News|Crime and Thriller|

Long lost Agatha Christie recordings discovered in BBC archives

12th Sep 2015

Two original radio dramas and one mystery adapted from a Hercule Poirot short story were uncovered by freelance audio producer Charles Norton and BBC Sound Archivist Sean Whyton, while sorting through a large quantity of newly delivered uncategorised material...

It was assumed that the three recordings, commissioned by the BBC between 1947 and 1954, had succumbed to the fate of most post-war drama, and been destroyed after broadcast. However, all three audios were uncovered in near-perfect condition.

The first original mystery, ‘Butter in a Lordly Dish’ is an original radio script that broadcast in 1948, centring around the adulterous Sir Luke Enderby KC, whose latest rendezvous leads him into dangerous territory.

In 1955, Christie adapted a Poirot short, ‘Murder in the Mews’ for the BBC, in which a woman’s body is found dead in cloudy circumstances in the aftermath of Guy Fawkes night.

Five years later, the BBC broadcast the original drama ‘Personal Call’. A couple’s lives are heavily impacted when they receive a telephone call from a woman named Fay.

The three recordings have been fully restored and remastered and will be published on CD and made available as a digital download through Penguin Random House’s BBC Audio on 17th September to commemorate the 125th birthday of the legendary crime novelist.

'a magnificent discovery'Of the plays identification, Mathew Prichard, Christie’s grandson and Chairman of her estate, said they were ‘a magnificent discovery’. Fans who have exhausted the authors extensive oeuvre can rest assured that the works are ‘vintage Christie and are a hugely important addition to the canon.’