Agatha Christie's Seven Dials

 Recently Netflix dropped this british mini-series based on the 1929 novel by Agatha Christie, so Noshi and me sat down and binged straight through the 3 episode series.

 

Now, I have read a LOT of Christie's books, but mostly all her Hercule Poirot works, so I didn't know how this would pan out.

 

Central in the story is Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent, a great performance by Mia McKenna-Bruce, and her group of friends.  And it includes some big names as Helena Bonham Carter as her mother Lady Caterham, or Martin Freeman as Superintendent Battle.  And "leftenant Gruber", albeit without his little tank, as the butler.

 

The story turns around Bundle's betrothed being murdered during a party at their house, and Eileen suspecting it wasn't an overdose of sleeping medicine but actual murder.  She sets out to investigate, which results in another one of her friends being fatally shot, while uncovering a secret society called "The Seven Dials".  

Further digging, and witnessing a meeting of the mysterious Seven Dials, she is contacted by superintendant Battle from Scotland Yard, who warns her to stop her digging as it might threaten her life.  Which of course, like any central figure in a series, she throws into the wind.  Kudos to Battle, he already realises this before she walks out of his office door.

 

She attends a party hosted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where a Cameroonian (is that an actual word?) attends to negotiate a deal with the government about a special metalworking formula he created.  Eileen suspects the Seven Dials want to stop this, and finds her friend Jimmy shot in the arm, and the formula stolen by her betrothed's sister.  Setting chase, they find her at the station with Jimmy, as she connects the dots that they work for the Seven Dials and they need to meet up with their handler on the train.

 

But so wrong she was, as it turned out to be none other then her mother behind it all, who still holds a grudge against the government for having her son killed during World War 1, and wants the fornula to get make her a profit.  Bundle learns later as she is invited to a meeting of the Seven Dials, that this is actually a secret service branch (basically, an interbellum stand in for MI:7), headed by Battle, and she is invited to join them to take her father's place, who was one of the members, which she accepts.

 

Now, before the third episode, I had deducted most of the plot to be honest, that Jimmy shot himself, that the Seven Dials "open spot" would be for one of her parents (I thought her mother), that Battle was part of them and that mom was behind it all.  I only had thought her mom had gone rogue, but the number 7 had ringed my bell for James Bond's branch of the secret service, the no longer existing at the moment (or is it) MI:7 whom was a spionage and information service during the wars.

 

Guess I really read a lot of Christie's indeed, but this was a very, very enjoyable series to watch, and well produced.  The visuals are stunning and the acting performance up there, so it is certainly worth a watch.  Even early in the year, this might even be a runner for my Best Of list in 10 months!

 

Go watch it!