Good EVANS!

HUGH LAURIE on bringing his favourite Agatha Christie mystery to our screens

- CAREN CLARK

WHY DIDN’T THEY ASK EVANS?
NEW EASTER SUNDAY-TUESDAY, 9PM, ITV1 
DRAMA (BOX SET, ITVX)

Hugh Laurie is thrilled to be pulling triple duty as writer, director and actor for ITV1’s lavish new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s popular whodunnit Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?

‘I was about 13 when I first read the book,’ says the Golden Globe-winning star of House and The Night Manager, 63. ‘The story still gives me the shivers!’

The three-part series, first shown on streaming service BritBox last year, is set in the 1930s and sees ex-naval officer Bobby Jones (We’re the Millers’ Will Poulter) drawn into a dark mystery when, at the bottom of a Welsh cliff, he witnesses a dying stranger uttering the story’s titular question.

Intrigued, Bobby teams up with his gungho friend, Lady Frances ‘Frankie’ Derwent (The Ipcress File’s Lucy Boynton), in a bid to discover what the query means and the circumstances surrounding the man’s demise.

But danger is on the horizon as their investigation leads them to a beautiful Hampshire country house where nervy Henry Bassington-ffrench (Miles Jupp) lives with his troubled wife Sylvia (Amy Nuttall) and charming brother Roger (Daniel Ings).

Also behaving suspiciously is Dr James Nicholson (played by Hugh), who runs a sanatorium. Here, Hugh tells us more…

Why do you think Agatha Christie’s novels have stood the test of time?