A sun-soaked story full of gorgeous wealthy individuals doing horrible issues, together with a transgressive sexual act that’s obtained the tabloids foaming on the mouth. On paper, BritBox import “In direction of Zero” feels like one other salacious drama to experience on the coattails of “The White Lotus.” But it stems, the truth is, from the bygone period of cozy crime fiction the place the one stiff appendage was the higher lip.
Certainly, following the likes of “And Then There Have been None,” “The Pale Horse,” and “Ordeal by Innocence,” the Thirties story is the newest Agatha Christie whodunit to get a semi-contemporary spin. And similar to her predecessor, interval drama queen Sarah Phelps, screenwriter Rachel Bennette (“Ripper Road,” “World on Hearth”) provides the purists a lot to scream blue homicide over.
“BBC viewers left shocked by ‘filthy’ X-rated scene,” was a typical conservative media headline after the three-part sequence premiered within the UK final month. “Is ‘In direction of Zero’ the raciest Agatha Christie ever?” was one other. “Most likely” is the reply, though let’s not overlook 2018’s “The ABC Murders” flirted with sadomasochism and “The Witness for the Prosecution” featured a number of bed room scenes that may make communal viewing with grandma uncomfortably awkward.
A lot of the kerfuffle centered across the second episode’s grandiose ceremonial dinner, and the staircase encounter that takes public shows of affection to new heights. So consumed with lust over his ex-wife Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland), tennis champion cad Neville Unusual (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) locations his head below her burnt orange night gown and, in full view of any friends who wander exterior the eating room, performs the distinctly un-Christie-like act of cunnilingus.
If that wasn’t sufficient to get the simply offended clutching their pearls, then there’s additionally the beachside scene the place, in a bid to mark her territory, Neville’s newlywed Kay (Mimi Keene) suggestively runs solar lotion throughout his furry chest in a fashion which veers towards gentle porn. Bennette even throws in a handful of curse phrases, too – it appears truthful to conclude strains like “You f**king s***” and “Go dance along with your f**king queen” weren’t within the supply materials.
Fortunately, “In direction of Zero” has extra to supply than swearing and intercourse, even when it takes its time proving so. Certainly, the one actual thriller initially is the dearth of a homicide — and why Neville would honeymoon with each his new and ex-wife, clearly. It takes till midway by episode two for the our bodies to start out piling up, a story strategy admittedly signposted within the opening scene by Clarke Peters’ lawyer narrator Mr. Treves: “The homicide is the tip. The story begins lengthy earlier than, years earlier than, when the homicide is seeded — the purpose zero, if you’ll.”
The seeds on this case are sewn when a motley crew of excessive society vacationers (and their workers) descend upon the coastal mansion occupied by Neville’s bedbound aunt Woman 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 visitor record additionally consists of the returning black sheep of the household Thomas (Jack Farthing), Treves and his schoolgirl ward Sylvia (Grace Doherty), and lounge lizard Louis Morel (Khalil Ben Gharbia).
And all events come below suspicion from Inspector Leach (Matthew Rhys), a composite Christie creation whose harrowing WWI experiences have left him with crippling PTSD and a extreme case of the Black Canine. “The satan’s obtained your soul,” the intuitive Tressilian acknowledges throughout one in every of her many tete-a-tetes.
The latter is undoubtedly the difference’s MVP, holding court docket from her newspaper-strewn mattress with a combination of abject disdain and gleeful shade. “I married for love, not cash,” claims Kay, the It woman painted by each the press and the general public as little greater than a gold-digging opportunist. “Oh, I’m upset,” comes the Woman’s reply. Huston is at her withering greatest, nonetheless, in the course of the common briefings with Treves in regards to 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 misplaced to sea.
However little doubt grateful for the privilege of becoming a member of the Christie universe, all main gamers are on the high of their sport. Jackson-Cohen delivers simply the correct amount of smarm and attraction to justify his identify being thrown into the James Bond ring. Farthing impresses in arguably probably the most multi-faceted function, a slippery, tic-ridden entrepreneur haunted by the childhood accident (or was it?) that took his cousin’s life. The ever-dependable Rhys, in the meantime, brings some gravitas to all of the theatrics because the tortured soul who, as is custom, strains up all suspects in a single room for the massive reveal.
Sure, regardless of all of the hoo-hah, “In direction of Zero” nonetheless very a lot sticks to the Christie template. Everybody, other than underlings reminiscent of housekeeper Mary (Jackie Clune), are dressed immaculately sufficient to grace the quilt of pre-war Vogue. And other than a fantasy sequence which channels the sunken place from “Get Out,” the present’s aesthetics are resolutely old-school, with the dramatic pictures of the Devonshire coast, particularly, a tried-and-trusted technique of constructing the stress.
Even Christie’s personal great-grandson has given his approval. “It’s a generational factor, isn’t it?,” James Pritchard instructed The Telegraph in regards to the present’s extra risqué moments. “We’re doing diversifications in 2025, not in 1925.” The intelligent factor about “In direction of Zero”? Simply the way it bridges that century-long hole.
Agatha Christie’s “In direction of Zero” can be accessible on BritBox beginning Wednesday, April 16, with new episodes launched each day on Thursday, April 17 and Friday, April 18.