BBC has made a promise to adapt seven Agatha Christie novels within the next four years and an upcoming miniseries based on the well known author’s 1953 detective novel Ordeal by Innocence has found its cast. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bill Nighy and Catherine Keener have joined the ensemble cast. While it’s not clear which characters they will play, they are reported to be the headlining the three-part series.
Nighy is known for his work in films like Love Actually, Lawless Heart, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. He appeared in the 1991 BBC2 miniseries The Men’s Room, as well as the television films Gideon’s Daughter, The Girl in the Café, and Page Eight. Keener has appeared in films like Living in Oblivion, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Friends with Money, and Get Out. In 2015 she appeared in the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero as Mary Dorman.
Nighy and Keener will be joining The Good Wife‘s Matthew Goode, Poldark‘s Eleanor Tomlinson, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child‘s Anthony Boyle, Gossip Girl‘s Ed Westwick, Fortitude‘s Luke Treadaway, Assassin’s Creed‘s Crystal Clarke, The A Word‘s Morven Christie, Black Mirror‘s Alive Eve, and Churchill‘s Ella Purnell.
Agatha Christie Limited signed a deal with the BBC last year for seven adaptations. “Ordeal By Innocence was one of Christie’s personal favorites, and I cannot wait to see how this outstanding cast will bring her story to life under the skillful direction of Sandra Goldbacher and the Mammoth Screen production team,” said James Prichard, who doubles as an executive producer and executive chairman of Agatha Christie Limited. “To have Bill Nighy and Catherine Keener head up this all-star cast really is a testament to the depth and quality of my great grandmother’s writing.”
The Hour‘s Sandra Goldbacher is set to direct the miniseries, while EastEnder‘s Sarah Phelps wrote the script. Executive producer Damien Timmer told RadioTimes, “Sarah Phelps has excelled herself with this spellbinding adaptation of one of Agatha Christie’s most celebrated stories. A gloriously dark deconstruction of an apparently perfect family, we hope it delights and chills viewers when it airs!” Mammoth Screen will produce the series. Filming will begin in Scotland at the end of July.
Ordeal by Innocence will join Agatha’s other adaptions on the network including 2015’s And Then There Were None and 2016’s The Witness for the Prosecution, as well as the upcoming Murder on the Orient Express, Death Comes as the End, and The ABC Murders.