An Interview with James Prichard
Chairman of Agatha Christie Ltd and Great-Grandson of Agatha Christie
Published: 12 December 2016
I have been vividly aware, from a young age, that not everyone had a great-grandmother like mine and it’s a complete pleasure to continue to entertain audiences with her stories.
What is it about the short story The Witness for the Prosecution that lends itself to a television adaptation?
The Witness for the Prosecution is a fantastic story and it’s been a while since it’s been told. Like all Agatha Christie’s creations, it has a phenomenal plot, plus some very unexpected twists; it is, quite simply, a truly great story. On top of that, it has some extraordinary
characters - particularly Romaine, who I think is one of the best female characters my great-grandmother ever wrote. That part lends itself to television drama, and will be a treat for audiences this Christmas.
Agatha Christie wrote a play and a short story of The Witness for the Prosecution – which version has been adapted for this drama?
Interestingly, Sarah chose to adapt the 1920s short story rather than the perhaps better-known play, which formed the basis of Billy Wilder’s 1957 film. One of the more immediate differences that she spotted was that the short story contains far fewer courtroom scenes.
Sarah has a particular vision of 1920s post-war London: she highlights the contrast between the worlds of the rich and poor, the survivors and victims, the light and dark. The characters’ movements between these worlds allow for more depth and texture than the pure static courtroom that you find, for instance, within the play version.
What did Sarah Phelps bring to the script that was unique and different?
Sarah Phelps brought a unique voice to Agatha Christie when she adapted And Then There Were None and again with The Witness for the Prosecution reading between the lines, picking up on details and interpreting the work in a new way. She picked up on the fact that Christie always set every story she wrote in the year in which she wrote it, and so became a voice for the social history of the time. Because she wrote across two World Wars, this is a particularly fascinating time in British as well as world history. The power of Sarah’s writing and her ability to carry the context of the time into the script, giving a great depth and energy to the stories, meant that we were delighted to work with her again.
Inevitably Sarah had to extrapolate from the short story, and what she has done is incredible - to take a short story and make two hours of television is a fantastic skill. She has such a clever way of interpreting my great-grandmother’s work, taking small descriptive details from the original text, such as Mayhew’s persistent cough, and expanding on them to create back stories for each character which are very compelling.
What insight does The Witness for the Prosecution give us into the life and times of Agatha Christie?
Agatha Christie was writing throughout most of the 20th century and her texts very much reflect the time in which they are set. The political context of the time comes across in the words and it would certainly have influenced what she was writing. You can absolutely feel in The Witness for the Prosecution that we’re in post-WW1 Britain and the world is not the same, nor will it ever be the same again.
Do you have a favourite Agatha Christie story?
The obvious answers of And Then There Were None and Murder On The Orient Express are still amongst my favourites, as I think the cleverness of pulling off those two feats as a writer is extraordinary. I also have this habit of enjoying the story I have read most recently and that is testimony to just how good these books are. It never ceases to amaze me just how brilliant she was as a writer. I’ve just finished reading Towards Zero again and I’d forgotten how clever it was and how well it portrays a particular world with a group of fantastic characters.
What is it about your Great-Grandmother’s writing that continues to be so popular today on such a global scale?
To put it simply, it comes down to plot, or as she referred to them, stories: such brilliant, strong plots are timeless. The stories also have universal appeal and are produced all over the world; the purity of her language makes it ideal for translation - in fact, she is the world’s most translated author.
Many of Christie’s books are quite dark, most have great humour but all of them use her great perception of human nature. We want to use this as a platform to show just how contemporary the themes and tones of her books really are.
You have recently taken over the role of Chairman from your father. How does it feel to be caretaking this globally recognised and iconic Agatha Christie brand?
It is a privilege to do what I do and I feel immense humility and luck that I get to work with all these fabulously talented people. I’m excited for The Witness for the Prosecution, with its ridiculously good cast, Murder on the Orient Express filming with Kenneth Branagh starring and directing alongside Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz and Judi Dench and a film version of Witness for the Prosecution in the pipeline with Ben Affleck starring and directing. At Agatha Christie Ltd we hold nearly all of the rights on nearly every platform, which means we are able to develop things really carefully and introduce new audiences to her stories in a fresh yet authentic way.
With the news that BBC One have commissioned seven new dramas this would suggest there is still a significant audience for Christie – is she reaching new audiences?
That is certainly our ambition and we believe that she would love to know that her works are still being enjoyed all over the world. And Then There Were None was one of the most successful new dramas of 2015, bringing 8.6 million viewers and a 32% audience share to BBC One.
What would your great-grandmother have thought about this new production and the current interest in her work?
It’s hard to know what she would have thought but we like to think that she would have approved; after all, she adapted her own work for the stage and was accustomed to seeing her stories in different mediums within her lifetime, so hopefully this version of The Witness
for the Prosecution would have pleased her.
Since taking on the role of Chairman and continuing to read and re-read her work, I have a renewed respect for my great-grandmother, not only as an author but also as the pioneering woman she was. I have been vividly aware, from a young age, that not everyone had a great-grandmother like mine and it’s a complete pleasure to continue to entertain audiences with her stories.
Alice Mayhew
Played by Hayley Carmichael
Stifled by years of repressed emotion, Alice has as much verve and vigor as the grey meals she makes Mayhew for dinner. Haunted by the memory of her son who died at war, her few, precious moments of happiness are spent in his bedroom, left perfectly intact since the moment he left.
