Agatha Christie – The Classic Crime Collection DVD – Jean Marsh , Pauline Collins

Triple bill of crime dramas based on Agatha Christie’s novels. In ‘Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?’ (1980) vicar’s son Bobby Jones (James Warwick) is enjoying a round of golf when he discovers a dying man at the foot of the cliffs. His last words are ‘Why didn’t they ask Evans?’, and Bobby discovers a photograph of a beautiful young woman in his pocket. Intrigued by the mystery, Bobby teams up with his childhood friend Frankie Derwent (Francesca Annis), and together they stumble across a tangled web of false identities, faked wills and murder. In ‘Sparkling Cyanide’ (2003) the murder of influential millionaire George Barton (Kenneth Cranham)’s wife at a plush dinner party is the mystery at the heart of the feature. Who was responsible for committing the crime? Colonel Geoffrey Reece (Oliver Ford Davies) and Dr. Catherine Kendall (Pauline Collins) head the investigation, which looks set to lead to the very top with the discovery that the victim was having an affair with a high-ranking government minister. In ‘The Pale Horse’ (1997) Mark Easterbrook (Colin Buchanan) finds himself in the frame for the murder of a priest and there seems no way to prove his innocence other than solving the mystery of the death himself. Matters are complicated further when Mark realises that the people listed on a piece of paper recovered from the priest’s body appear to be dying one by one. Can he get to the bottom of the riddle?

Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime, presents this star studded, captivating trio of murder mysteries. The Pale Horse pits a young man with an eye for danger against a perilous coven of conniving and black magic. Sparkling Cyanide revels in the coincidence of money, manipulation and murder, uncovered by Colonel Reece and Dr. Catherine Kendall. Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? is the question to hand when Bobby Jones comes across a dying man with links to the Bassington-ffrench estate and a world of all-too tempting inheritances.