Sun. Jan. 24 at 10pm on WKAR-HD 23.1 & STREAMING | Retrace the Queen of Crime’s footsteps to see the real places that inspired her literary universe. Watch and call or GIVE NOW ONLINE for special offers.Learn how Christie drew on her surroundings throughout her life, immortalizing the people and locations she encountered in her beloved mysteries.
Surpassed only by the Bible and Shakespeare, Agatha Christie is the most successful writer of all time; her books have sold over a billion copies in English and a billion in translation. She wrote an astounding 66 murder mysteries and several plays, including The Mousetrap—the longest-running play of all time—and her classic works continue to be adapted for film and television. How did a refined, upper-class British girl evolve into the queen of crime, poison and murder?
There is no more quintessentially English writer than Christie. Through her sensational murder mysteries, she created a literary universe that almost singlehandedly shaped the world’s image of England. Retracing Christie’s footsteps, this new special visits Beacon Cove, where a young Agatha swam with her nephew when he narrowly escaped drowning, the memory of which would be reprised in her 1939 novel And Then There Were None. In Ealing, Christie witnessed her great-aunt, affectionately known as Granny, devouring local gossip and news of gruesome murder trials, the blueprint for the author’s fictional world of Miss Marple and the village of St. Mary Mead. The influx of Belgian refugees into her hometown of Torquay during World War I inspired another of Christie’s great characters, Hercule Poirot.
Among the many stops during this tour are Ugbrook House, where she met first husband Archie; Abney Hall, the original inspiration for the author’s inimitable country house murder template; Brown’s Hotel, immortalized in 1965’s At Bertram’s Hotel; and her country retreat, Greenway, the boathouse of which plays host to a scene in Dead Man’s Folly.
Watch and call or GIVE NOW ONLINE for special offers.