Hardly any other author has had as many novels made into films as Agatha Christie, whose 50th death anniversary (January 12th) has just been celebrated, including a major exhibition in the British Library in London. On some channels in this country, Hercule Poirot is being investigated almost every day or some other complicated criminal case made by Agatha Christie can be seen. The stories of the Brit, who was born in 1890, can also be seen in the cinema, such as “Murder on the Orient Express”, which Hollywood only remade in 2017 with a star cast.
At Netflix can now be seen a new adaptation of her early spy novel “The Seven Dials” (1929). The three-part series is so fascinating because in this novel, set in the 1920s, a young woman is at the center of the story. Lady Bundle Brent, wonderfully played as the snotty aristocrat’s daughter by Mia McKenna-Bruce, like Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, gets on the nerves of the Scotland Yard investigator, Superintendent Battle (Martin Freeman), with her own investigations.
But unlike the late Miss Marple stories, the young, emancipated Bundle represents the modern times of the 1920s, which are wonderfully staged with large gala receptions in the upper circles of the British aristocracy and wild jazz nightclubs in Swinging London. In places it’s almost reminiscent „Babylon Berlin“.
„Agatha Christies Seven Dials“
from 15.1. on Netflix
Bundle’s fiancé, who works for the State Department, is murdered. Does this have something to do with a secret deal being negotiated behind the scenes at a party at Bundle’s family’s vast estate? It’s about a scientist’s invention, which means new standards in technology and armaments, and which the government official George Lomax (Alex Macqueen) is supposed to secure for the Empire.
Crime thriller with a contemporary socially critical tone
Bundle, racing along country roads and through London in her vintage coupe, suddenly finds herself in the middle of an international espionage conspiracy and can no longer trust any of her young friends who initially support her. Does her mother, Lady Caterham (Helena Bonham Carter), know more about the mysterious case?
The series deals freely with the literary original and gives the young, tough heroine a little more space. It’s about social status, class and the question of loyalty to the British Empire. Since the scientist is not a renegade German as in the novel, but comes from Cameroon, racism and colonial violence are also discussed. This seems a bit artificial, but it does the story good and gives this crime drama a contemporary, socially critical touch.
In this opulently staged vintage crime story, aristocratic attitudes are mocked as wonderfully blasé and “very British”. The fact that there is even a secret society of hood-wearing conspirators is probably due to the zeitgeist of the 1920s.
But: Time and again there are warnings about major impending dangers that are just around the corner without Germany and the… fascism be named. Since this ends as a cliffhanger (even in the novel, which did not see a sequel), it will be interesting to see whether Netflix will allow the never-to-be-published Bundle Brent to have further adventures.