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In the final episode, she examines Agatha Christie’s later life in “AGATHA CHRISTIE: LUCY WORSLEY ON THE MYSTERY QUEEN” – Dec. 17 at 8 pm
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New Three-Part Series Premieres Sundays, December 3-17, 2023
Join Historian Lucy Worsley as She Travels the World in Christie’s Footsteps, Unraveling the Secret Life of the Enigmatic Writer Who Revolutionized Detective Fiction
In her new three-part series, popular British historian Lucy Worsley turns her powers of investigation to the mysterious figure of Agatha Christie, uncovering the story of one of the most famous, complex — and misunderstood — women of the 20th century. How did this seemingly conventional British matron write so convincingly about the dark art of murder? As in the best of Christie’s novels, clues are hiding in plain sight, and Lucy uncovers surprising new evidence and some carefully concealed secrets that illuminate the life of a writer whose work continues to delight readers worldwide. AGATHA CHRISTIE: LUCY WORSLEY ON THE MYSTERY QUEEN premieres Sundays, December 3-17, 8:00-9:00pm on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS App.
Lucy on motorbike at Ugbrooke House.
Credit: Tom Hayward
Over 100 years since the publication of her first novel, Agatha Christie remains the most successful novelist of all time, outsold only by Shakespeare and the Bible. In 75 novels, plays and countless short stories, she defined the detective genre. But the real woman behind the literary persona has long remained an enigma.
In this series, Lucy Worsley, who recently published the acclaimed biography Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, explores how the arc of Christie’s life follows the dynamic history of the 20th century. She witnessed extraordinary upheaval: not just two World Wars but revolutions in scientific understanding and enormous social change. Attitudes toward everything from class and gender to race, science, technology, psychology and politics were challenged. And — touched by these changes in very personal ways — she plowed all of it into her books.
In each episode, Lucy gets to the heart of Christie’s personal experiences — her family, marriages, influences and inspirations, as well as her sorrows and struggles. She traces the novelist’s footsteps, from the beautiful countryside of the Devon coast to the landscapes of Istanbul and Egypt and analyzes the many hints of her life that the novelist planted in her works.
Episode 3: “Unfinished Portrait” (Sunday, December 17 at 8:00 pm)
In the final episode, Lucy Worsley examines Agatha Christie’s later life and discovers how, amid the turbulent social and political change of the 1930s and 1940s, newfound personal happiness ushered in a golden age for her writing. In 1930, recovering from a personal crisis, Christie traveled to the Middle East. On an archaeological
Lucy at the Assasif Dig, Luxor
Credit: Lorian Reed-Drake
dig in Iraq, she met Max Mallowan, and, despite an age difference of 14 years, they fell in love and married. Soon, Christie entered into the most prolific and successful chapter of her career. Lucy follows in the novelist’s footsteps to discover the roots of some of her classics, from the luxurious Egyptian steamship that inspired Death on the Nile to Burgh Island, the inspiration for her most successful but most controversial mystery, And Then There Were None.
Lucy observes how Christie achieved global celebrity in her later life but remained the anonymous observer hiding in plain sight. She uncovers the surprising true crime story that inspired the author to write The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in history. And she discovers how the novelist finally embraced the lure of Hollywood in old age, securing a legacy for her stories for future generations.
AGATHA CHRISTIE: LUCY WORSLEY ON THE MYSTERY QUEEN is a 3×60’ series for BBC Two and PBS and is made by BBC Studios’ The Documentary Unit. The Commissioning Editor for the BBC is Mark Bell and the Executive Producers are Alexander Leith and Kirsty Cunningham. Bill Gardner is Executive in Charge for PBS. BBC Studios is handling global distribution.