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support your local pbs station.

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Agatha Christie

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is the best-selling novelist
of all time.

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The queen of crime wrote
66 murder mysteries

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and dozens more plays
and short stories.

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We all know Agatha, don't we?

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The nice old lady
having tea with the vicar,

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arsenic in the crumpets.

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But do we really know

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what was going on
inside her brilliant mind?

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You sit down to start a book

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that has lived in your mind.

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All you have to do
is to write it.

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Tonight, we'll delve
deeper into the genius

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of Agatha Christie
than ever before.

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We'll hear from the people
who knew her best...

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She listened
to what anybody said,

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watched what they did,

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and then she made
her own use of it.

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And uncover the secrets

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of her rarely seen archive...

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I went to a room
in which the entire history

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of Agatha Christie's
literary career was to be found.

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To discover the moments

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that changed
Agatha's psyche forever.

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She watches the century grow up

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and she doesn't watch it
get any better.

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This is the untold story

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of what made
Agatha Christie tick.

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She saw blood, she saw Gore,

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she saw death, and she
wasn't afraid to use it.

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I think she had
the most extraordinary mind.

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Agatha was born
in Torquay in Devon

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on the 15th of September, 1890.

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Agatha Christie was
my great-grandmother.

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We all referred to her
as "nima," which was

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my father's attempt
at "grandma."

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Nima and I were
closer than she was

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even with my mother.

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She was the cement
in the family.

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I've always told everybody,
including my grandchildren,

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that nima was the best listener
I ever met in my life.

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She listened to what
anybody said,

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she watched what they did,

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and then she made
her own use of it.

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Agatha watched,

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she listened, and she also did
something remarkable...

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she recorded everything.

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Agatha's family
have granted US access

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to this rarely seen
treasure trove

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of manuscripts, letters,
and diaries.

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They are the key

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to understanding exactly
how her mind worked.

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Hidden within are 73 of Agatha's
rarely seen notebooks.

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For decades, the significance
of the notebooks

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remained an enigma.

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I went to a
room in which the entire history

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of Agatha Christie's
literary career was to be found.

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But now, they've been decoded

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by Dr. John Curran.

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The haphazardness is the clue

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to Agatha Christie's
phenomenal success.

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These scribblings
may look indecipherable,

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but to John, the privilege
of getting hands-on

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with the notebooks has given him
a tantalizing window

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into Agatha's mind.

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Her brain teemed with ideas.

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Essentially, her notebooks
were her sounding board.

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That's where she
brainstormed on paper.

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Next to
shopping lists and train times

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is a fascinating discovery...

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the secret way Agatha
constructed her plots.

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Well, one method
that she did use frequently

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was this idea
of allocating letters

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to short scenes and then
re-ordering those letters.

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Good example of this
is the book "towards zero."

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She's allocated a-b-c-d-e-f-g

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up as far as "h"

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to a series of little scenes.

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Then she goes back
and does a-d-c-b,

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and then, after "b," she had
written g-h,

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and she scratched them out
and wrote g-h

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at the very beginning
of all this, so she's

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completely jumbled up
the alphabetical sequence

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till she got to the plot that
she eventually was happy with.

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Over the years, Agatha stored

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the workings of her mind
with encyclopedic precision.

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But to truly understand
how this inspired her writing,

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we need to return
to her early years.

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People often ask
me what made me take up writing.

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You see, I put it all
down to the fact

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that I never had any education.

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She could only educate herself,

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and that left far more room
for the imagination.

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She had a lot
of time on her own,

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inventing stories,
inventing games.

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She wasn't taught how to think,

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so she thought differently, she
thought in a very lateral way.

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I found myself making up stories

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and acting the different parts,

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and there's nothing
like boredom to make you write.

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Agatha's imagination was shaped

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by her unconventional family.

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She kind of grew up
in a matriarchy, I would say.

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Her father, he just went
around being lovely,

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and her brother, he ended up
sort of taking drugs

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and he actually died
quite young,

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so the force of the family
was in the women:

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The mother,

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the clever sister,
and the grandmothers,

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both of whom kind of appear
in "miss marple," I would say.

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That innate wisdom really
permeates the detective fiction.

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Agatha channeled what
she learnt about female

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intuition into one of
her most iconic characters,

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miss marple.

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It was their treatment
of the note

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by the body that surprised me.

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The handwriting expert
seemed to know his onions.

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Oh, yes, it was
obviously a forgery,

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but we didn't need
an expert to tell US that.

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Agatha's childhood
may have been lonely,

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but she grew up
in a chocolate-box world

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that would later become the
backdrop to many of her novels.

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This setting may explain
why people sometimes dismiss

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Agatha's writing
as so-called "cozy crime."

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The truth is they have
misunderstood

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what really made her tick.

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I think there is a huge
amount of intellectual snobbery

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about populist literature.

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It's the kind of belief
that there is absolutely no way

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on god's green earth that there
could be anything contained

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within it other than
silly froth.

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It was the poker in the library

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and there's a body on the floor,
and somebody discovers it

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after they've been
playing lawn tennis,

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but it doesn't really matter;
Somebody comes in

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and sorts it out
and everyone has a sandwich,

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and it's endlessly,
wildly popular.

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But there is a darker and more

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intricate side
to Agatha's writing.

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I don't think there is
anything "cozy" about her works.

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She's infinitely
more complex than that.

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She's infinitely more subtle,
and she is infinitely

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more of a tricksy bitch.

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It's just "are you paying
attention to her?"

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If you're not, that's fine.
Read it and have fun,

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and then send it back to
the lending library.

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If you're paying attention,
you get a whole lot more.

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Little details. What's that
little detail over there?

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Pay attention to that
and think about it,

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and the whole book skews
on details and clues.

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Sarah Phelps has
adapted 5 of Agatha's works.

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Need tickets, please.
Need tickets.

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In "the abc murders,"

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little details and clues drive

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Agatha's sophisticated plot.

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"The abc murders" is
actually an extraordinary story.

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It's one of the few books,
actually, where to some extent,

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the potential murderer
is limitless.

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A serial killer is on the loose.

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The mood is disturbing

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and the murders brutal.

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It's not the traditional kind
of locked-room mystery

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or country-house murder,
where, you know,

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there is a limited group
of suspects.

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Very definitely not cozy.

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Next,

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Agatha's imagination
gets darker.

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She saw blood, she saw Gore,

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she saw death, and she wasn't
afraid to use it.

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And her life has
its own plot twist.

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Without
the disappearance, would she

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have become the Agatha Christie
that we now have?

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In 1914,

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as britain's troops
marched into battle...

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Agatha Christie took
her first steps into adult life.

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It's a very
poignant picture for me

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because, of course,
I never knew nima

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in those younger days,

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and I think it displays a person

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who perhaps had a degree
more innocence

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and joie de vivre at a very
important stage of her life.

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What is fascinating to me is

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how her view of the world is
shaped by the first world war.

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The first world war
was an opportunity

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for Agatha to explore
the power of medicine.

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In October 1914,

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she volunteered to be a nurse
at her local hospital

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in Torquay.

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She is watching medicine change

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so radically and so fast.

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We start the first world war

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and with having
no real idea at all

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about what heavy artillery
is going to do to

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the human body and also
to the human mind.

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By exposing herself
to the dark reality of warfare,

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Agatha built a mind bank
of chilling experiences.

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In 1917,

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she qualified as a dispenser,

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and her mind turned to

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the possibilities of poison.

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I always imagine that everything

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for her is a grain.

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In a grain of morphine,
which is the difference

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between pain relief and death,
and balancing everything

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on those tiny, tiny scales,

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one grain this way

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is pain relief
and possible life;

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one grain too far is death.

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Carla Valentine is investigating

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how Agatha concocted
her dark methods of murder.

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She saw blood, she saw Gore,

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she saw death, and she wasn't
afraid to use it.

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She is very accurate
in her forensic descriptions.

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She talks about guns
and silencers.

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She knows about blood
spatter analysis,

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she knew about trajectories,

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she knew about entry wounds
and exit wounds,

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and so she uses that
in a lot of her books.

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Agatha's
forensic attention to detail

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plays out most clearly
in "death on the nile."

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Poirot is cruising through Egypt

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and gets embroiled
in a murderous love triangle.

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Entrer.

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Ah, my dear colonel.

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What a beautiful morning,
n'est-ce pas?

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I'm afraid someone's been shot.

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Who?

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Linnet Doyle, last night.

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Shot through the head.

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In "death on the nile,"
for example,

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the victim has a specific
gunshot wound.

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The pistol was held
close against her head.

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See, where the skin is squashed?

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Oui.

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There was no struggle.
She was shot in her sleep.

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These are some really fantastic
examples of gunshot wounds,

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and you can see there's
a huge difference.

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An entry wound tends
to be quite small,

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and then the exit will be
a lot bigger.

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There's also a difference
between the gun being away

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from the skin and the gun
being placed on the skin.

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But the bullet wound
showed signs of scorching, and

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that is to say the revolver had
been placed against her head.

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And Agatha's
knowledge of this is

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the thing that really
pushes the plot forward.

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Agatha found
inspiration for her murders

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in the work of
a home office pathologist

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known as the father
of forensics.

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In the early 20th century,

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sir Bernard Spilsbury was
a media celebrity

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00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:50,800
whose discoveries were splashed

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across the newspapers.

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00:13:55,920 --> 00:13:59,040
This is a really fantastic
forensic specimen.

256
00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:01,400
What we've got here
is a stomach,

257
00:14:01,520 --> 00:14:04,320
and the lining here,
you can see hemorrhages,

258
00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:07,040
and that's because this person
has been poisoned.

259
00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:09,920
But the specimen itself
has been prepared

260
00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:12,280
by sir Bernard Spilsbury.

261
00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:16,800
He was a really famous
golden-era pathologist.

262
00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:19,640
She would have loved the fact

263
00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:22,680
that he was a real-life
Sherlock Holmes.

264
00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:26,280
He was involved in all
the famous cases of the time:

265
00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:29,520
The brides in the bath,
Dr. Crippen,

266
00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:32,640
the Brighton trunk murders,
so it's a nice marriage

267
00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:34,920
of fact and fiction.

268
00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:38,880
Agatha started writing in 1916.

269
00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:42,000
After "the mysterious affair
at styles,"

270
00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:44,400
an Agatha Christie
murder mystery

271
00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:47,400
was published every year.

272
00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:50,400
Our access to Agatha's archive

273
00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:53,040
is a rare opportunity to hear

274
00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:56,400
her insights in her words.

275
00:14:56,520 --> 00:14:59,240
How awful
the first day is always,

276
00:14:59,280 --> 00:15:03,800
when you really sit down
to start writing the book

277
00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:05,880
that has lived in your mind,

278
00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:09,400
that's had notes made for it
and a skeleton...

279
00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:14,520
And the whole thing is there,
laid out, ready.

280
00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:20,520
But, on December the 4th, 1926,

281
00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:24,440
Agatha's life took
an unexpected twist.

282
00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:30,440
Her car was abandoned
in the surrey countryside.

283
00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:34,760
The best-selling novelist
of all time

284
00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:37,400
had disappeared.

285
00:15:40,400 --> 00:15:43,000
It started
quite small in the papers,

286
00:15:43,040 --> 00:15:46,160
and then it suddenly
went mammoth.

287
00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:50,440
The papers were just
covered in it.

288
00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:53,560
Is she disguised as a man?
Is she this? Is she dead?

289
00:15:55,160 --> 00:15:59,800
It was... A massive,
massive sensation.

290
00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:05,440
For 11 days,

291
00:16:05,520 --> 00:16:08,280
nobody knew where
Agatha Christie had gone.

292
00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:11,280
What was really going on
in Agatha's mind?

293
00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:22,800
On Christmas Eve, 1914,

294
00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:25,800
Agatha Miller

295
00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:28,120
became Agatha Christie.

296
00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:31,560
She met Archie
right at the beginning

297
00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:34,240
of the first world war.

298
00:16:34,280 --> 00:16:37,160
She decided she loved Archie,
so, despite the fact

299
00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:39,880
that a war was starting,
they got married,

300
00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:43,520
and he went away and did
his bit in the war.

301
00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:47,240
Then he returned,

302
00:16:47,280 --> 00:16:50,000
and they hadn't got
a lot of money,

303
00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:52,520
but they did the best
they could.

304
00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:56,280
Until that stage, I think
they were quite happy.

305
00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:00,120
I don't think that I really

306
00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:03,800
considered myself
as a bona fide author.

307
00:17:03,880 --> 00:17:06,760
Married woman was
a profession in itself,

308
00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:09,320
and it was my profession.

309
00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:12,840
That was my status.
That was my occupation.

310
00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:15,840
As a side line, I wrote books.

311
00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:20,120
In 1926,

312
00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:22,680
Agatha published a book
that would turn her

313
00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:25,040
into a household name.

314
00:17:27,560 --> 00:17:30,440
The literary world was
ready to receive her.

315
00:17:32,080 --> 00:17:35,040
She had written
this wonderful book

316
00:17:35,080 --> 00:17:37,960
called "the murder
of Roger Ackroyd."

317
00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:41,520
The world was her oyster then,

318
00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:43,520
as far as a crime writer

319
00:17:43,600 --> 00:17:46,520
was concerned, and this was

320
00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:48,560
the precursor to the years

321
00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:52,520
which were unquestionably
the unhappiest of nima's life.

322
00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:56,120
So, in April 1926,
her mother died.

323
00:17:56,240 --> 00:18:00,040
What she was clinging to was
the thought that Archie would

324
00:18:00,120 --> 00:18:04,680
come to the house, and they were
going to go on holiday together.

325
00:18:04,760 --> 00:18:07,240
And what happened was
that Archie came to the house

326
00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:09,440
in August 1926 and said,
"I've fallen in love

327
00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:12,360
with another woman
and I'd like a divorce."

328
00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:16,280
Archie had fallen in love

329
00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:19,000
with a lady called Nancy Neele.

330
00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:22,800
She's Agatha Christie,
so what does she do?

331
00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:24,800
She makes up a plot.

332
00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:30,480
In her plot, there's a kind
of devious innocence

333
00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:33,360
to this disappearance that I
think is very typical of her.

334
00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:38,600
She arrived at what was then
called a hydro.

335
00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:41,120
It was like a spa

336
00:18:41,240 --> 00:18:43,880
and is now the old swan hotel.

337
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,520
She turned up at about 7:00
on the evening

338
00:18:46,560 --> 00:18:49,080
of Saturday, the 4th of December

339
00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:51,600
and that she signed
the register,

340
00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:54,040
calling herself "Teresa Neele,"

341
00:18:54,120 --> 00:18:56,560
I.e. The surname
of her husband's girlfriend,

342
00:18:56,680 --> 00:18:59,560
Nancy Neele, and that
she took a room

343
00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:02,200
for 5 guineas a week.

344
00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:06,360
Harrogate's, you know, it's
a very lovely place.

345
00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:08,480
It's the sort of place

346
00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:11,840
that Agatha Christie
would disappear to...

347
00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:15,680
you know, cloistered, protected.

348
00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:18,680
It's like the Torquay
of the north.

349
00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:21,280
She would have felt
comfortable there.

350
00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:26,360
As the police continued

351
00:19:26,480 --> 00:19:29,800
their nationwide search,
nobody knew Agatha

352
00:19:29,840 --> 00:19:32,480
had fled to a spa in harrogate.

353
00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:34,520
I think,

354
00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:37,240
without the disappearance,
would she

355
00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:40,240
have become the Agatha Christie
that we now have?

356
00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:42,560
This is the great imponderable.

357
00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:45,200
Would she have written
the books that she wrote?

358
00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:50,280
Nearly a century later,

359
00:19:50,360 --> 00:19:53,240
the mystery behind
Agatha's disappearance

360
00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:56,520
is still hotly debated.

361
00:19:56,560 --> 00:19:59,800
Something did
happen in her mind.

362
00:19:59,880 --> 00:20:01,800
She wasn't trying
to publicize the book

363
00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:03,800
"the murder of Roger Ackroyd,"
which was

364
00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:06,120
what was going on at the time.

365
00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:08,480
It was just that she
was desperate.

366
00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:10,880
I think she wanted to see
what people would do

367
00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:14,720
and what people would say
in the presence of absence;

368
00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:17,800
her absence, most specifically.

369
00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:20,560
All of her books are
about what people do

370
00:20:20,680 --> 00:20:23,520
when confronted
with an absence of life.

371
00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:26,240
They're murder mysteries.

372
00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:28,760
It was all about Archie.

373
00:20:28,800 --> 00:20:31,320
She wanted to get
her husband back,

374
00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:34,800
and she tried
everything, pleading.

375
00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:37,800
Nothing had worked.
He was completely obdurate.

376
00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:40,440
After 11 days,

377
00:20:40,520 --> 00:20:43,480
Agatha was finally discovered.

378
00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:47,120
She had mastered the art
of deception,

379
00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:49,960
and the disappearance
would influence the way

380
00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:53,480
she worked up her plots
for years to come.

381
00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:57,840
Yes,
I do find that one's friends

382
00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:00,280
are curious about
the way one works.

383
00:21:00,360 --> 00:21:03,280
"What is your method?"
They want to know.

384
00:21:03,360 --> 00:21:06,520
I think the real work is done
in thinking out the development

385
00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:09,880
of your story and worrying
about it until it comes right.

386
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:12,960
That may take quite a while.

387
00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:16,280
As she weaved twists
and turns through her plots,

388
00:21:16,360 --> 00:21:20,600
Agatha added the mystery
to her murders.

389
00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:23,520
She enjoys the twists,

390
00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:25,840
twisted people,

391
00:21:25,960 --> 00:21:28,520
twisted stories,

392
00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:31,320
then finally gives you
a series of twists

393
00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:33,320
that you can't believe,
but you do believe.

394
00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:37,600
"Witness for the prosecution"

395
00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:40,440
is a perfect example of
the way Agatha

396
00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:44,280
uses lies to keep
an audience guessing.

397
00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:49,120
Leonard vole, you are charged

398
00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:52,800
on indictment that you,
on the 14th day of October,

399
00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:55,480
killed Emily Jane French.

400
00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:58,480
Are you guilty or not guilty?

401
00:21:58,520 --> 00:21:59,560
Not guilty.

402
00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:01,520
There's a surface level

403
00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:04,000
of brilliant plot-making,

404
00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:06,120
but for the most part,
she's talking about,

405
00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:08,080
you know, layers
and layers of mendacity

406
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:10,520
and brilliant, brilliant lying.

407
00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:12,016
You said there
was blood on both cuffs?

408
00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:13,560
Yes. Both cuffs?

409
00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:15,056
I told you, as that
is what Leonard said.

410
00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:16,760
No, Mrs. Harvey,
you said, "he told me

411
00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:18,600
to wash the cuffs.
They had blood on them."

412
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:20,680
Did you wash both cuffs?
I remember now.

413
00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:22,560
It was only one cuff I washed.

414
00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:23,960
Another lie, then?

415
00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:26,040
She loves the disturbing,

416
00:22:26,120 --> 00:22:28,840
she loves to play something
that, uh, you think is

417
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:31,200
one thing and then is
revealed to be not.

418
00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:33,000
Perhaps your memory
as to other parts

419
00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:34,800
of your story is
equally untrustworthy.

420
00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:36,496
You originally told
the police that the blood

421
00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:38,320
on the jacket came
from a cut caused

422
00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:40,040
by a slip when carving ham!

423
00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:41,840
I said so, yes,
but it was not true.

424
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:44,040
More lies.

425
00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:46,360
It's the art of making
US fall in love with the liar

426
00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:49,000
and not realizing they're lying
and feel completely betrayed

427
00:22:49,040 --> 00:22:51,960
when you do discover
that they are lying,

428
00:22:52,040 --> 00:22:55,200
they're sort of damaged.

429
00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:57,800
The question the jury
must ask themselves

430
00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:01,560
is were you lying then,
or are you lying now?!

431
00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:04,560
And I think
that's what keeps US,

432
00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:07,200
for the most part,
sort of so intrigued

433
00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:09,280
by her novels,
'cause we love a good liar.

434
00:23:09,360 --> 00:23:12,040
Coming up...

435
00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:15,280
I think her mind
shifted fundamentally

436
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:18,000
into that of, if you like,
the onlooker.

437
00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:22,520
Agatha's curiosity
takes her to the middle east.

438
00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:27,080
She said,
"that's when I became a writer."

439
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:29,800
And she discovers
the darkest corners

440
00:23:29,880 --> 00:23:32,320
of the human psyche.

441
00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:34,840
You are going
to twist on the pin

442
00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:37,440
that you're impaled upon,
but there's nothing you can do

443
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:39,520
because here it comes.

444
00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:49,200
In 1928,

445
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:51,360
Agatha Christie's inquiring mind

446
00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:53,520
began to explore a place

447
00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:56,360
that would inspire some
of her best writing,

448
00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:58,520
the middle east.

449
00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:01,800
What lit the blue
touch paper, so to speak,

450
00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:04,800
was her ability

451
00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:07,520
to find a new life,

452
00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:10,240
which started
with a trip to Iraq.

453
00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:14,800
I felt, well, it is my risk,

454
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:18,720
but I believe it is
worth taking a risk.

455
00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:23,320
I had had so much publicity

456
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:27,800
and have been caused
so much misery by it

457
00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:32,440
that I wanted things kept
as quietly as possible.

458
00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:43,520
After the disappearance,

459
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:46,520
Agatha's crime fiction dried up.

460
00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:50,720
To distract herself
from the death of her mother

461
00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:53,240
and a devastating divorce,

462
00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:55,800
Agatha traveled the world.

463
00:24:58,520 --> 00:25:00,880
She now found herself involved

464
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,280
in an archaeological world
far away from england.

465
00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:08,280
I think then,
for the first time,

466
00:25:08,360 --> 00:25:11,800
she found people
who were kind to her

467
00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:15,040
and interested in her
as a person.

468
00:25:15,120 --> 00:25:19,040
Agatha lost her heart
to the ancient sites

469
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:23,000
and archaeologist Max Mallowan.

470
00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:27,200
I was very happy.

471
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:31,280
We had become instant
and closer friends than,

472
00:25:31,360 --> 00:25:34,960
it seemed to me, any friend
I had ever had before.

473
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:40,200
I realized how close
our companionship had been,

474
00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:43,120
how we seemed
to understand each other

475
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:45,800
almost before we spoke.

476
00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:50,200
He wasn't the likeliest
candidate for marriage,

477
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:52,800
as far as nima was
concerned, but I think

478
00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:56,560
it was born of probably
both their needs

479
00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:59,960
to have someone who they
could trust around them

480
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:02,960
whilst they pursued careers

481
00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:05,280
that were
in neither case orthodox,

482
00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:08,520
and she began to regain
her confidence.

483
00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:10,720
It had never occurred to me

484
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:15,040
that Max and I would be
or ever could be on those terms.

485
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,880
We were friends.

486
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:20,000
Quite suddenly,

487
00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:22,040
I felt that nothing in the world

488
00:26:22,120 --> 00:26:24,800
would be as happy

489
00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:28,280
and delightful
as being married to him.

490
00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:30,520
I felt it was appropriate
that her second husband was

491
00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:33,720
an archaeologist because
it was like an excavation,

492
00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:36,840
getting to grips with this lady
and her extraordinary mind.

493
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:43,200
Surrounded by arabian wonders,

494
00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:47,520
Agatha changed the way she
observed the world around her.

495
00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:50,280
She became
an expert photographer

496
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:54,800
and helped with
the photographing of the finds.

497
00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:57,040
Filmed by Agatha,

498
00:26:57,120 --> 00:27:00,560
this footage is
a rare opportunity

499
00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:05,320
to see the world
through her eyes.

500
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:09,280
I think her mind
shifted fundamentally

501
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:11,840
into that of, if you like,
the onlooker.

502
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,600
She was obviously
inspired by all

503
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:19,720
of her surroundings;
I mean, you know, a lot

504
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:21,680
of the books are based
around her travels.

505
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:24,040
Her hunger for travel,

506
00:27:24,120 --> 00:27:26,720
which wasn't just
"let me go first-class

507
00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:28,880
and sit in a hotel
and have a cocktail."

508
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:31,480
It was getting stuck
in there and being

509
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:34,480
really, really interested
in the country she went to,

510
00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:37,680
and I think that was very much

511
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:40,280
key to the way her mind worked

512
00:27:40,360 --> 00:27:43,000
and her subsequent success.

513
00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:47,280
As Agatha
broadened her horizons,

514
00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:50,520
her spirit was renewed

515
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:53,520
and her mind awoken.

516
00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:57,200
She said,
"that's when I became a writer."

517
00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:02,960
Agatha's imagination
was now unstoppable,

518
00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:06,520
so much so that her experience

519
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:10,240
of a trivial train delay
would become immortalized

520
00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:13,320
in one of her most
popular books.

521
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:17,680
I summoned the hotel clerk

522
00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:22,040
and made him book me

523
00:28:22,120 --> 00:28:25,000
a seat on the orient express

524
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:27,280
for 3 days' time.

525
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:32,280
In 1931,

526
00:28:32,360 --> 00:28:35,040
Agatha traveled from Istanbul

527
00:28:35,120 --> 00:28:39,280
on what she described
as "the train of my dreams"...

528
00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:43,520
The orient express.

529
00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:50,280
Agatha recalled the journey
in a letter she sent to Max:

530
00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:53,320
"My darling, what a journey!

531
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:57,520
"Started out from Istanbul
in a violent thunderstorm.

532
00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:00,520
"We went very slowly
during the night,

533
00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:04,480
and about 3 A.M.
stopped altogether."

534
00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:08,680
After the rain turned to snow,

535
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:11,680
she was stranded for two days.

536
00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:18,520
In 2017, Agatha's
most famous book

537
00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:21,800
was further celebrated
on the silver screen.

538
00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:24,480
"Murder on the orient express"

539
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:26,800
is remarkably similar
to Agatha's

540
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:28,800
own troubled journey.

541
00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:31,520
There is a train stuck
in a snowdrift with these

542
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:33,800
13 characters on it.

543
00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:37,800
But Agatha gives
the story a plot twist.

544
00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:41,440
One of these characters
ends up dead,

545
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:44,560
and poirot is obviously
on hand to detect it.

546
00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:47,200
As we are snowbound,
I have elected to take the case

547
00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:49,840
and find for my friend,
monsieur bouc, the criminal.

548
00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:52,120
And why you?

549
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:54,600
My name is hercule poirot,

550
00:29:54,720 --> 00:29:57,360
and I am probably the greatest
detective in the world.

551
00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:00,320
Agatha Christie definitely had
a view of right and wrong.

552
00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:05,280
Interestingly, I think
she felt that human nature

553
00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:07,320
was such that nearly all of US

554
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:10,320
actually could turn
our hands to murder.

555
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:12,960
I think you see that
in the books.

556
00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:15,040
"Murder on the orient express,"
you know, is

557
00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:17,600
the perfect example,
where, to some extent,

558
00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:21,800
all the participants are equals,
so the likelihood is that it is

559
00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:26,280
one of these 12 or 13 characters
who've committed the crime.

560
00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:29,280
If there was a murder,

561
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:32,280
then there was a murderer.

562
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,800
The murderer is with US

563
00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:38,520
on the train, now.

564
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:41,480
It is extraordinary
how well she travels

565
00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:44,520
and how well she translates that
all back to these stories.

566
00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:48,000
She just had the most
wonderful imagination.

567
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:55,520
Agatha's wanderlust
helped her to build a new life,

568
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:58,200
and by the late 1930s,

569
00:30:58,280 --> 00:31:01,480
once again, her dark mind
was thriving.

570
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:07,120
Despite traveling the world,

571
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:09,200
Agatha's most chilling
masterpiece

572
00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:12,760
was inspired
by burgh island in Devon.

573
00:31:14,520 --> 00:31:17,040
"And then there
were none" is published

574
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:20,520
in the summer of 1939,
a few short weeks away

575
00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:23,120
from the second world war being
declared, where we were going

576
00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:26,880
to be pitched cataclysmically
into another bloodbath.

577
00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:31,520
In the book, 8 strangers

578
00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:33,520
have been invited to stay

579
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:36,760
on an isolated island.

580
00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:39,280
Action begets action
begets action.

581
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:43,120
There's a terrible fate,
and it's coming for you,

582
00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:45,960
and there is no mitigation.

583
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:49,440
You're going to twist on the pin
that you're impaled upon,

584
00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:53,040
but there's nothing you can do
because here it comes.

585
00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:55,040
Get up!

586
00:31:57,080 --> 00:31:59,040
Get up!

587
00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:03,760
It's like being held
in the white eye of god.

588
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:06,760
It is cruel, it is unflinching,

589
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:09,320
it is brutal, and I loved it.

590
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:11,520
Let's just quickly
break it down as a plot.

591
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:13,800
It looks like a parlor game:

592
00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:16,200
The mercenary, the general,

593
00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:19,600
the judge, the spinster,
schoolteacher, Butler.

594
00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:21,720
Bit by bit, the veneers are

595
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:23,520
stripped away from
these people, and they're

596
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:25,576
confronted with the terrible
thing that they've done.

597
00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:27,040
You are charged with

598
00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:29,040
the following indictments:

599
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:32,680
Edward George Armstrong,

600
00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:34,680
that you murdered Louisa...

601
00:32:34,760 --> 00:32:37,760
Who is this? I don't know, sir.

602
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:39,840
Emily Caroline Brent,

603
00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:43,000
that you murdered
Beatrice Taylor.

604
00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:45,240
Who is this?
What's the meaning of this?

605
00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:48,120
William Henry Blore,

606
00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:52,080
that you did murder
James Steven Landor...

607
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:54,280
Each of the strangers

608
00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:56,480
have committed a murder

609
00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:58,760
and escaped justice.

610
00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:00,776
You'd think to yourself
that if you killed somebody,

611
00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:02,960
you'd expect, you know,
that you're haunted by this.

612
00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:05,520
That you did murder 21 men.

613
00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:08,080
But no, all these people
have carried on functioning

614
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:11,760
in society; They've gone on with
living, they're not bothered.

615
00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:14,520
Agatha wrote part of the novel

616
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:16,800
when she stayed on burgh island.

617
00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:21,080
On a wind-scoured rock,

618
00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:24,000
where nobody can see them and
no... and they can't see anybody,

619
00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:26,280
where they're entirely isolated,

620
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:29,280
and they're dying one by one
and they know that they

621
00:33:29,360 --> 00:33:33,360
are going to be picked off, and
there is nothing they can do.

622
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:35,440
"And then there were none,"
in lots of ways,

623
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:37,560
is the darkest
of all her novels,

624
00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:40,760
and the more you get into it,
the darker it becomes.

625
00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:44,680
It is a story of what lies
behind guilt, what amounts

626
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:47,320
to a crime, and, you know,
what is justice.

627
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:49,520
I think that there is justice
and that there is

628
00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:51,600
obliteration for
the sheer hell of it.

629
00:33:56,880 --> 00:34:00,360
As Agatha reached
the peak of her dark powers,

630
00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:04,240
the outbreak of the second
world war threatened her output.

631
00:34:15,280 --> 00:34:18,760
The war years
did not seem like years.

632
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:20,920
They were a nightmare,

633
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:22,880
a bad dream

634
00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:24,960
in which reality stopped

635
00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:27,720
and the nightmare took over.

636
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:39,800
As bombs battered London,

637
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:42,960
Agatha retreated to a safe haven

638
00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:45,800
in the north of the city.

639
00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:48,640
In 1941, she ended up

640
00:34:48,720 --> 00:34:51,600
at really quite
an unlikely place...

641
00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:55,120
this modernist block,
the isokon.

642
00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:59,160
She really loved it.

643
00:34:59,240 --> 00:35:02,200
She said to Max,
"it's not beautiful,

644
00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:05,200
"but whenever I pass
that funny old block

645
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:08,720
like a white ship, I think,
oh, I was so happy there."

646
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:18,200
On the face of it,
it's a surprising building

647
00:35:18,280 --> 00:35:20,720
for Agatha Christie
to have lived in.

648
00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:23,400
You know, cozy, chintzy Agatha,
you'd think, oh,

649
00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:26,800
she'd have a big room
with big, plush chairs

650
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:29,640
and all that kind of thing,
but, of course,

651
00:35:29,720 --> 00:35:32,560
Agatha was much more
complicated than that.

652
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:35,920
Agatha's wartime letters

653
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:37,920
are a unique insight

654
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:40,680
into the workings of her mind.

655
00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:45,400
So these are a few
letters from her time here.

656
00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:49,160
This one that is undated
when she says,

657
00:35:49,240 --> 00:35:51,760
"I should have the greatest
objection to signing

658
00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:54,200
"the enclosed agreement, as it
seems to be for the rent of an

659
00:35:54,240 --> 00:35:57,760
unfurnished flat, therefore
not applicable to me at all."

660
00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:01,120
So the fact that she's
getting the right flat

661
00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:03,240
and getting it furnished
the way she wants it,

662
00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:05,320
and there's something here
about carpet cleaning

663
00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:07,400
and that kind of thing.

664
00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:11,640
She's got this ability
to compartmentalize.

665
00:36:11,720 --> 00:36:15,240
It shows how she could
divide her attention

666
00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:18,240
without any trouble whatsoever.

667
00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:22,000
She could be on top
of something domestic

668
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:25,920
and then write these
ridiculous amount of books.

669
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:31,560
You know, at times, she
was writing 3 or 4 books a year.

670
00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:35,640
I mean, that is a pretty
extraordinary output.

671
00:36:35,720 --> 00:36:37,960
You talk to any writer
about trying to come up

672
00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:40,240
with that much material
and to keep it original,

673
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:42,240
keep it fresh,
and, you know, they would...

674
00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:45,240
they would take
their hat off to her.

675
00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:49,240
It's almost as though the war,

676
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:52,800
the pressure, the fear
of death in the air...

677
00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:57,680
which it absolutely was...
focused her.

678
00:36:57,760 --> 00:36:59,960
It's insane.

679
00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:03,600
I do realize now, looking back

680
00:37:03,680 --> 00:37:07,600
over my war output,
that I really produced

681
00:37:07,680 --> 00:37:10,800
an incredible amount of stuff
during those years of war.

682
00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:13,480
This was in anticipation

683
00:37:13,600 --> 00:37:16,480
of my being killed in the raids,

684
00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:19,600
which seemed to me,
in the highest degree,

685
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:21,960
likely.

686
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:24,560
During world war ii,

687
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:27,600
Agatha's popularity soared.

688
00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:32,320
She got a larger reading
public who wanted something;

689
00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:34,920
something from her, wanted
something from her that was

690
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:37,840
going to give them
a feeling of security,

691
00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:40,880
stability, closure.

692
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:44,080
Agatha's tales
of crime and punishment

693
00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:47,200
allowed blitz-weary britons
to lose themselves

694
00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:50,480
in the twists and turns
of her plots.

695
00:37:50,600 --> 00:37:54,120
She was very aware of audiences

696
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:57,280
wanting something different
in this new landscape.

697
00:37:57,360 --> 00:37:59,960
Coming up...

698
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:02,360
She herself was incredibly shy.

699
00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:05,120
Agatha's retreat
from the limelight...

700
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:08,680
She didn't love
the public attention at all.

701
00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:12,240
Reveals the woman
behind the popular myth.

702
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:16,440
She shielded herself
with that image,

703
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:18,400
you know, the nice old lady

704
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:20,440
having tea with the vicar

705
00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:23,760
and arsenic in the crumpets.

706
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:32,120
Agatha Christie is

707
00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:34,600
the best-selling
novelist of all time.

708
00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:40,680
Her 66 classic murder mysteries

709
00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:44,400
still live on today.

710
00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:47,800
She is famously only outsold
by Shakespeare and the Bible.

711
00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:50,120
I mean, when you think
about that,

712
00:38:50,200 --> 00:38:52,680
it's an extraordinary thing.

713
00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:55,280
By the 1950s,

714
00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:57,320
as "the mousetrap" embarked

715
00:38:57,400 --> 00:38:59,840
on its record-breaking
west end run,

716
00:38:59,920 --> 00:39:01,840
Agatha had already sold

717
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:05,080
millions of books.

718
00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:09,080
She is a literary sensation.

719
00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:11,760
But on rare public appearances,

720
00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:14,400
Agatha revealed she was
uncomfortable

721
00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:16,440
in the limelight.

722
00:39:22,240 --> 00:39:25,760
She herself was incredibly shy.

723
00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:29,320
She didn't love
the public attention at all.

724
00:39:29,400 --> 00:39:31,320
Mrs. Christie,
may I congratulate you

725
00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:33,440
on the record performance
put on by "the mousetrap"?

726
00:39:33,560 --> 00:39:36,440
Do you think it the best
play you've written?

727
00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:38,920
I don't know. Other people
seem to, at any rate.

728
00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:41,560
I was wondering why
"the mousetrap," rather

729
00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:44,440
than your other plays,
achieved this record.

730
00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:47,480
I don't know.

731
00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:50,760
I think the shyness
probably emanated

732
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:53,080
from the unhappy period
of her life

733
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:55,760
when she felt she was

734
00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:59,400
hounded by the media.

735
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:02,640
I always think there are
two Agatha Christies.

736
00:40:04,200 --> 00:40:08,680
There is the world-famous icon,
the novelist, the playwright,

737
00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:11,640
then there is
Agatha Christie the woman.

738
00:40:11,720 --> 00:40:13,840
She did start to become

739
00:40:13,920 --> 00:40:17,200
this far more guarded person
in many, many ways,

740
00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:20,800
and she allowed the persona

741
00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:25,320
of Agatha Christie
to sort of develop.

742
00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:29,320
She used it to protect
her own private life,

743
00:40:29,400 --> 00:40:32,320
as it were, but I think she
also recognized its value

744
00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:35,880
as a selling point;
You know, the nice old lady

745
00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:39,720
having tea with the vicar
and arsenic in the crumpets.

746
00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:43,680
I think she shielded herself
with that image.

747
00:40:46,280 --> 00:40:48,240
In her later years,

748
00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:51,840
Agatha plotted her own escape
and retreated to Greenway,

749
00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:55,440
her private holiday home
in Devon.

750
00:40:57,920 --> 00:41:00,800
How beautiful Greenway looked

751
00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:02,880
in its tangled beauty.

752
00:41:02,960 --> 00:41:05,480
We were thankful to be together

753
00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:08,440
and, as it were,
gently trying out life,

754
00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:10,800
to start again.

755
00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:12,880
She was probably happiest

756
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:15,000
down here at Greenway in,

757
00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:16,920
amongst her friends and family.

758
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:19,000
She was a very private person,

759
00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:22,160
and this was the place
she came to relax.

760
00:41:22,240 --> 00:41:24,280
I think Greenway
was so important to her

761
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:27,320
because it was fun times,

762
00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:30,800
time to enjoy yourself
with your family

763
00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:34,200
and close friends at a place
which she described

764
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:36,960
as the most beautiful place
in the world.

765
00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:39,960
As her pace of life slowed,

766
00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:44,480
Agatha's thoughts began
to turn to her own mortality.

767
00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:50,000
Sun or wind

768
00:41:50,120 --> 00:41:53,640
or even a nice, hot breakfast
and the smell of coffee.

769
00:41:53,720 --> 00:41:57,240
You can't want to die
when you feel like that.

770
00:41:57,280 --> 00:42:01,000
But I know, or believe,

771
00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:04,560
that it is a good age
at which to pass from life

772
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:06,960
to whatever comes next.

773
00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:11,400
Whilst Agatha's novels focused

774
00:42:11,480 --> 00:42:14,120
on the complexity
of death, to her,

775
00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:17,240
the ending of life was simpler.

776
00:42:17,280 --> 00:42:20,640
People always
seem very embarrassed

777
00:42:20,720 --> 00:42:24,280
by having to discuss
anything to do with death.

778
00:42:24,320 --> 00:42:28,800
The question of death nowadays
is very important to talk about.

779
00:42:32,840 --> 00:42:34,760
Agatha died peacefully

780
00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:37,760
on the 12th of January, 1976,

781
00:42:37,800 --> 00:42:40,360
aged 85.

782
00:42:45,800 --> 00:42:48,320
But, through her novels,

783
00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:50,560
short stories, plays,

784
00:42:50,640 --> 00:42:53,480
and the extraordinary
treasures of her archive,

785
00:42:53,600 --> 00:42:57,200
her legacy is endless.

786
00:42:57,280 --> 00:43:00,760
You can't imagine
the world without her books.

787
00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:03,160
Her unorthodox childhood

788
00:43:03,240 --> 00:43:05,680
unleashed her imagination.

789
00:43:05,760 --> 00:43:08,920
The simplicity means
that a child can read them,

790
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:11,600
but the simplicity is deceptive.

791
00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:14,720
There's an awful lot more
beneath the surface.

792
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:16,480
She journeyed

793
00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:18,800
into the darkest corners

794
00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:21,120
of the human psyche.

795
00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:23,280
She started writing
during the first world war.

796
00:43:23,360 --> 00:43:25,480
She finished writing
in the early 1970s.

797
00:43:25,600 --> 00:43:28,480
And most of those books are set

798
00:43:28,600 --> 00:43:30,840
in the time
that they were written.

799
00:43:32,720 --> 00:43:35,280
The bloody 20th century,

800
00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:37,800
filtered through
Agatha's poison pen

801
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:40,240
onto the page.

802
00:43:40,280 --> 00:43:43,880
She watches the century grow up

803
00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:46,200
and told stories

804
00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:49,560
about the tumultuous
20th century

805
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:52,800
and about britain and about who

806
00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:55,600
we were then and who we are now.

807
00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:57,600
Even today,

808
00:43:57,680 --> 00:44:00,680
Agatha's dark mind lives on.

809
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:03,920
I fear it might run
in the Christie blood

810
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:07,680
to think about death,
to think about murder.

811
00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:10,280
I don't know how many
other people think this.

812
00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:12,440
Maybe it's a unique trait
to my family.

813
00:44:12,560 --> 00:44:14,560
How would you,

814
00:44:14,640 --> 00:44:17,800
if you were so minded, commit
the perfect murder?

815
00:44:34,240 --> 00:44:35,240
[Typewriter bell dinging]

816
00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:46,560
[Typewriter keys tapping]