British actor Hugh Laurie, best known for playing an eccentric doctor in the TV series “House”, has brought his favorite Agatha Christie novel to the screen with his new TV show “Why Didn’t They Ask” . Evans?”.
The three-part mini-series was written, produced and directed by Laurie, who also stars in a supporting role.
“I would say that novels have been my passion for a long time,” Laurie, 62, said on the eve of the show’s debut.
“The more I thought about it, the more I thought of trying to get what I thought was a sort of comic adventure sense on screen.”
Christie’s “Why didn’t he ask Evans?” First published in the United Kingdom in 1934.
The novel, and the TV show, centres around the sociable Bobby Jones (Will Poulter), who finds a dying man near the cliffs of the Welsh seashore. Before he dies, the stranger is only able to pronounce the cryptic question of the title. Accompanied by his childhood friend, Lady Francis “Frankie” Derwent (Lucy Boynton), Bobby sets out to find out what happened to the man and provide the answer to his last question.
Laurie said of her source material, “It has a fast, almost American-style style that I think she (Christie) was going for.”
“I realised that it was a very precious thing to try and preserve and maybe go and explore some places, a little more. But I’m trying to stay as faithful to the spirit of the thing as I could. “
“Why Didn’t They Ask Evans,” which also stars Emma Thompson, Jim Broadbent and Paul Whitehouse, will begin streaming on Tuesday on Britbox. — Reuters
