Why Didn’t They Ask Agatha?

When Hugh Laurie told an interviewer a few months ago that Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, which he was adapting into a three-part miniseries for BBC, was his favourite Agatha Christie novel, the hearts of Christie fans across the world beat faster. Speaking for one Christie fan in India, it was a special moment—not only is Evans my favourite Christie of all time too, it is the first one I ever read, and through several re-readings of the Queen of Crime’s entire oeuvre, it has steadfastly retained the top spot. You may disagree about whether it’s the best Christie novel—certainly, there are many contenders—but you have to agree it has the most delicious opening of any of her books: A man, taking his last breaths after falling down a cliff off the Welsh coast, utters one cryptic sentence before he dies—“Why didn’t they ask Evans?”. Even the celebrated ITV series, Agatha Christie’s Poirot/ Agatha Christie’s Marple, has several cringe-inducingly bad episodes, especially when the writers have meddled with her immaculate plots.