Around the two-thirds mark in countless whodunits by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and others, there comes the moment when the reader realizes the story resolution will depend to some degree on information contained in a regional British train timetable. Or the particulars of a contested will and its signatories. That sort of thing. Crucial minutiae, from the author’s point of view. But without full reader investment at that two-thirds mark, your inner voice starts murmuring yes, yes, blah blah blaggidy blah, of course, the choirmaster’s sister couldn’t have taken the 6:17 to Kent because the British Railway system rerouted that part of the line the previous February!
Even without any railway timetable business to settle, Christie’s 1934 novel “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?” qualifies as one of those stories. The gratifying surprise — well, one among many — in writer-director Hugh Laurie’s fetching three-part adaptation, now on the BritBox streaming platform, is radically simple as well as radically elusive. It’s charming. It’s a slyly comic romance as much as it is a yarn of cryptic last words and accumulating corpses.
Its amateur detectives are played by Lucy Boynton and Will Poulter. And they are perfect.
Laurie’s screenplay and direction are a little less perfect, but only a little. The actor best known stateside for “House” takes a sinister supporting role here, entering the action midway.
“Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?” takes place largely in Marchbolt, Wales, where the vicar’s son Bobby Jones (Poulter) occasionally works as a golf caddie on the village course. At the bottom of the nearby seaside cliffs, near the 17th hole, Bobby discovers a man who either jumped or was pushed.
The dying man manages a parting question — aka the title — and dies. Bobby takes careful note of the clues in the dead man’s pockets, including a cool blonde in a photograph, a key ring and a writing pen. The mystery’s upper-crust sparkplug alights soon enough. She’s Bobby’s childhood friend Lady Frances “Frankie” Derwent (Boynton), returned home to her provincial village from the London high life. It’s up to them to solve the riddle of the dead man’s last words, she insists. It’ll be fun!
Murder suspects line up in short order, among them the slippery Bassington-ffrench family from Hampshire. Bobby, in smitten league with Frankie and aided by his friend and fellow ex-Marine “Knocker” (Jonathan Jules), must learn the secret of the village psychiatric clinic and determine who in this corner of Wales knows more than they let on.
Laurie errs, I think, with a couple of harshly violent touches not quite in sync with Christie’s vibe. (Also there’s a brash use of the F-word, which has the benefit of a quick comic rejoinder.) There’s only so much roughing-up and futzing around an adaptation of Agatha Christie can handle without going rogue.
But those are brief, minor missteps in an otherwise witty imagining of Christie’s story. (You can check out the 1980 British TV adaptation for a more conventional treatment.) Sporting a series of really terrific hats, Boynton is spot-on in her casual hauteur and warmhearted allegiance to her old friend Bobby. The class issues are there, all the time, with these two, but Laurie makes it both easy-breathing and useful for the story. The actors plainly love working with each other and with the rest of the ensemble, which includes (in a too-brief scene) Jim Broadbent and Emma Thompson as Frankie’s easily distractible parents.
“Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?” has been streaming since April 12. I subscribed to BritBox to check it out. It was worth it.
“Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?” — 3.5 stars (out of 4)
Content rating: violence, brief strong language
Running time: Three episodes, approximately three hours total
How to stream: Exclusively on BritBox streaming platform
Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.
Twitter @phillipstribune
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