SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
A party in a British country manor, 1920s, a plucky heiress named Bundle and the stirrings of romance. But in the light of day, a dashing foreign office worker is found dead in his bed with seven alarm clocks and a mantel - tick-tock, tick-tock. But wait, weren't there eight alarm clocks?
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "AGATHA CHRISTIE'S SEVEN DIALS")
DOROTHY ATKINSON: (As Maria Coote) Can you attend to that infernal racket?
(SOUNDBITE OF ALARM CLOCKS RINGING)
SIMON: "Agatha Christie's Seven Dials" is a new miniseries on Netflix. It stars Mia McKenna-Bruce, Edward Bluemel and Helena Bonham Carter. It's taken from Agatha Christie's 1929 novel and brought into being by Chris Chibnall, who also created the series "Broadchurch." He joins us now from Dorset. Thanks so much for being with us.
CHRIS CHIBNALL: It's great to be here.
SIMON: "Seven Dials" is almost a hundred years old. What drew you to it now?
CHIBNALL: Well, I had read a lot of Agatha Christie when I was growing up, week by week, borrowing a book from the library - hooray for libraries. And then I was asked recently by Netflix whether I was a fan of Christie and I got to reread stories, short stories, novels. And I read the "Seven Dials" mystery and was completely blown away because it really has all of the things one would associate with classic Agatha Christie. It has a lot of activity in stately homes. There's a murder at the heart of it. There's a parade of suspects. There's a great detective.
But it also had lot of things in addition. It's very funny. It's very fast-paced. And at the heart of it is this character, Lady Eileen Brent, Bundle, as you were just describing, who is this force of nature, this dynamic, witty, sharp, 19-year-old aristocrat who just felt so modern and fresh. And I thought, oh, it's just interesting that she is a very neglected character. And the idea of bringing Bundle out of the shadows of the Christie canon and into the light on Netflix just felt rather delicious.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "AGATHA CHRISTIE'S SEVEN DIALS")
MIA MCKENNA-BRUCE: (As Eileen "Bundle" Brent) In Tommy's letters from the front, he'd always joke that even the loudest explosion couldn't wake Gerry.
NYASHA HATENDI: (As Cyril Matip) The question is, was this a terrible accident - alcohol and medications are never a happy mix - or - forgive me, Lady Eileen - deliberately self-inflicted?
MCKENNA-BRUCE: (As Eileen "Bundle" Brent) Are you saying he killed himself? Because that's not the Gerry Wade I know.
SIMON: Bundle doesn't accept what the doctor rules. And you have to wonder, like Agatha Christie, is she a woman who sees through events that may be lost on men?
CHIBNALL: Yeah. She is. And I think we took a lot of inspiration from Agatha Christie's own life. It's very clear that a lot of her personality went into Bundle. The sense of being a really independent, outward-looking woman who doesn't accept societal norms, who doesn't take no for an answer, is really important in Bundle and also is reflected in Agatha Christie's life. I mean, in doing this piece, obviously, I read a lot of biographical material about Agatha Christie and discovered something I didn't know, that she was the first British woman to surf standing up. And I thought that was the spirit we wanted to bring to Bundle.
SIMON: Another recurrent theme in "Seven Dials," also, is that so many of the young men who came back from the world war were still suffering one way or another, even as they survived.
CHIBNALL: Yeah. I think it's really important when you're doing an adaptation to think about - particularly with a historical novel - to think about the time in which it's written. Sometimes with Agatha Christie, it can feel like adaptations take place on a sort of Planet Agatha Christie and set in 1930-something in an English village. But I think Agatha is a - she's a social diarist of the time she's writing in. And for me, what was interesting in rereading "Seven Dials" and then adapting it was the events that would have shaped the characters within the story.
So she wrote it in 1929. I've relocated it a couple of years earlier to 1925, just to emphasize the characters are in the shadow of both the first world war, which obviously has had a generational effect on all the characters and particularly the men. And then also, it's in the shadow of the Spanish flu, which ravaged Europe after the first world war, the pandemic. And it just felt like these characters were carrying with them the after effects of those events.
SIMON: What's it like to work with Helena Bonham Carter? I mean, I think it's safe to call her a legend.
CHIBNALL: She is a legend. It's as great as you think it's going to be. (Laughter) I can tell you that. The reason she is so brilliant is she is forensic. So one of the first conversations we had was about exactly what day in what month of what year do these events take place? And we mean that...
SIMON: Yeah. You mean she needs to know the difference between a Tuesday and a Wednesday? Or...
CHIBNALL: Yeah, and that if it takes place on September 25, and that's different to it taking place on 10 of October that year, because things will be happening around the place. When I say forensic, she wants to know the meaning of everything in the script in order that she is able to have freedom when she's on set and when she's working. So there's that. And then also she's just a delightful person to be around. She's got great energy. She's very funny. She's very dry. And Mia McKenna-Bruce, who plays Bundle, her daughter, and Helena struck up this incredible relationship - more like sisters than mother and daughter, I think they would say.
SIMON: What do you think keeps drawing filmmakers back to Agatha Christie?
CHIBNALL: I think she's a very cinematic writer to begin with. I think she's an incredible plotter. She is also an entertainer. She wants you to have a good time while you're reading, and I hope that "Seven Dials" really gives the audience a good time. And also, she's a social diarist. So I think it's the mix. She is a unique cocktail of a lot of things. And I think her characterization and the depths that are in there is sometimes underestimated. And it seems a funny thing to say about an author who has sold 2 billion books and is the second most popular author in the world after Shakespeare. But she's slightly underrated.
SIMON: We mentioned your central role in "Broadchurch," which has been very popular around the world, certainly here in the United States. You were showrunner on one of my favorite series. May I briefly audition for you?
CHIBNALL: Yes. Please do. Yes. Yes.
SIMON: In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups - the police who investigate crime and the crown prosecutors who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.
CHIBNALL: Beautiful work.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: "Law & Order: UK" What happened? I loved that.
CHIBNALL: Oh, I loved doing that. It's not disconnected from Agatha Christie, you know, that kind of pace of storytelling and also the economy of characterization as well. That was a treat doing that. Although we had to explain, because in the British justice system, the lawyers still wear wigs because they're in mourning for Queen Anne. So when - the first time you see a British court in action with lawyers wearing these robes and white wigs, it's quite a shock.
SIMON: I thought they were just being demonstrative. I had no idea there was some historical reason. Well, imagine what you learn. Chris Chibnall is creator of "Agatha Christie's Seven Dials," a series now on Netflix. Thank you so much for being with us.
CHIBNALL: It's been my pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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