Synopsis: A contemporary reworking of Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. They fall in love, fall out of it, and fall back in, all while taking up detective work for fun and profit across three connected mysteries.
Stars: Antonia Thomas, Josh Dylan, Imelda Staunton, Fola Evans-Akingbola, Lucie Shorthouse, Alara-Star Khan, Della Saba, Alice Krige, Charlie Condou, Callie Cooke, Chizzy Akudolu, Nicholas Richardson, Alexa Davies, Saffron Burrows, Alex Jennings, Sean Pertwee, Sebastian De Souza, Denise Black
Director: Fergus O’Brien (episodes 1–4) and Ellie Heydon (episodes 5–6)
Rated: Unrated (BritBox has not published a US content rating)
Running Length: Six episodes at 45 minutes each, about 4h 30m total
Movie Review in Brief: Antonia Thomas and Josh Dylan make this modern Christie update an inviting mix of romance and mystery. The plotting takes a back seat to their chemistry, with Imelda Staunton adding another excellent reason to settle in.
Tommy & Tuppence Have Chemistry Worth Investigating
I love a cozy Agatha Christie mystery, although I generally prefer her most famous detectives without somebody tagging along to explain how brilliant they are. Give Poirot his little gray cells and let Marple work. Tommy and Tuppence are the exception because Christie understood that their appeal depended on equal footing: two curious people who become more interesting when they put their heads together. BritBox’s Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence gets that essential ingredient right, even when the mysteries themselves aren’t likely to keep you awake arranging suspects on an imaginary corkboard.
The setting has moved to contemporary London, but the pleasure remains wonderfully uncomplicated. The chemistry is the real clue, and these two have it. Antonia Thomas and Josh Dylan make you believe in the attraction before you’re asked to believe in their investigative skills, which turns out to be the smartest order of business. By the time they’ve stumbled into another suspicious situation, you’re enjoying their company enough to follow.
Nothing Kills a Reunion Like a Murder
Tuppence Cowley (Antonia Thomas, Anacoreta) returns to London with an acting career and a marriage that aren’t giving her much satisfaction. A catering job brings her face to face with her university ex, Tommy Beresford (Josh Dylan, H is for Hawk), a crime novelist struggling with writer’s block and moonlighting as the wedding photographer. Their reunion gets a considerably less romantic complication when somebody turns up dead, and Tuppence’s proximity to the victim gives them a reason to start asking questions.
Creator and writer Phoebe Eclair-Powell resists making their relationship another exercise in two attractive people pretending to despise each other. The affection is already there, along with enough unfinished business to complicate it. Tommy’s caution and Tuppence’s impulsiveness make them useful to one another, and their sleuthing gives them a chance to discover whether that still applies outside an investigation. The flirting has something to do with who they are, rather than arriving whenever the script remembers to turn up the temperature.
Her Best Disguise Is Knowing Who She Is
Thomas has a plum part and makes excellent use of it. Tuppence’s profession lets her slip into voices and identities when a case needs a little theatrical assistance, giving the disguises a believable purpose. I liked Thomas in the little-seen Anacoreta, and this is a welcome opportunity to watch her work in a lighter register. She can push a scene forward without making Tuppence seem oblivious to everybody else in it.
Dylan’s Tommy has spent more time imagining danger than meeting it, and his discomfort is particularly funny when Tuppence is already halfway into a situation he’d prefer to discuss first. He’s enjoying himself because she’s there, even when he’d quite reasonably enjoy himself more somewhere safer. The actors give that imbalance an affectionate rhythm, with neither reduced to the sensible one who has to spoil the other’s fun.
Aunt Ada (Imelda Staunton, Downton Abbey: A New Era), a retired private investigator, provides both practical assistance and a welcome supply of perspective. Her old agency gives the pair a way into places where mere enthusiasm wouldn’t open the door. Staunton is marvelous, and the growing attention paid to Ada gives the later episodes a stronger connection to the detective tradition this update is borrowing from.
Christie Can Survive Without the Vintage Wardrobe
The modernization works because the show keeps Christie’s appetite for human behavior while allowing the surroundings to belong to the present. These stories were contemporary when she wrote them; treating every adaptation as a period piece can make us forget that. The picturesque Hampstead setting still offers the London many viewers want to spend time in, without requiring everybody to arrive in vintage tailoring.
Cinematographers Laurens De Geyter and Sarah Bartles-Smith, production designer Melanie Allen, and costume designer Lucy Williams help sustain that balance. The pub and the flat above it give the series a welcoming home base, while the clothes and streets let the characters inhabit a recognizable city. Composer Samuel Sim supplies the musical framework for a show whose chief pleasure is the movement between mystery and romance. Directors Fergus O’Brien and Ellie Heydon keep those halves talking to each other.
The Plot Thickens and the Kettle Goes On
The six episodes contain three mysteries, each given a two-part stretch. That’s a sensible format for Tommy & Tuppence, allowing an evening’s adventure to reach a conclusion without making the entire season one prolonged exercise in withholding an answer. There’s a continuing relationship to follow, but you can spend an hour or two with them and return for another case later.
Thomas and Dylan make both the attraction and the detective partnership feel worth following, and Staunton gives Ada enough wit and authority to merit an investigation of her own. The plotting favors charm over complexity, with the opening episodes taking a little time to settle, but three neatly paired mysteries give the season an appealing rhythm.
It finds a particularly satisfying stride around episode three, once the characters have stopped introducing themselves and started enjoying the arrangement. Fans of Only Murders in the Building may recognize the appeal of a mystery that makes companionship part of the entertainment, although this pair has its own romantic complications to manage. This is an inviting autumn watch with two leads worth coming back for. It won’t have you renouncing your favorite Christie adaptations, but it might have you putting the kettle on for one more case.
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