Sarah Phelps is bringing her fifth Agatha Christie adaptation to the small screen. Variety confirms the award-winning screenwriter will pen a two-part series based on Christie’s “The Pale Horse” for Amazon and the BBC. Phelps previously wrote and exec produced Christie adaptations “The ABC Murders,” “Ordeal by Innocence,” “The Witness for the Prosecution,” and “And Then There Were None.”
Leonora Lonsdale (“Beast”) will direct the drama, which begins when a list of names are found in a dead woman’s shoe. “One of the named people begins investigating and is drawn to [an inn called] The Pale Horse, the home of a trio of rumored witches living in a small village. Word has it that the witches can do away with wealthy relatives using dark arts,” the source summarizes.
“Written in 1961, against the backdrop of the Eichmann trial, the escalation of the Cold War, and Vietnam, ‘The Pale Horse’ is a shivery, paranoid story about superstition, love gone wrong, guilt, and grief,” Phelps said. “It’s about what we’re capable of when we’re desperate and what we believe when all the lights go out and we’re alone in the dark.”
Among Phelps’ more recent credits are “The White Princess,” “Hooten & the Lady,” and “The Crimson Field.” She won a Writers’ Guild of Great Britain prize for penning “The Witness for the Prosecution” and Best Screenwriter at the Seoul International Drama Awards for her 2012 TV adaptation of “Great Expectations.”
Nicknamed the Queen of Crime, Christie is known for her twisty murder mysteries. “Big Littles Lies” producer Bruna Papandrea is working on a series based on Christie’s Miss Marple stories, which have been in print for more than 90 years, sold hundreds of millions of copies, and been published in 41 languages.