Based on her 1934 novel, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? opens with a fine Agatha Christie enigma: a man lies dying at the foot of a cliff, apparently the victim of an accidental fall; with his final breath, he utters the mysterious question of the title and promptly expires.
Some people – perhaps most people – might shrug at the impenetrable oddness of the words and move on with their lives.
But Bobby Jones, played by Will Poulter (We’re The Millers, Maze Runner, The Revenant, Dopesick), and his childhood friend, Lady Frances ‘Frankie’ Derwent, played by Lucy Boynton (Bohemian Rhapsody, Miss Potter, The Politician), are not most people. They resolve to honour the dead man by deciphering, and then answering his final question. In so doing, they hit upon a dark conspiracy of deceit, betrayal and – perhaps unsurprisingly – murder.
Joining Poulter and Boynton in the series are Conleth Hill (Game of Thrones) as Bobby’s friend and mentor, Dr. Thomas, and Daniel Ings (I Hate Suzie) as Roger Bassington-ffrench, the target of the amateur sleuths’ early suspicions. Maeve Dermody (The Secret Garden), plays Moira Nicholson, the troubled wife of the domineering Dr. James Nicholson, while Jonathan Jules (Small Axe) appears as Ralph ‘Knocker’ Beadon, one time shipmate of Bobby and a good man in a tight corner. Jim Broadbent and Emma Thompson make cameo appearances in the first episode as Frankie’s parents, Lord and Lady Marcham.
In addition to directing, Hugh Laurie (House, The Night Manager, Veep) will also portray Dr. Nicholson in his three-part adaptation of this BritBox Original.
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