By some accounts Agatha Christie was the best selling author of the last century and her murder mysteries have often been adopted into movies and television shows.
“Agatha Christie: Mystery Lover’s Collection” is a nice sampler culling from recent British TV productions. Included are one episode from the superb Hercule Poirot series starring the incomparable David Suchet; one from the stylish but campy 21st century adaptation of Miss Marple (featuring a slightly batty Geraldine McEwan); a couple episodes of a charming 1980s series set in the Roaring Twenties called “Tommy & Tuppence”; and an odd one-off, “The Pale Horse,” adapted from a late Christie novel and staged in ‘60s Swinging London.
The episodes featuring Poirot, Miss Marple and Tommy & Tuppence are taken from larger DVD box sets devoted to those popular sleuths. As a stand-alone production, “The Pale Horse” is harder to come by on video. “Agatha Christie: Mystery Lover’s Collection” is a good stocking stuffer for a season when retreat from the world’s harsher realities into a more comforting realm of mayhem sounds just right.
