A toxic love triangle, a formidable matriarch, and a house party of enemies—BBC’s latest Christie adaptation eschews cozy mystery for psychological suspense
In a grand coastal estate overlooking the Devonshire sea, Lady Tressilian (Anjelica Huston) presides from her bed like a queen on her throne. It’s England, 1936, and her summer house party at Gull’s Point is about to become a cauldron of unfinished business, sexual tension, and deadly secrets. This is the evocative setting for “Towards Zero,” BBC’s sumptuous new three-part Agatha Christie adaptation, which promises to deliver what executive producer James Prichard calls “a very modern feel with contemporary themes of love, jealousy, and family relationships.”
Unlike most Christie mysteries, “Towards Zero” takes its time building toward murder. The victim isn’t dispatched in the opening minutes—instead, we watch as the psychological pressure cooker slowly builds to explosion. As Mr. Treves (Clarke Peters) explains in an early scene, this is a story about the journey towards zero—the moment when murder is not just conceived but inevitably executed.
“Christie is doing some very unusual things in ‘Towards Zero,'” says screenwriter Rachel Bennette. “She de-centres the detective and focuses deeply on character and theme. The dynamics between these stunning characters generate so much electricity and mystery—it’s been a joy to watch the sparks fly.”
The Incendiary Love Triangle
At the center of this electricity is what director Sam Yates calls “a compelling central love triangle, and an exploration of desire, love and hate.” After a scandalous celebrity divorce plastered across tabloid headlines, British tennis star Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) makes the unthinkable decision to bring his new bride Kay (Mimi Keene) to Gull’s Point—the same estate where his ex-wife Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland) will be staying.
“Nevile is sort of the David Beckham of his time,” Jackson-Cohen explains. “He and Audrey were a celebrity couple, always in the papers, much beloved. When we meet Nevile, they’re going through a very public, humiliating divorce because of his infidelity with Kay, who he subsequently marries.”
This combustible situation might seem like a recipe for melodrama, but the psychological complexity the actors bring to their roles transforms it into something far more intriguing. Jackson-Cohen describes Nevile as driven by competition above all else. “As you find with anyone in sports, there’s a drive to win. It’s all about tactics and how you get to that final result. That plays out into his personal life and relationships.”
Ella Lily Hyland’s Audrey is no passive victim. “They grew up together and are very dependent on each other. It’s quite childlike,” Hyland says of the former couple. “There’s a veneer of sophistication, but underneath there’s a very childish need. They know each other so deeply, they almost try to predict the move the other person makes. That’s a part of their intimacy.”
The toxic co-dependence between Nevile and Audrey is what makes the triangle so explosive. “It’s a Burton and Taylor-esque relationship,” adds Jackson-Cohen. “A constant exploration of co-dependence and how ugly and dangerous it can get. They take such joy out of playing the game—no matter how much it costs them, they cannot stop playing.”
Meanwhile, Mimi Keene’s Kay finds herself caught in dangerous waters. “She’s loving life—they’re just married and all of her dreams have come true,” Keene says. “It all goes downhill from there. I don’t think Kay is expecting the connection between Nevile and Audrey to remain so strong.”
The Formidable Lady Tressilian
If the love triangle provides the emotional powder keg, it’s Anjelica Huston’s Lady Tressilian who strikes the match. In her British television debut, Huston creates an unforgettable portrayal of power in decline—a woman who rules her domain from the confines of her bed.
“Lady Tressilian is the matriarch of a very disjointed, unruly family,” Huston explains. “She has a way of getting everyone to do what she wants them to do—commandeering the ship and running it the way she sees it should be run. It was a lot of fun to play Lady Tressilian. I basically went onto set and rolled into bed every day!”
Huston describes her character as “domineering, calculating and iconoclastic.” Lady Tressilian runs her household with an iron fist, particularly when it comes to her long-suffering companion Mary Aldin (Anjana Vasan). “Mary is very patient and long-suffering,” Huston says. “Lady Tressilian has very definite ideas about Mary and what she should think, what she should read, what she should do… She applies them rather stringently to poor Mary.”
For Vasan, playing Mary offered a chance to explore a character caught between frustration and hope. “When we first see her, she is in a place of real frustration; life feels like it has passed her by a little bit,” Vasan explains. “There is also this glimmer of hope that is present—you feel like there are two paths Mary can go on at the beginning of the story.”
A House Full of Secrets
The supporting cast is equally rich with complexity. Jack Farthing plays Thomas Royde, a man who has returned from managing a failing rubber plantation in Malaya. “When Thomas is twelve, he witnesses a traumatic event that he then tries to speak the truth about but is sort of silenced by the family,” Farthing explains. “They want to cover it up, so he lives with that still now as a 30-year-old man.”
Thomas harbors an interest in Mary Aldin, with whom he’s been corresponding. But his return to Gull’s Point is more complicated than it first appears. “He’s desperate to get there and to get money from Lady Tressilian,” Farthing says. “When he gets back to Gull’s Point, he is immediately that child again and all the ghosts that haunted him there are very much still in the room.”
Clarke Peters brings gravitas to the role of Mr. Treves, the family lawyer who, as Peters puts it, “knows the secrets, knows where the money is hidden, knows who wants what.” His character serves as both confidante and potential threat. “If he were to be put on the stand, he would probably bring this family to ruin.”
Add to this mix Adam Hugill as Mac, Nevile’s enigmatic valet with a troubled past; Khalil Gharbia as Louis Morel, a self-described “lounge lizard” bringing sensuality to the proceedings; and little-known Sylvia (Grace Doherty), who forms an unexpected bond with the troubled detective, Inspector Leach (Matthew Rhys).
A Detective Finding His Way Back
Speaking of Inspector Leach, Matthew Rhys describes him as “a man of great depth and sensitivity” whose “trauma from the First World War has isolated him to such a degree that he is very much on the outside and periphery of almost every social circle.”
This outsider status gives Leach unique insight, but the character is fighting his own battles. “When we first meet Leach, he’s at the lowest point of his life,” Rhys explains. It’s through his connection with young Sylvia that he begins to find his way back. “He finally realizes the fragility of life, but also how precious it is. They’re two peas in a pod, complete kindred spirits. They’re alone in the world and have a great sense of abandonment.”
Rhys is quick to point out that Leach “isn’t Poirot.” Instead, “he’s very succinct in his thoughts. He’s in a soup of a swirl in this world as he’s trying to make sense of all of these crazy loose ends, these strange people and this strange location. He’s dealing with his own personal demons and the demons of others who are laid out in front of him.”
Two Worlds in Tension
One of the most striking elements of “Towards Zero” is the contrast between its two main settings: Gull’s Point, Lady Tressilian’s stately home, and the nearby Easterhead Bay Hotel.
“Gull’s Point is a more conservative and formal place to be,” explains director Sam Yates. “Whereas the Easterhead Bay Hotel is a pleasure hotel, full of music, dancing, debauchery and young people running towards life following the tragedy of the Great War.”
This contrast reflects the psychological tensions at the heart of the story. “On the one side the lake, at Easterhead Bay Hotel, there are no boundaries,” says Clarke Peters. “Having these two environments is like the story—we all have dark parts of ourselves as well as the light we’re trying to find.”
The actors universally describe filming at these locations as a highlight of the production. “My favourite day of filming was the day at Easterhead Bay Hotel and the big dance sequence,” recalls Anjana Vasan. “We had a live jazz band and these amazing dancers. The set looked incredible—it was an art deco bar and I just got to spend all day dancing.”
Not Your Grandmother’s Christie
If there’s one thing the cast and creative team want to make clear, it’s that this is not a cozy mystery. “I think it’s wrong that Agatha Christie is thought of as being cozy or in some way tame or genteel,” says director Sam Yates. “Her books and characters are filled with sex, murder, envy, hatred and fun.”
“It’s definitely in the genre of psychological thriller, but it also explores themes of sex, sexuality and desire,” adds Ella Lily Hyland. “That’s what makes it interesting. It’s not just about rage and anger. It’s about passion. At certain points it feels a bit like a Greek tragedy.”
Screenwriter Rachel Bennette agrees, pointing to the dual nature of Christie’s appeal: “These enthralling fantasies, all crackling with ingenuity and exquisite inventiveness, all of which we delight in—but always with this deep human core.”
For Damien Timmer, Executive Producer, “Towards Zero” represents Christie at her psychological best. “I’ve always thought there was something so delicious and provocative at the centre of it. This incendiary love triangle—there’s something so gloriously wicked about Nevile, Audrey and Kay going to a country house weekend for this polite holiday and, of course, you know that it is going to end in murder.”
The Enduring Appeal of Agatha Christie
Why does Christie’s work continue to captivate audiences nearly a century after it was written? “The stories are genius, and genius plots and stories stand the test of time,” says James Prichard, Christie’s great-grandson and Executive Producer at Agatha Christie Limited. “The premise of them all is very modern—she basically writes about people, and people haven’t changed in any serious way.”
Anjana Vasan puts it succinctly: “Even though it’s set in 1936, I think the reason why Agatha Christie has endured for so long is because she’s written all of the characters so honestly and vividly that somehow there is still a sense of the modern and the now in all her stories.”
“What Agatha Christie does really cleverly is depict what facets of human nature our society is most comfortable with,” adds Ella Lily Hyland. “It’s like a mirror for the audience.”
Clarke Peters takes a more psychological view of Christie’s appeal: “The theme is that the truth will out. Everyone has a secret, and each one of those secrets that they’ve been harbouring forever has to come out.”
The Journey Towards Zero
At its heart, “Towards Zero” is about the inevitable momentum toward disaster when toxic relationships, hidden motives, and past traumas collide. “One of the biggest themes is idle time—idle time is the devil’s play thing, as they say,” observes Khalil Gharbia with characteristic frankness. “Rich people have a lot of that.”
Or as Oliver Jackson-Cohen puts it more directly: “Game, set, murder.”
“Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero” is available in full on BBC iPlayer and airs weekly on BBC One from Sunday, March 2nd at 9pm. It will be released on BritBox in the USA and internationally.
Gallery
