James Delingpole James Delingpole

If you’re tired of Netflix’s agendas, turn to BritBox’s new Agatha Christie

Give me Hugh Laurie doing cosy whodunnits over hysterical tosh like Anatomy of a Scandal any day

Jonathan Jules, as Bobby’s car-mechanic sidekick, lifts every scene in which he appears 
issue 30 April 2022

Netflix’s share price has collapsed and a major factor, people are saying, is its relentless pushing of agendas. I think I have the solution. Perhaps it should follow the BritBox model and instead of making dramas it feels that audiences ought to like – e.g. the very creepy-sounding He’s Expecting, a Japanese series about a man who gets pregnant – it should instead capitalise on our growing yearning for a lost age of chocolate-box innocence and relative normality.

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? is a good example. Written and directed by Hugh Laurie, it’s the kind of Agatha Christie adaptation they don’t make any more: fairly light on discordant, anachronistic diversity casting and shoehorned lesbianism, rich in affectionate period detail, agreeable motor cars and crafty old publicans played by Paul Whitehouse dispensing warm ale.

Perhaps, instead of making dramas it feels people ought to like, Netflix should follow the BritBox model

The star of the show is Lucy Boynton as perky aristocratic sleuth Lady Frankie Derwent.

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