Why Didn't They Ask
Evans?
Director: John Davies/Tony Wharmby
Year: 1980
Rating: 6.0
A rather enjoyable two-part TV movie based on
an Agatha Christie novel of the same name published in 1934. There are a
few TV versions of this - the latest one being in 2022. Yes, there are a
few murders and more attempted murders but it is cheery and charming for
the most part. As Christie preferred it is all set among the rich and their
palatial homes with numerous time outs for tea. Very British. It is one of
her more complicated plots that has a few twists and turns and had me wondering
who the guilt party was for a while. I had my suspicions that turned out
to be right but that was just from watching enough of these mysteries. In
1922 Christie wrote the first novel with Tommy and Tuppence as the married
amateur detectives who were very fashionable and frivolous yet solved a number
of mysteries. The two amateur male and female detectives in this one is a
clear lift from those books with different names and not married. Yet. The
two actors are James Warwick and Francesca Annis and they have a quiet amusing
chemistry - so much so that when they created a TV show about Tommy and Tuppence
in 1984, they asked these two to take the roles. And they basically play
the same characters as here.
Bobby (Warwick) is out playing gold when
he spots a man who has fallen off the cliff. He rushes below but all he is
able to say before he dies is "Why didn't they ask Evans". He finds a photo
of a beautiful woman in the man's coat and puts it back but has to go before
the police arrive and leaves it to another gentleman who has come along to
babysit the dead man. That seems to be the end of it as the inquest puts
it down to accident or suicide. He meets up with an old friend Lady Francis
(Annis) whose father is rich as blazes and she has a series of wonderful
period cars - this taking place in the 1930s. But a few things put them on
the scent - Bobby's beer is poisoned, he lets some people know the last words
of the dead man, the photo in the newspaper of the woman is not the one he
saw. The two of them decide they should solve the case. Well, why not. Neither
has much else to do - he being unemployed and her being of the leisure class.
They are actually pretty good in working their way through a labyrinth of
clues - though they do fall for the fake letter asking them to come somewhere
twice. Once is ok but twice?
A fine cast for a TV movie - Bobby's father
is played by John Gielgud, a pastor by Bernard Miles, a doctor by Eric Porter,
Madeline Smith (Vampire Lovers) is the doctor's wife, Connie Booth (Fawlty
Towers) is another wife and the future Miss Marple, Joan Hickson, plays a
doddering martini swilling lady. 3 hours but kept me generally engaged.
