Agatha's 1939 novel has been given a racial spin: our hero is now a Nigerian, David Jonsson, seemingly the best dressed man in England, with an inexhaustible wardrobe, and the dodgy doctor (Mathew Baynton) seems to be promoting ethnic cleansing (with his book 'Racial Hygiene') - a storyline that doesn't really go anywhere (now I think about it).
Set in 1954, the protagonist has met a nice old lady on a train, Penelope Wilton, who's shared her thoughts that villagers are being murdered - before being murdered herself. Jonsson investigates, quickly running into feisty individualist Morfydd Clark. Douglas Henshall is a nice Major with Nigerian connections. Plus: Mark Bonnar, Nimra Bucha, Kathryn Howden, Sinead Matthews, Tamzin Outhwaite, Tom Riley, Phoebe Licorish.
The cast don't quite gel for me. Meenu's work seems to have been limited in India, with a couple of World on Fire episodes here, and maybe that inexperience is the cause. Still we enjoyed it more than those dark Sarah Phelps versions of late. Reviews were generally unfavourable. That this was the writer's only credit does not help matters either. In fact the more I think about it, I don't know what the BBC thought they were doing entrusting their flagship Christmas show to two such inexperienced people.
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