An opening sequence set in the Andalusian city of Ronda, with its spectacular bridge across the El Tajo gorge, seems to be setting us up for a torrid adventure in semi-tropical heat. Especially after a desperate-looking character finds himself alone in Ronda’s empty bullring, before a solitary bull comes thundering out of its enclosure and gores him to death.
However, canonical Christie-ness subsequently reasserts itself, with the action moving back to green and pleasant old Blighty and a gaggle of posh party guests at the country house, Chimneys. Many of them seem to be rather dim chinless wonders who work for the Foreign Office (some things never change). Agatha junkies will no doubt pore beadily over the list of adjustments to her original novel (The Seven Dials Mystery) made by screenwriter Chris “Doctor Who” Chibnall, but the mid-1920s setting, period locations and array of characters feel fairly close to the spirit of the Queen of Crime.
At the core of the action is Mia McKenna-Bruce as Lady Eileen Brent, routinely known as “Bundle”. Her mother, Lady Caterham, is played with great sang-froid by Helena Bonham Carter, who cruises through this entitled milieu with a sort of weary hauteur which seems to come quite naturally (pictured above, Lady Caterham and Bundle).
As far as Bundle is concerned, the big news is that her close friend, the handsome Gerry Wade (Corey Mylchreest), is apparently on the brink of proposing to her, a prospect that fills her with delight. However, her joy is short-lived. The following morning, Gerry is found deceased in his bed (actually it was her bed, but she wasn’t in it with him). Was it suicide? Murder? A tragic accident? And what is the significance of the seven alarm-clocks arrayed on the mantelpiece?
Well, of course seven clocks have seven dials, and this is the end of a piece of string which will lead the determined Bundle – who will have no truck with the notion of wallowing in her grief, as a contemporary heroine undoubtedly would – to unravel a perplexing trail of deceit and treachery. This will centre around the mysterious “Seven Dials” cabal, who meet secretly (while wearing weird and sinister costumes) at a disreputable nightclub in London’s Seven Dials district. As Bundle’s dopey friend Bill puts it, the club is where you’ll find “artists and all sorts of odd women”.
All this clandestine stuff centres around a top-secret formula which makes steel super-strong and bulletproof, and the British government are keen to get their hands on it. In Christie’s original story, this had been invented by a German gentleman, Herr Eberhard – the book was published in 1929, and the atmosphere is thick with morbid echoes of the Great War – but in this version the inventor is Dr Matip (Nyasha Hatendi), from Cameroon. The only discernible reason for this change is to give Dr Matip a platform for a speech about the evils of European nations colonising Africa.
Generally it rattles along quite pleasantly, replete with some splendid panoramas of coastline, countryside and steam trains, while Ms McKenna-Bruce makes a smart and feisty heroine. But there’s never much real tension or sense of menace, while some of the posh blokes seem to have been ripped off from Harry Enfield’s Mr Cholmondley-Warner sketches (without the laughs, disappointingly). Contemporary reviewers of Christie’s novel gave it a kicking, and maybe you can see their point.
Oh, nearly forgot – Martin Freeman’s in it too, as Superintendent Battle (pictured above). Mysteriously though, he’s so peripheral that it wouldn’t have made much difference if he hadn’t been.
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