10,880 unless they went with the army, but that was different. 532 00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:13,760 So interesting. Yes, it is. 533 00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:17,520 Yeah, she's a lot more... 534 00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:19,960 She's a lot more fascinating than... 535 00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:22,640 People get this idea of a little English lady. 536 00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:25,320 She was a hell of a lot more than that. 537 00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:27,280 She was a real adventuress. 538 00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:35,400 'It was on that trip that Agatha went to her first archaeological dig, 539 00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:37,640 and she was fascinated by it. 540 00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:42,880 It was through this new interest that she was introduced to a young archaeologist, Max Mallowan, 541 00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:45,520 who became the love of her life. 542 00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:50,640 This is how Max remembered their meeting.' 543 00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:53,240 'Some rather imperious people 544 00:34:53,240 --> 00:34:56,120 ordered me to take her on a conducted tour 545 00:34:56,120 --> 00:34:58,000 over a large part of Iraq, 546 00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:00,280 and this I did with pleasure. 547 00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:03,520 But it was on that journey that I realised 548 00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:07,440 that she would make, I thought, a wonderful companion in life. 549 00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:12,760 We were stuck in the sand, and she took it all in her stride, 550 00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:14,720 with the utmost good humour. 551 00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:20,640 'Agatha and Max were married in September 1930, 552 00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:25,080 and throughout her life, she regularly accompanied him on digs to the east, 553 00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:30,560 the sights and sounds ever inspiring the plots and locations of her stories.' 554 00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:33,480 Poor little beggar. 555 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:36,680 About six years old, I'd say. 556 00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:42,000 Sent into the next world with nothing but a little pot and a couple of necklaces. 557 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:44,920 Well, perhaps that is all any of us need. 558 00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:51,800 'Having come to Istanbul, 559 00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:55,000 I could understand why Agatha had been so drawn to the east, 560 00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:58,520 and why it had left such an indelible mark on her heart. 561 00:36:01,720 --> 00:36:04,840 But home for Agatha was in England. 562 00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:06,880 By the time of her marriage to Max, 563 00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:10,120 she had already had over a dozen books published. 564 00:36:10,120 --> 00:36:12,880 Then came The Murder At The Vicarage, 565 00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:18,520 the first novel to feature a new creation, an elderly spinster called Miss Marple, 566 00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:22,320 whose shrewd intelligence and ability to see the worst in everyone 567 00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:24,840 she based upon her own grandmother.' 568 00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:26,560 Miss Marple. Did you know 569 00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:30,160 that she visited the Colonel on the afternoon before the murder? 570 00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:33,760 Dr Haydock drove her up. Now, I find that very interesting. Don't you? 571 00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:39,080 I think it would be a good idea if I had the whole story from you. 572 00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:42,800 Oh, I'm sure you're too busy to listen to my little ideas, Inspector. 573 00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:45,640 No-one can accuse me of not being thorough. Indeed. 574 00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:52,320 'In the late 1930s, Agatha's work began to develop a new emotional complexity, 575 00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:54,720 drawn from personal experience, 576 00:36:54,720 --> 00:36:57,360 like the Poirot story Sad Cypress, 577 00:36:57,360 --> 00:37:00,800 which I remember touched on themes of love and adultery. 578 00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:05,400 That decade, Agatha and Max bought several properties, 579 00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:08,600 including their beloved Greenway in Devon. 580 00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:11,520 But for them, like for so many people, 581 00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:13,680 peace was about to be shattered.' 582 00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:16,840 NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN: 'I have to tell you now 583 00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:20,440 that no such undertaking has been received, 584 00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:25,440 and that, consequently, this country is at war with Germany.' 585 00:37:28,400 --> 00:37:33,120 'Along with other country houses, Greenway was requisitioned during the war. 586 00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:35,960 Max was sent to north Africa with the RAF, 587 00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:40,000 so Agatha went to London and worked again in a hospital dispensary. 588 00:37:40,720 --> 00:37:44,720 She turned down an offer to write wartime propaganda for the government, 589 00:37:44,720 --> 00:37:47,080 but instead, amidst the air raids, 590 00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:49,840 wrote more crime fiction than ever before. 591 00:37:50,760 --> 00:37:53,440 And in stories like Evil Under The Sun, 592 00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:57,160 the reassurance that good would prevail inspired her readers. 593 00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:01,160 She was like the Vera Lynn of the literary world.' 594 00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:07,000 VERA LYNN: # There'll be bluebirds over... # 595 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:09,760 'I've come to watch a wartime propaganda film, 596 00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:12,680 with one-time air-raid warden Elaine Kidwell.' 597 00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:16,400 Does this bring back memories? 598 00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:18,840 Yes, yes. Look - air-raid shelter. 599 00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:21,800 Apparently, I was the youngest warden in the UK. 600 00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:24,640 But that's because I lied about my age. 601 00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:28,600 (LAUGHS) They said, 'How old are you?' I said, '17 and two months.' 602 00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:33,120 'Right. You're in your 18th year. In the wartime, we bend the rules.' 603 00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:38,840 What did you do to have some form of escape for yourself during the war? 604 00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:42,560 I used to read, and I loved Agatha Christie, 605 00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:45,720 and her books were wonderful, 606 00:38:45,720 --> 00:38:48,320 because, although they were crimes, 607 00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:51,840 to what was going on in the world, they were gentle. 608 00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:55,080 And what was so funny was, 609 00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:58,320 if little boys got to know about Poirot, 610 00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:00,400 they would be trying to walk like him, 611 00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:02,360 because he was a hero. 612 00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:04,960 He worked things out, 613 00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:07,280 and he had justice for everyone. 614 00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:11,360 She had justice for everyone in every one of her books, didn't she? 615 00:39:13,800 --> 00:39:16,160 'By 1950, it was estimated 616 00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:20,520 that Agatha Christie had sold over 50 million books worldwide. 617 00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:22,720 But still there was no slowing her down. 618 00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:28,880 That decade saw the opening of her most famous play, The Mousetrap. 619 00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:33,720 On the play's tenth anniversary, in 1962, 620 00:39:33,720 --> 00:39:35,800 she gave this rare interview.' 621 00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:41,040 Do you think The Mousetrap is the best play that's ever run in London? 622 00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:44,440 Oh, I'd hardly say that, no. Not by a long way! 623 00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:47,320 Why has it been so phenomenally successful, then? 624 00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:51,720 Well, there again, I don't know. People like it, but who can say why? 625 00:39:51,720 --> 00:39:54,240 How many years would you give The Mousetrap yet? 626 00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:57,480 I wouldn't like to prophesy! 627 00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:02,120 'I wonder what she'd think if she knew it was still running today. 628 00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:07,640 The 1960s were the age of the paperback writer, 629 00:40:07,640 --> 00:40:09,920 and in a highly competitive market, 630 00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:13,280 cover design was becoming quite literally a work of art. 631 00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:17,240 In 1962, artist Tom Adams 632 00:40:17,240 --> 00:40:21,000 entered into a unique creative partnership with Agatha Christie, 633 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:24,600 that resulted in over 100 paperback cover paintings.' 634 00:40:30,520 --> 00:40:34,880 David, hello! Come in. Thank you very much. 635 00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:38,240 David, come and see some of my pictures. 636 00:40:39,200 --> 00:40:41,400 You'll probably recognise most of them. 637 00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:43,800 Oh... Hallowe'en Party. 638 00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:47,640 Yes. Oh, my goodness. Look what you've done, though. 639 00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:52,000 That almost looks photographic, that girl, 640 00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:56,840 when you compare it to the pumpkin's face and the witch. 641 00:40:56,840 --> 00:40:58,640 Yeah. 642 00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:00,840 I enjoyed doing that one. 643 00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:04,240 Could you explain to me your process of developing an image? 644 00:41:04,240 --> 00:41:09,840 What the publisher wanted was to take the cover more seriously, 645 00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:12,720 and I'd read the book 646 00:41:12,720 --> 00:41:15,120 at least three times. 647 00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:20,120 I would make notes, do sketches, underline passages. 648 00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:22,320 Certain objects which, if possible, 649 00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:27,000 would be true to the story, 650 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:29,200 but not necessarily illustrate the story. 651 00:41:29,200 --> 00:41:34,320 Objects which would symbolise or represent a theme in the book. 652 00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:39,560 And so, the first one I did was A Murder Is Announced. 653 00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:42,000 That was in 1962, 654 00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:49,200 and I've been doing them up to the last one, Miss Marple's Final Cases, about 20 years later. 655 00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:52,320 Wow. But you obviously love it. 656 00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:55,320 I do love it, and the extraordinary is 657 00:41:55,320 --> 00:41:57,920 that I really love Agatha Christie's work. 658 00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:01,520 When I first started doing her covers, 659 00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:05,320 like everybody else, we all had read Agatha Christie from time to time. 660 00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:07,960 But I didn't think too much about it. 661 00:42:07,960 --> 00:42:13,520 She herself never claimed they were great works of literature. 662 00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:16,920 But as I got to read more and more of them, 663 00:42:16,920 --> 00:42:20,440 I realised what a great writer she is. 664 00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:22,960 Did you ever meet Agatha Christie? 665 00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:27,360 No, I didn't, but in retrospect, I'm quite glad I didn't meet her, 666 00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:32,800 because I then got to know her more intimately through her work. 667 00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:36,760 If I'd met her, she would have had to say, 668 00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:39,880 'Well, I don't like this cover very much!' 669 00:42:39,880 --> 00:42:43,520 And I would have had to either defend it 670 00:42:43,520 --> 00:42:49,360 or else be worried that she didn't like some of them. 671 00:42:49,360 --> 00:42:52,880 So, I think it was quite a good thing that I didn't meet her. 672 00:42:52,880 --> 00:42:55,600 I think I have a very similar reaction. 673 00:42:55,600 --> 00:42:58,040 I've always said I wished I had met her, 674 00:42:58,040 --> 00:43:03,040 and on so many levels, I do wish I'd met her, 675 00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:06,640 but my own vanity as an actor would have been terrified 676 00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:09,360 and most upset to have been told, 677 00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:11,680 'Oh, I didn't like you in that story.' 678 00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:16,000 Well, I think you would have found that she would have been absolutely amazed 679 00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:19,520 and in great wonder at your interpretation of Poirot. 680 00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:21,440 Well, thank you. No question. 681 00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:25,000 It's been a wonderful experience, not only to do the covers, 682 00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:31,600 but to talk to you, who is as intimately connected to this grand old lady as I am. 683 00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:34,120 Well, we're very linked. Indeed, yeah. 684 00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:49,080 'Since the publication of her first book back in 1920, 685 00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:52,760 Agatha Christie has remained enduringly popular, 686 00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:54,680 so I wondered finally 687 00:43:54,680 --> 00:43:57,880 what might have been the secret of her continuing success. 688 00:43:58,800 --> 00:44:02,800 The answer may lie in the notebooks that she used to plot her stories, 689 00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:05,720 books that were only discovered in 2005. 690 00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:09,600 To find out their secrets, I'm going to Burgh Island, 691 00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:13,040 to meet the man who has a detailed knowledge of their contents - 692 00:44:13,040 --> 00:44:16,000 lifelong Agatha Christie devotee John Curran.' 693 00:44:17,760 --> 00:44:21,760 John, having studied these books in such a forensic manner, 694 00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:24,120 you told me you'd bring one for me to see. 695 00:44:24,120 --> 00:44:26,040 I did. Have you? (LAUGHS) 696 00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:31,000 Now, this is one of the more impressive notebooks. It's quite substantial, 697 00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:34,400 and it has a black, hard cover. 698 00:44:34,400 --> 00:44:39,200 This is the notebook for the book that we now know as And Then There Were None, 699 00:44:39,200 --> 00:44:44,920 because it went through quite a few title changes, before the age of political correctness. 700 00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:50,600 This is an example of one where I think she did a lot of the plotting beforehand, 701 00:44:50,600 --> 00:44:52,760 because the plot runs quite smoothly. 702 00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:56,840 Here we have Vera Claythorne, a character in the book. 703 00:44:56,840 --> 00:45:00,200 We have the judge. He's a character. We have a doctor. 704 00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:03,720 And here we have Captain and Mrs Linyard. 705 00:45:03,720 --> 00:45:09,280 Now, they're not in the book, so they were a couple that she toyed with including in the book. 706 00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:13,440 Now, as everybody knows, there are ten characters in this book, 707 00:45:13,440 --> 00:45:19,480 but at some stage in the notebook, she has either eight or 12 characters, for whatever reason. 708 00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:25,480 But the plot of the book is followed fairly closely by the plot in the notebook. 709 00:45:26,200 --> 00:45:29,520 Then she turned every notebook upside down and wrote from the back. 710 00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:32,720 So, here we have household accounts, 711 00:45:32,720 --> 00:45:37,200 and as you can see, she has more household accounts: "Bus and Tube, clothes." 712 00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:40,400 And then we have more notes for books. 713 00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:45,880 This is actually part of the dramatisation of The Secret Of Chimneys. 714 00:45:45,880 --> 00:45:49,200 So, the notebooks were completely random. 715 00:45:49,200 --> 00:45:52,080 I think the reason for the random notes and illegibility 716 00:45:52,080 --> 00:45:55,080 was because she had so many ideas running through her mind. 717 00:45:55,080 --> 00:45:57,480 She just had to get them down as fast as she could. 718 00:45:57,480 --> 00:45:59,400 And it made me realise: 719 00:45:59,400 --> 00:46:03,040 this woman who wrote all these books that everybody finds so easy to read 720 00:46:03,040 --> 00:46:07,320 actually worked really hard to create books that are simple to read. 721 00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:10,720 She's the perfect example of the art that conceals art. 722 00:46:10,720 --> 00:46:16,920 Why, then, does she outshine nearly every single other contemporary crime writer? 723 00:46:16,920 --> 00:46:20,480 Well, I think you can omit 'nearly'. She does outshine. 724 00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:24,400 And I think, if you have to confine it to one word, 725 00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:27,400 I think it's because her plots are simple. 726 00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:31,320 Everybody can understand them. It doesn't matter about your level of education. 727 00:46:31,320 --> 00:46:35,040 Whether you left school at 14 or whether you're a nuclear physicist, 728 00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:37,360 you can understand where she's coming from, 729 00:46:37,360 --> 00:46:40,080 and I think that is really the secret of her success - 730 00:46:40,080 --> 00:46:42,040 her simplicity. 731 00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:52,760 'Dame Agatha Christie died peacefully at home in 1976, at the age of 85. 732 00:46:53,920 --> 00:46:56,000 As Hercule Poirot, 733 00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:58,000 I've solved many of her mysteries. 734 00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:01,680 But there are so many conundrums in her own story... 735 00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:06,280 ..that she's been the most difficult of characters for me to unravel.' 736 00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:12,400 When most people think of Agatha Christie, what comes to their mind 737 00:47:12,400 --> 00:47:18,480 is one of the most successful English crime writers in history, 738 00:47:18,480 --> 00:47:21,520 whose books are sold in over a hundred countries, 739 00:47:21,520 --> 00:47:25,760 films made, television series made, and so forth. 740 00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:28,880 But making this programme 741 00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:32,520 has allowed me to go, in my own terms, backstage, 742 00:47:32,520 --> 00:47:35,160 and enter another world. 743 00:47:37,560 --> 00:47:40,240 So, what do I come away with? 744 00:47:40,240 --> 00:47:43,040 A very warm person, 745 00:47:43,040 --> 00:47:45,080 who loved her family, 746 00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:47,200 who was enormously positive. 747 00:47:47,200 --> 00:47:53,000 A person, above all, who was very thankful and grateful for her life. 748 00:47:54,440 --> 00:47:56,200 If I'd met her, 749 00:47:56,200 --> 00:47:58,240 would I have learnt any more, I wonder? 750 00:47:59,200 --> 00:48:01,160 I think I would have come away thinking 751 00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:03,800 she was still very much a mystery. 752 00:48:05,600 --> 00:48:08,240 CHRISTIE: 'I don't say I don't want to live longer, 753 00:48:08,240 --> 00:48:12,320 but as anyone who enjoys life, who has a strong feeling 754 00:48:12,320 --> 00:48:15,040 for the pleasures just of being alive, 755 00:48:15,040 --> 00:48:17,920 of waking up, of knowing it's another day, 756 00:48:17,920 --> 00:48:21,000 welcoming sun or wind, 757 00:48:21,000 --> 00:48:24,280 or even a nice, hot breakfast and the smell of coffee... 758 00:48:24,280 --> 00:48:26,800 You can't want to die when you feel like that.' 759 00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:37,280 Subtitles by Deluxe