Jessica Raine joins David Walliams in Agatha Christie drama Partners in Crime

The actors will play Christie's lesser-known married detective duo Tommy and Tuppence in BBC1's new six-part series

By Kasia Delgado

Thursday 18 September 2014

RadioTimes

Jessica Raine will appear with David Walliams in a new Agatha Christie TV adaptation on BBC1. As RadioTimes.com first reported in February, The Little Britain writer will appear in Partners in Crime, joined by the Call The Midwife actress as Agatha Christie’s detective duo Tommy and Tuppence.

The crime-solving husband and wife appeared in four of Christie’s books and one collection of short stories. Set in the 1950s, the six-part BBC series will follow the couple’s involvement in murder cases, Cold War conspiracy and the world of undercover agents.

Speaking about his new role, Walliams said: “In bringing these thrilling stories to the screen, it is our ambition for Tommy and Tuppence to finally take their rightful place alongside Poirot and Marple as iconic Agatha Christie characters.”

"I was first drawn to the delicious notion of a married couple solving crimes together, and the more I read of the Tommy and Tuppence novels and short stories, the more I realised they are among Christie’s very best work.”

Although they are Christie's lesser-known detectives compared with Poirot or Marple, this isn't the first time Tommy and Tuppence have appeared on TV. In 1983 the pair were played by James Warwick and Francesca Annis in a feature length adaptation of The Secret Adversary and again in ITV's ten-part series Partners in Crime. Tommy and Tuppence returned in 2006 (now played by Anthony Andrews and Greta Scacchi) turning up in By the Pricking of My Thumbs, part of ITV's Marple series. 

Partners in Crime will screen on BBC1 in 2015 to coincide with for the 125^thanniversary of Christie's birth. It is the first of two major new dramas planned for next year, the second of which is a new production of popular Christie novel And Then There Were None, first published in 1939.