A sun-soaked tale full of beautiful rich people doing terrible things, including a transgressive sexual act that’s got the tabloids foaming at the mouth. On paper, BritBox import “Towards Zero” sounds like another salacious drama to ride on the coattails of “The White Lotus.” Yet it stems, in fact, from the bygone era of cozy crime fiction where the only stiff appendage was the upper lip.
Indeed, following the likes of “And Then There Were None,” “The Pale Horse,” and “Ordeal by Innocence,” the 1930s tale is the latest Agatha Christie whodunit to get a semi-contemporary spin. And just like her predecessor, period drama queen Sarah Phelps, screenwriter Rachel Bennette (“Ripper Street,” “World on Fire”) gives the purists plenty to scream blue murder over.
“BBC viewers left stunned by ‘filthy’ X-rated scene,” was a typical conservative media headline after the three-part series premiered in the UK last month. “Is ‘Towards Zero’ the raciest Agatha Christie ever?” was another. “Probably” is the answer, although let’s not forget 2018’s “The ABC Murders” flirted with sadomasochism and “The Witness for the Prosecution” featured several bedroom scenes that would make communal viewing with grandma uncomfortably awkward.
Much of the kerfuffle centered around the second episode’s grandiose dinner party, and the staircase encounter that takes public displays of affection to new heights. So consumed with lust over his ex-wife Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland), tennis champion cad Neville Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) places his head under her burnt orange evening dress and, in full view of any guests who wander outside the dining room, performs the distinctly un-Christie-like act of cunnilingus.
If that wasn’t enough to get the easily offended clutching their pearls, then there’s also the beachside scene where, in a bid to mark her territory, Neville’s newlywed Kay (Mimi Keene) suggestively runs sun lotion all over his hairy chest in a manner which veers toward soft porn. Bennette even throws in a handful of curse words, too – it seems fair to conclude lines like “You f**king s***” and “Go dance with your f**king queen” weren’t in the source material.
Luckily, “Towards Zero” has more to offer than swearing and sex, even if it takes its time proving so. Indeed, the only real mystery initially is the lack of a murder — and why Neville would honeymoon with both his new and ex-wife, obviously. It takes until halfway through episode two for the bodies to start piling up, a narrative approach admittedly signposted in the opening scene by Clarke Peters’ lawyer narrator Mr. Treves: “The murder is the end. The story begins long before, years before, when the murder is seeded — the point zero, if you will.”
The seeds in this case are sewn when a motley crew of high society vacationers (and their staff) descend upon the coastal mansion occupied by Neville’s bedbound aunt Lady Tressilian (a near-unrecognizable Anjelica Huston). Alongside her companion Mary (Anjana Vasan), her nephew’s love triangle, and his enigmatic valet Mac (Adam Hugill), the guest list also includes the returning black sheep of the family Thomas (Jack Farthing), Treves and his schoolgirl ward Sylvia (Grace Doherty), and lounge lizard Louis Morel (Khalil Ben Gharbia).
And all parties come under suspicion from Inspector Leach (Matthew Rhys), a composite Christie creation whose harrowing WWI experiences have left him with crippling PTSD and a severe case of the Black Dog. “The devil’s got your soul,” the intuitive Tressilian recognizes during one of her many tete-a-tetes.
The latter is undoubtedly the adaptation’s MVP, holding court from her newspaper-strewn bed with a mixture of abject disdain and gleeful shade. “I married for love, not money,” claims Kay, the It girl painted by both the press and the public as little more than a gold-digging opportunist. “Oh, I am disappointed,” comes the Lady’s reply. Huston is at her withering best, however, during the regular briefings with Treves about the beneficiaries of her will. “He left me with a brood of vipers,” she declares after a string of character assassinations, referencing the late husband who she witnessed lost to sea.
But no doubt grateful for the privilege of joining the Christie universe, all major players are at the top of their game. Jackson-Cohen delivers just the right amount of smarm and charm to justify his name being thrown into the James Bond ring. Farthing impresses in arguably the most multi-faceted role, a slippery, tic-ridden entrepreneur haunted by the childhood accident (or was it?) that took his cousin’s life. The ever-dependable Rhys, meanwhile, brings some gravitas to all the theatrics as the tortured soul who, as is tradition, lines up all suspects in one room for the big reveal.
Yes, despite all the hoo-hah, “Towards Zero” still very much sticks to the Christie template. Everyone, apart from underlings such as housekeeper Mary (Jackie Clune), are dressed immaculately enough to grace the cover of pre-war Vogue. And apart from a fantasy sequence which channels the sunken place from “Get Out,” the show’s aesthetics are resolutely old-school, with the dramatic images of the Devonshire coast, in particular, a tried-and-trusted method of building the tension.
Even Christie’s own great-grandson has given his approval. “It’s a generational thing, isn’t it?,” James Pritchard told The Telegraph about the show’s more risqué moments. “We’re doing adaptations in 2025, not in 1925.” The clever thing about “Towards Zero”? Just how it bridges that century-long gap.
Agatha Christie’s “Towards Zero” will be available on BritBox starting Wednesday, April 16, with new episodes released daily on Thursday, April 17 and Friday, April 18.
