Agatha Christie classic to be adapted for BBC – with Sarah Phelps returning

This will be her first Christie adaptation since The Pale Horse in 2020, with the two most recent Christie mysteries on the BBC – 2023's Murder Is Easy and this year's Towards Zero – having been written by Siân Ejiwunmi-Le Berre and Rachel Bennette respectively.

Endless Night was one of Christie's favourites of her own novels and follows a "man-of-many-trades" named Michael Rogers after he "finds himself working as chauffeur for the enigmatic designer du jour Rudolf Santonix".

The synopsis for the new adaptation continues: "Transfixed by Santonix’s latest project, a beautiful house in the English countryside, Mike dreams of meeting the love of his life and taking up residence.

"But unbeknownst to Mike, the house that he has set his heart on has a dark past that goes back for centuries. Local legend says that it is haunted by a curse that no one escapes."

Thanks to a "curious set of circumstances", Mike soon finds himself moving into the house with his new romantic partner Ellie, but "the young couple start to realise they should have listened to the warnings".

"As increasingly strange and chilling events occur, they start to wonder if the curse is real and means to destroy them. Or, that someone is intent on terrifying them to death."

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Described as both "a ghost story and a love story", the series will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at a yet-to-be-announced date, with Phelps teasing her excitement about returning to the work of Christie.

"One of Agatha Christie’s last novels, this is a chilling story of love, sex, deceit and death, of how far we’ll go to get our heart's desire and what we’ll do when night falls and the wolves start circling," she said.

Meanwhile, the BBC's director of drama Lindsay Salt added: "The phenomenal Sarah Phelps’s previous adaptations have thrilled millions, and we could not be happier to have her bring this unique and chilling mystery to BBC iPlayer and BBC One."

And James Pritchard – the executive producer for Agatha Christie Limited and Christie's great-grandson – described Endless Night as both one of his great grandmother’s best stories and one of his father's personal favourites.

He continued: "It is an extraordinary feat of writing, made even more impressive by the age at which she wrote it. I cannot wait to see what Sarah and the team produce."

No casting has yet been announced for the series, but the BBC typically hires some big-name actors to bring its Christie adaptations to life, and we'd expect that to be the case once again here. We'll update you as soon as we hear any official news.

Endless Night was previously made into a 1972 film starring Hayley Mills, Britt Ekland, Per Oscarsson, Hywel Bennett and George Sanders, while it also formed the basis for an episode of the sixth season of Agatha Christie's Marple on ITV in 2013 – even though Miss Marple is absent from the original novel.

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