BBC to adapt Christie short story

BBC1 in the UK has ordered an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1925 short story The Witness for the Prosecution.

The 2×60’ project, adapted by Sarah Phelps, is the latest Christie work to head to the UK pubcaster after last year’s three-part thriller And Then There Were None, on which Phelps also worked.

ITV-owned Mammoth Screen, producer of Poldark and And Then There Were None, will coproduce with Agatha Christie Productions in association with Acorn Media Enterprises, Acorn TV and A+E Studios. RLJ Entertainment’s Acorn TV will premiere the show in the US.

Julian Jarrold (The Crown, The Girl, Appropriate Adult,) will direct the project, which follows a murder mystery in 1920s London.

Executive producers are James Prichard and Hilary Strong for Agatha Christie Productions, Karen Thrussell and Damien Timmer for Mammoth Screen, and Sarah Phelps and Matthew Read for the BBC.

One of Christie’s most celebrated titles, The Witness for the Prosecution was later turned into a successful stage play and a1957 film directed by Billy Wilder.