Agatha Christie’s Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? BritBox Exclusive

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, a three-part adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1934 novel starring Hugh Laurie, will premiere exclusively on BritBox UK this Spring.

BritBox North America commissioned the series, which is produced by Mammoth Screen and Agatha Christie Limited.

Bobby Jones, a young navy sailor, is played by Will Poulter (The Revenant, Detroit, Dopesick), and Frankie Derwent, a prototype It Girl with a love for adventure and beautiful hats, is played by Lucy Boynton (Sing Street, Murder On The Orient Express, Bohemian Rhapsody).

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? is based on Christie’s 1934 novel. The story begins with a classic Agatha Christie puzzle: a man lies dying at the bottom of a cliff, supposedly the consequence of an accidental fall; with his final breath, he asks the puzzling question of the title and then passes away. Some people, possibly the majority, might brush off the words’ unfathomable strangeness and go on with their lives. Most people aren’t like Bobby Jones and his childhood pal, Lady Frances “Frankie” Derwent. They make the decision to honour the deceased by decoding and answering his final question. They discovered a dark plot of deception, betrayal, and – maybe unsurprisingly – murder in the process.

Conleth Hill (Game of Thrones) and Daniel Ings (I Hate Suzie) join Poulter and Boynton in the series as Bobby’s friend and mentor, Dr. Thomas, and Roger Bassington-ffrench, the focus of the amateur sleuths’ early suspicions. Moira Nicholson, the unhappy wife of the domineering Dr. James Nicholson, is played by Maeve Dermody (The Secret Garden), and Ralph “Knocker” Beadon, one of Bobby’s former shipmates and a fine man in a tight corner, is played by Jonathan Jules (Small Axe).

Miles Jupp (The Durrells) will play Roger’s older brother, Henry Bassington-ffrench, squire of Merroway Court, the family seat in Hampshire; Amy Nuttall (Downton Abbey) will play Sylvia Bassington-ffrench, Henry’s American wife, socially adrift in the English countryside; and Alistair Petrie (Sex Education) will play Bobby’s father, Rev. Richard Jones, hard-working vicar in Mr. Askew, the landlord and dispenser of wisdom at a country tavern, is played by Paul Whitehouse (The Death of Stalin); Mrs. Cayman, the deceased man’s sister, is played by Morwenna Banks (Breeders); Mr. Cayman, the apparently jovial Mr. Cayman is played by Ricard Dixon; and Dr. George Arbuthnot, Frankie’s dependable young ally, is played by Joshua James.

Hugh Laurie will play Dr. Nicholson, the Clinical Director of the sanatorium near Merroway Court, in addition to directing.

Executive Produced by Emily Powers, Gina Cronk, and Jonathan Karas for BritBox North America, Produced by Claire Jones for Mammoth Screen, alongside Damien Timmer and Helen Ziegler, and James Prichard for Agatha Christie Limited.

Endeavor Content will handle international sales outside of the UK, Ireland and the Americas.

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