The Agatha Christie Hour

The Agatha Christie Hour is a ten-part series of stand-alone television plays made by Thames Television for the ITV network, based on short stories by Agatha Christie and broadcast between 7 September and 16 November 1982.[1]

Music was by Harry Rabinowitz.[2]

The series is available on DVD.

The Case of the Middle-Aged Wife

Broadcast 7 September 1982[3]
Adapted by Freda Kelsall from Parker Pyne Investigates.
Directed by Michael Simpson[4]

Parker Pyne helps a middle-aged wife who is losing the attention of her philandering husband.

Cast

In a Glass Darkly

Broadcast 14 September 1982[3]

Visiting Badgeworthy, the house of the Carslakes, with his friend Neil Carslake, Matthew Armitage sees a vision in a bedroom mirror of a scarred man strangling a woman – although he cannot see his face. He goes downstairs to an engagement party and believes the couple are the victim, Sylvia Carslake, and her killer in his vision, Charles Crawley, who has the distinctive scar. He urges Sylvia not to marry Crawley, telling her about the vision. Later, during the war, Armitage meets his friend Carslake and hears that Sylvia did not marry Crawley. Carslake is then killed in battle, and Armitage visits Sylvia on his next leave. Not long after, Armitage is injured, Sylvia visits him in hospital. She says Crawley has also been killed and explains that she broke off her engagement because she fell in love with Armitage. Armitage recovers, but is left with a scar. He and Sylvia are married. Four years later, Armitage becomes jealous of Derek Wainwright, when he flirts with Sylvia. Sylvia, distressed, runs away from him and says in a letter she is going to "the only person who loves her." Armitage tracks her down and begins to strangle her, then sees himself in a mirror and realizes he was always the scarred man in his long-ago vision. He breaks down and says he is sorry.[5]

Cast

The Girl in the Train

Broadcast 21 September 1982[3]
Adapted by William Corlett from The Listerdale Mystery
Directed by Brian Farnham

George Rowland is fired from his uncle William Rowland's firm of investment brokers and soon finds adventure. He hides a girl on a train who says she is escaping from her uncle, a foreign spy. She gives George a parcel and vanishes.

Cast

The Fourth Man

Broadcast 28 September 1982[3]
Directed by Michael Simpson[4]
Adapted by William Corlett from The Hound of Death

A doctor, a priest, and a lawyer, are talking in a railway compartment, discussing the reported suicide of a young woman, Annette Ravel. They are joined by a fourth man, Raoul Letardau, who knows more about it and talks about Annette's love-hate relationship with the backward Felicie Bault.

Cast

The Case of the Discontented Soldier

Broadcast 5 October 1982[3]
Adapted by T. R. Bowen from Parker Pyne Investigates
Directed by Michael Simpson[4]

With the help of Parker Pyne and a retired major, Freda Clegg finds an African treasure and love.

Cast

Magnolia Blossom

Broadcast 12 October 1982[3][6]

Theo has a rich uncaring husband and is about to run away to South Africa with a lover, Vincent. They get as far as Paris, but after hearing that her husband's financial empire is collapsing and he may be arrested for fraud, Theo decides to stick by Richard.

Cast

The Mystery of the Blue Jar

Broadcast 19 October 1982[3]
Adapted from The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories

Jack Hartington, a solicitor's clerk, is staying at a hotel to play golf in the mornings. He hears a woman's voice crying "Murder, help, murder!" from a cottage. Running towards the voice, he finds Felise Marchaud, a young Frenchwoman living in the cottage, but she says she has heard nothing. Hartington tells his story to Lavington, a fellow guest, who investigates and finds a story of the supernatural centring on a blue Chinese jar belonging to his Uncle George. But at the end of the story a more down-to-earth explanation of the mystery emerges.

Cast

The Red Signal

Broadcast 2 November 1982[3]
Adapted by William Corlett from The Hound of Death Directed by John Frankau

Dermot West is falling in love with Claire Trent, the wife of his best friend, Jack. He visits them and has a premonition, or "red signal", that death is in the air. Dermot's uncle, a psychiatrist, is killed after telling him Claire has a homicidal mania.

Cast

Jane in Search of a Job

Broadcast 9 November 1982[3]
Adapted by Gerald Savory from The Listerdale Mystery
Directed by Christopher Hodson[7]

Jane Cleveland, who is unemployed, is identical in appearance to a young Grand Duchess threatened by anarchists, and is hired to impersonate her.

Cast

The Manhood of Edward Robinson

Broadcast 16 November 1982[3]
Adapted by Gerald Savory from The Listerdale Mystery
Directed by Brian Farnham[2]

Edward Robinson, a timid clerk dominated by a bossy girlfriend, buys a sports car on a whim and finds himself in a romantic adventure.

Cast

Notes

  1. ^ Barry Forshaw, British Crime Film: Subverting the Social Order (2012), p. 228
  2. ^ a b "The Manhood of Edward Robinson" in Larry James Gianakos, Television Drama Series Programming: A Comprehensive Chronicle (1987), pp. 12, 13, 263, 464
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "The Agatha Christie Hour" in Independent Broadcasting Authority Annual Report and Accounts 1982–83 (1983), p. 118
  4. ^ a b c Scott Palmer, The Films of Agatha Christie (1993), p. 82
  5. ^ "Agatha Christie Hour, The: In a Glass Darkly (TV)", paleycenter.org
  6. ^ Jared Cade, Secrets from the Agatha Christie Archives (2025), p. 226
  7. ^ "Jane in Search of a Job (1982)" in Matthew Bunson, The Complete Christie: An Agatha Christie Encyclopedia (2000), p. 408
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