"Why Didn't They Ask Evans?" is one of Dame Agatha Christie's best titles, though the book sags a bit in the middle. So does the TV show.
Young and frightful golfer Bobby Jones, chasing a wayward ball, finds a dying man at the bottom of a cliff. He groans "Why didn't they ask Evans?" and dies. Jones and his pal Lady Francis Derwent try to track down what those words mean and why a picture in the dead man's pocket was switched for another. And, this being a Christie story, they find themselves embroiled in a possible murder mystery wirh their own lives in constant danger.
This was made in the days when they dramatized literature right. But also when the best tv could do was videotaped, staged interiors, with long chunks of dialogue like stage plays; and grainy, filmed exteriors. These dramatizations look like they came off the Ark but these 1960s and 1970s and early 1980s productions had the saving grace of featuring rising great actors, overact how they may when they were young (study the cast-list of another production, "The Pallisers," which features everyone from Derek Jacobi and Jeremy Irons to the voice of Wallace of "Wallace and Grommit" fame.)
Like Christie's book, this version starts out brilliantly, then gets a bit bogged down. It picks up again toward the end, around the time the amatuer-detective heroes find out what the cryptic title means. But this dramatization is so comparatively accurate its faults are Christie's.
Good cast, led by James Warwick and Francisca Annis ("Partners in Crime"; and Annis was in "Dune"). Connie Booth ("Fawlty Towers"). Joan Hickson, who later played the perfect "Miss Marple." James Cossins, Eric Porter and in a brief part, John Gielgud. Annis is lovely as usual for the period, but one of the prettiest actresses ever, Madeline Smith (the Italian agent at the beginning of "Live and Let Die") also makes a welcome, and key, appearance.
The way it's packaged these days makes it one, long slog. It's better viewed in installments with a bit of a walkabout in between.
BTW, I love the way Annis' coiffure begins to disintegrate at about the two-thirds point. This show is full of such nice touches, but the are far between. I like it but it's too long to enjoy often.
Young and frightful golfer Bobby Jones, chasing a wayward ball, finds a dying man at the bottom of a cliff. He groans "Why didn't they ask Evans?" and dies. Jones and his pal Lady Francis Derwent try to track down what those words mean and why a picture in the dead man's pocket was switched for another. And, this being a Christie story, they find themselves embroiled in a possible murder mystery wirh their own lives in constant danger.
This was made in the days when they dramatized literature right. But also when the best tv could do was videotaped, staged interiors, with long chunks of dialogue like stage plays; and grainy, filmed exteriors. These dramatizations look like they came off the Ark but these 1960s and 1970s and early 1980s productions had the saving grace of featuring rising great actors, overact how they may when they were young (study the cast-list of another production, "The Pallisers," which features everyone from Derek Jacobi and Jeremy Irons to the voice of Wallace of "Wallace and Grommit" fame.)
Like Christie's book, this version starts out brilliantly, then gets a bit bogged down. It picks up again toward the end, around the time the amatuer-detective heroes find out what the cryptic title means. But this dramatization is so comparatively accurate its faults are Christie's.
Good cast, led by James Warwick and Francisca Annis ("Partners in Crime"; and Annis was in "Dune"). Connie Booth ("Fawlty Towers"). Joan Hickson, who later played the perfect "Miss Marple." James Cossins, Eric Porter and in a brief part, John Gielgud. Annis is lovely as usual for the period, but one of the prettiest actresses ever, Madeline Smith (the Italian agent at the beginning of "Live and Let Die") also makes a welcome, and key, appearance.
The way it's packaged these days makes it one, long slog. It's better viewed in installments with a bit of a walkabout in between.
BTW, I love the way Annis' coiffure begins to disintegrate at about the two-thirds point. This show is full of such nice touches, but the are far between. I like it but it's too long to enjoy often.